Wang Yeu-tzuoo narrowly beat Gouichi Motomura yesterday to give Taiwan a victory over Japan in the Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Group I playoff.
Wang cruised past Motomura 7-6, 7-5, 4-6, 6-5, 7-6 in a close match that lasted four hours and 15 minutes.
It was Wang's first victory in the event.
In reverse singles, Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan defeated Takao Suzuki of Japan 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6. It was Lu's second victory since he defeated Gouichi Motomura in the opening singles match.
Spain was ousted from the Davis Cup on Saturday, just two days into its title defense.
The defending champions were playing without three of their top players, and even the appearance of teenage star Rafael Nadal wasn't enough as Slovakia won the doubles match to take an insurmountable 3-0 lead.
Australia and Argentina also advanced to the quarterfinals Saturday.
Karol Beck and Michal Mertinak, playing doubles together in the Davis Cup for the first time, beat Albert Costa and Nadal 7-6 (3), 6-4, 7-6 (8) at the National Tennis Center in Bratislava to give Slovakia the unlikely win.
"We are all heroes," said Beck, who also won the opening singles match on Friday.
The last time Slovakia made it this far was in 2000, when it lost to Brazil 3-2.
"The Spaniards fought hard, which is not seen often," Slovakia captain Milos Mecir said. "I have said that Rafael Nadal is a great personality who does not give up, which makes our victory even more precious."
Spain, which beat the US to win its second Davis Cup just three months ago, was playing without Carlos Moya, Tommy Robredo and Juan Carlos Ferrero.
Moya said he was skipping the event to concentrate on Grand Slam events, while Robredo and Ferrero are injured.
Nadal, the youngest player to have won the Davis Cup, was dropped from Friday's singles by captain Jordi Arrese, partially because he had little time to practice on the fast indoor court.
"They played better in the key points," Arrese said. "We tried to do our best, we're proud of what we did, but they were better."
Slovakia will meet the winner of the Switzerland-Netherlands first round match. The Dutch lead 2-1 despite losing Saturday's doubles. Yves Allegro and George Bastl beat Dutch duo Dennis van Scheppingen and Peter Wessels 5-7, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-5, 9-7.
Australia advanced with a 3-0 win over Austria. Veterans Wayne Arthurs and Todd Woodbridge beat Austria's Julian Knowle and Jurgen Melzer 4-6, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, 7-5.
They'll meet Argentina in the next round, who beat Czech Republic 3-0 in Buenos Aires.
David Nalbandian and Guillermo Canas edged Tomas Zib and Jan Hernych of the Czech Republic 6-3, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.
"I felt we were better than them all the way through and managed their service games well," Nalbandian said.
In Moscow, Marat Safin and Mikhail Youzhny beat Fernando Gonzalez and Adrian Garcia 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 for a 2-1 lead over Chile.
"We have just played today as we should have played. We did not want to struggle on the court for a long time and tried to gain the advantage quickly. And we succeeded," Safin said.
Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra beat Simon Aspelin and Jonas Bjorkman 7-6 (5), 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-4 to put France ahead of Sweden 2-1 in Strasbourg, France.
Belarus took a 2-1 lead over Romania when Max Mirnyi and Vladimir Voltchkov beat Andrei Pavel and Gabriel Trifu 7-6 (3), 6-3, 6-4.
Taiwan’s top male badminton player, Chou Tien-chen, on Saturday bowed out in the men’s singles semi-finals at the Thailand Open after losing in straight games to Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn. The world No. 6 Chou, seeded fourth at the Super 500 tournament, lost to the world No. 2 Thai 21-7, 21-19 in 53 minutes. The victory improved Vitidsarn’s head-to-head record against Chou to 3-5. Chou, 36, trailed throughout the opening game after the score was tied 2-2. His relatively passive approach allowed the 25-year-old Thai to capitalize on Chou’s defensive clears with powerful smashes while committing few unforced errors. The Taiwanese
FRUSTRATION: Gauff smacked herself on the head with her racket before storming down the tunnel, emerging afterward to have a heated discussion with her coach Elina Svitolina on Saturday won the Italian Open after beating Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 6-2 to claim her third Rome title, while Jannik Sinner set a date with Casper Ruud in the men’s final. Ukraine’s Svitolina had not claimed a WTA 1000 title since her last victory at the Foro Italico eight years ago, but prevailed over the ever-erratic Gauff to claim her 20th tournament triumph. Saturday’s win over Gauff was her third in a row against a player in the top four of the world rankings — including Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina — ahead of the French
West Ham United’s 3-1 defeat at Newcastle United on Sunday left Tottenham Hotspur realistically only needing one more point to win the battle for English Premier League survival, while Bruno Fernandes made history in Manchester United’s 3-2 win over Nottingham Forest. Spurs can avoid dropping out of the English top flight for the first time in nearly 50 years with victory at Chelsea today, but a draw would also likely suffice thanks to their much superior goal-difference over West Ham. “Overall bad performance. Too many things [went wrong], I think we gifted them the goals,” West Ham head caoch Nuno Espirito Santo
Jannik Sinner has his eyes on a first Roland Garros title after winning the Italian Open on Sunday to claim a record-extending sixth consecutive Masters 1000 tournament victory. World No. 1 Sinner beat Casper Ruud 6-4, 6-4 to complete the “Golden Masters” by winning all of the ATP’s top-ranked events, in the process becoming the first Italian men’s champion in Rome since Adriano Panatta 50 years ago. Only Novak Djokovic had previously won all nine Masters 1000 events before Sunday, but there was little doubt about Sinner triumphing over the past 10 days. Sinner heads to Roland Garros, which starts at the weekend,
RSS