Leading seeds Lindsay Davenport, Serena Williams and Anastasia Myskina won second-round matches on Wednesday and reached the Dubai Women's Open quarterfinals.
World No. 1 Davenport defeated China's Jie Zheng 6-2, 7-5, while Australian Open champion Williams survived an early scare to beat Russia's Elena Bovina 1-6, 6-1, 6-4.
French Open champion and No. 3-seeded Myskina advance when Marion Bartoli of France retired with left knee tendinitis while trailing 4-2.
PHOTO: AFP
Davenport's quarterfinal opponent on Thursday will be another former Wimbledon champion, Conchita Martinez, who ousted seventh-seeded Nathalie Dechy of France 6-1, 6-2.
Williams will meet Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia, who beat Elena Likhovtseva of Russia 7-5, 6-4, and Myskina faces eighth-seeded Patty Schnyder of Switzerland, who downed Li Na of China 6-3, 7-6 (8).
The other quarterfinal pits wild card Sania Mirza of India against Jelena Jankovic of Serbia and Montenegro, who both won on Tuesday.
Davenport won the last four games to vanquish Jie, a qualifier.
"I started well and finished well, but played some so-so games in the middle," said Davenport, who had a first-round bye.
She has reached the final of her last two events, the Tokyo Indoors last month, and the Australian Open in January, when she crushed Martinez in the first round to level their head-to-head record at 8.
Williams, making her first tour appearance since a stomach illness forced her to withdrew before the Paris Indoor quarterfinals last month, lost the opening five games to Bovina and the first set 6-1, raising fears she would follow sister Venus out of the tournament.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was