KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP)—Chang Kai-Chen of Taiwan crushed China’s 20th-ranked and third-seeded Zheng Jie 6-2, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals of the Malaysian Open on Thursday.
The 19-year-old Taiwanese played fearlessly against an opponent ranked 72 places above her and completed a disastrous week for Chinese players after second-seeded Li Na was knocked out by Germany’s Tatjana Malek on Monday. Both Zheng and Li Na had reached the semifinals of the Australian Open last month.
Chang took only 75 minutes to set up a quarterfinal date with sixth seed Sybille Bammer of Austria, who earlier trounced Uzbekistan’s Akgul Amanmuradova 6-3, 6-0.
Elsewhere, Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa reached her first WTA quarterfinal after defeating Malek 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.
The 26-year-old top-ranked South African was given a scare before eventually prevailing in two hours and 27 minutes.
The first set belonged to the 22-year-old German, who broke her elder opponent twice but Scheepers fought back in the second set. The third set was a battle as the heat and humidity started to take its toll on both players. Scheepers, who is based in Houston, Texas, held out to clinch a quarterfinal date with Ayumi Morita of Japan.
In other results, seventh-seeded Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia defeated wildcard entry Noppawan Lertcheewakarn of Thailand 6-4, 7-5 to reach the last eight. She will next face top-seeded Elena Dementieva of Russia.