Chinese Taipei pair Chang Kai-Chen and Chuang Chia-Jung will make their second WTA final appearance at the BMW Malaysian Open at the Bukit Kiara Equestrian and Country Resort after defeating top seeds Casey Dellacqua and Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia in the semis.
The Australians were no match for the Kai-Chen/Chia-Jung on a day that started with the sun blazing in stark contrast to gloomy weather and rain in the past few days that affected the scheduling.
The Chinese Taipei pair ran out easy winners with an easy 6-4, 6-0 scoreline in just under an hour.
“We did not expect to be in the final as this is only our fourth tournament playing together,” said Kai-Chen.
“It’s always good to win regardless of who we play but it’s always a great feeling to win against the top seeds. But we were not really thinking about it during the match. We just wanted to play our best tennis and get into the final,” she added.
Commenting on how some Asian players have done well, Kai-Chen said “Maybe it’s because many here are unable to adjust to the heat. It’s the same for us as its winter back home but are used to the heat and that really helps us playing here.”
The pair are unseeded at the BMW Malaysian Open and off the duo, Chia-Jung is a more accomplished doubles player having won 17 WTA doubles titles and attained a doubles ranking of 63 in the world.
Meanwhile Kai-Chen has only won one WTA title and is number 214 in the world doubles ranking. The first time the pair played together was at Pattaya in 2009, but they failed to progress past the first round.
However the following year in 2010, they paired up for only the second time in their career and went on to win a ‘home’ title in Chinese Taipei. They had also paired each other in Birmingham last year but only made it to the second round.
The pair will now await the identity of their final opponents. Chan Hao-Ching of Chinese Taipei and Rika Fujiwara of Japan will go against Czech Republic twins Karolina and Kristyna Pliskova later today.
“It doesn’t really matter who we play. It is beyond our control so there is no point in hoping who we would play,” said Kai-Chen.
The first set was pretty equal as both pairs matched each other stroke for stroke, but the Chinese Taipei pair were more efficient in front of the net when it mattered most to win crucial points.
The Australians chased the game in the second set and took more risks but that only allowed Kai-Chen and Hao-Ching to gain advantage from a more open game, which they exploited to the maximum and gave the pair from down under no chance whatsoever.
