Serena Williams and James Blake put in a pair of pulsating performances at the Hopman Cup yesterday to oust champions Spain from the mixed team contest.
Dazzling in a vibrant orange outfit, Williams threw off the challenge of Virginia Ruano Pascual 6-3, 6-3 before Blake pasted Tommy Robredo 6-3, 6-0.
The pair then teamed up to grind Spain into the ground 6-1, 6-4 in the mixed doubles.
The rustiness displayed by both players in their opening matches two days ago was a distant memory as the duo ran roughshod over the hapless holders.
"What a difference a day makes, eh?" smiled Blake after his razor-sharp victory.
For Robredo -- champion here 12 months ago with the now-retired Arantxa Sanchez Vicario -- it was a first defeat in six matches at the Perth event while Ruano Pascual is yet to record a victory in the A$1 million (US$563,400) event.
The US whitewashed Uzbekistan 3-0 in their opening match while champions Spain were pipped 2-1 by Belgium.
Williams insisted there was better to come.
"I haven't begun to play my best at all -- there's still some way to go," she smiled. "I'm sure everyone is excited to hear that."
Next up for Williams is a clash with Belgium's Kim Clijsters, her conqueror in last year's season-ending WTA Championships.
Clijsters' surprise win in Los Angeles was her first against Williams in six matches and she now hopes she has the formula to beat Serena and her elder sister world number two Venus on a regular basis.
Williams, though, says that November defeat was merely a blip, and she plans to makes amends tomorrow.
"I've been looking forward to playing her ever since I came here," the world number one said. "Last time I played her I was so tired. Mentally I was shot and physically I was dead ... I had no energy."
"This time it is different."
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite