Strasbourg (France), May 24 (IANS) Chinese tennis player Liang Chen paired up with Chinese Taipei’s Chuang Chia-Jung to win the women’s doubles title at the Strasbourg International here, taking home 9,919 euros in prize money.
Liang, 26, and Chuang, 30, defeated Nadiia Kichenok of Ukraine and Zheng Saisai of China 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(10) in windy conditions on Saturday, reports Xinhua.
Chuang is currently ranked 71st with a career high fifth in 2007 while Liang is ranked at a career high 62nd.
According to Chuang, they felt “quite terrible” at the beginning of the match.
“The weather was so windy and we didn’t find our tempo, so we made a lot of mistakes in the first set,” said Chuang, shortly before boarding a train to Paris where they will play the French Open.
In the second set, however, they were able to break their opponents’ serve and take the lead early.
This is only the third time the partners have played together, and earned their second win, with their first coming at the 2014 Guangzhou Open. They also played at the 2015 Prague Open where they advanced to the second round.
At French Open, they will play with different partners. They will continue to play together in the future, though they haven’t decided yet when the next time will be.
The singles title was won by 31-year-old Australian Samantha Stosur, who defeated 22-year-old French Kristina Mladenovic in three sets.
The tournament, formerly known as the Strasbourg Grand Prix, is played outdoors on clay and has been held annually since 1987.