World No. 1 and defending champion Dinara Safina was knocked out in the second round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open yesterday by Taiwanese qualifier Chang Kai-chen (張凱貞) only hours before her fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova was ousted in another upset result.
Safina was serving for the match in the third set when she double-faulted to give up a break. Chang, ranked 132nd and playing only for the fourth time in a WTA main draw, held her own serve and then broke Safina again for a 7-6 (7/5), 4-6, 7-5 win to reach the third round of the US$2 million tournament.
“The double-fault didn’t affect me that much,” Safina said. “Whether it’s a double-fault or a mistake it’s the same. It’s just the way I played at 5-4. It wasn’t the right game, I didn’t use my first serve the whole game.”
PHOTO: AFP
Chang converted her third match point on Safina’s forehand error after the Russian had fought back from 0-40 to 30-40.
“On match point, I was just thinking the same thing as always,” Chang said. “I wasn’t thinking: ‘Oh, I have match point, I’m going to win.’”
Safina’s status as the world’s top-ranked player has been under scrutiny and a third-round loss to 72nd-ranked Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic at the US Open did little to ease that. She has never won a major title — having lost finals at the French Open and Australian Open tournaments this year — but has been consistent in other tournaments, winning three titles this year and four last year, including the Tokyo tournament.
PHOTO: REUTERS
“This is not an easy moment, but that’s sport,” Safina said. “I didn’t play good in the match today. I had a lot [of] chances in the third set and just let it go.”
Chang, who defeated Kaia Kanepi of Estonia 6-3, 6-3 in Sunday’s opening round, put Safina on the defensive from the outset, breaking her twice to go up 3-0 in the first set.
Safina rallied to take a 6-5 lead, but Chang forced and then won the tie-breaker.
Chang said the first thing that came to mind after her huge win was her parents.
“My mother doesn’t get out to watch a lot of matches, but she follows the live scoring and I was thinking about what she thought when she saw today’s score,” Chang said.
Chang made her Grand Slam debut at this year’s US Open, advancing to the second round where she lost to Magdalena Rybarikova.
Later yesterday, Germany’s Andrea Petkovic knocked out French Open champion Kuznetsova 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 to advance to the third round.
Kuznetsova lost to Safina in last year’s final.
Former Tokyo winner Maria Sharapova restored some pride for Russia, however, and gave the tournament sponsors some cheer with a battling 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 win over Italy’s Francesca Schiavone.
Former world No. 1 Sharapova improved as her first-round match progressed, storming through the final set before closing out with a blistering forehand down the line.
“I did a great job of hanging in there,” said Sharapova, 25th in the world rankings following shoulder surgery last October. “I was a down a break in the second set. It was really important to stay patient. What I have learned is that it takes a really long time to come back and I’m OK with that. I’ve been playing catch-up. I know that I’ve got to push myself more than I ever have in my career.”
In first-round matches yesterday, Japanese veteran Ai Sugiyama, playing in her last singles match, was forced to retire from her first-round match trailing 6-0, 2-1 to 13th-seeded Russian Nadia Petrova.
The 34-year-old Sugiyama, who announced earlier this month she was quitting the women’s circuit after 17 years, said the effects of a high temperature and stomach problems had made it impossible for her to continue playing.
Players seeded 11 to 14 all advanced.
No. 11 Agnieska Radwanska of Poland beat Russia’s Ekatrina Makarova 7-5, 6-3, No. 12 Samantha Stosur of Australia had a 7-5, 6-0 win over American Alexa Glatch and No. 14 Marion Bartoli of France defeated Sorana Cirstea of Romania, 6-3, 6-0.
■THAILAND OPEN
AFP, BANGKOK
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez saved match points yesterday, but could not stop Brazil’s Tomaz Bellucci as the Spaniard exited 6-4, 7-6 (9/7) in the first round of the Thailand Open.
Bellucci, winner last month of the Gstaad clay title, added another victory to the one he took last year over Garcia Lopez at a Challenger event in Morocco.
The world No. 61 needed a shade under two hours to go through at the Impact arena in an event where Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is hoping to defend his title.
Bellucci advanced with four aces and two break-point conversions from six chances. Garcia Lopez missed on 11 of 12 of his own break points.
Bellucci moved into a second-round clash with Serb Viktor Troicki, who had a bye in the first round. France’s Gilles Simon, making his Bangkok debut, is seeded second ahead of American Sam Querrey, who broke through with a trophy at an LA event prior to the US Open.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique