Taiwanese tennis players enjoyed mixed fortunes on the opening day of the Australian Open in Melbourne yesterday. The nation's sole representative in the men's singles, Lu Yen-hsun, lost a five set marathon to France's Marc Gicquel, while in the women's singles Hsieh Su-wei beat Klara Zakopalova and Chan Yung-jan was defeated by Jill Craybas.
In a tight match on Court No. 11 Lu lost the first set before bouncing back to win the next two, the third set going to a tiebreak which the 24-year-old from Taipei took 8-6. The experienced Gicquel then claimed the fourth set and the deciding fifth to earn a 6-3, 4-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-2 victory.
Hsieh continued her good run of form from the qualifying tournament, where she won three times to earn a place in the main draw, by downing her Czech opponent 2-6, 6-4, 8-6. It was the 22-year-old's first singles match at the Australian Open and an impressive performance considering Zakapalova is ranked nearly a hundred places above the No. 158-ranked Hsieh. The Czech was ranked as high as 27 as recently as March 2006 but lost in the first round of all four Grand Slam tournaments last year.
Hsieh now faces No.19 seed Sybille Bammer in round two. The Austrian beat Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn in three sets yesterday.
It was the first time the right-hander from Taipei has made it into the second round of a Grand Slam singles event, having lost five times in the first round at Grand Slam events.
Meanwhile a disappointing Chan lost in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2, to 33-year-old US veteran Jill Craybas, ranked 30 places below her.
She will now concentrate on the doubles where she teams up with fellow Taiwanese Chuang Chia-jung. The pair will be hoping to go one better than last year when they reached the final only to lose in three sets to Cara Black of Zimbabwe and Liezel Huber of South Africa.
Hsieh is also competing in the women's doubles with Russia's Alla Kudryavtseva.
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
Bayern Munich on Sunday were crowned German champions for the 34th time, giving striker Harry Kane his first major trophy, after second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen drew 2-2 at SC Freiburg. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at RB Leipzig on Saturday, when the Bavarians came from two goals down to take the lead before conceding a stoppage-time equalizer, meant defending Bundesliga champions Leverkusen needed to win at Freiburg to delay the title party. Leverkusen were two goals down before scoring twice in the final 10 minutes, but Xabi Alonso’s side could not find a third, as Bayern reclaimed the title at the first attempt after
THRILLER: Raphinha gave Barca a 3-2 lead with two minutes remaining of regular time, but Francesco Acerbi equalized the game in the second minute of added time Davide Frattesi on Tuesday fired Inter into the UEFA Champions League final with an extra-time winner that gave the Italians a stunning 4-3 triumph over Barcelona, 7-6 on aggregate. Italy midfielder Frattesi won a tie for the ages under a downpour in Milan when he lashed home in the 99th minute, sending a packed and rocking San Siro wild with joy. Simone Inzaghi’s team will face either Arsenal or Paris Saint-Germain at the end of this month in Munich, Germany, where they would feel they have a great chance to be crowned kings of Europe for a fourth time after
INTER AWAIT: Superb saves by PSG ’keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma inspired the victory, as Arsenal were punished for misses, including one by Bukayo Saka Arsenal on Wednesday fell short on the big stage again as their painful UEFA Champions League semi-final exit against Paris Saint-Germain left Mikel Arteta to rue his club’s failure to provide him with enough attacking options. Arteta’s side were unable to reach the Champions League final for the first time in 19 years as PSG clinched a tense 2-1 win at Parc des Princes. Trailing 1-0 from last week’s first leg in London, the Gunners made a blistering start to the second leg, but could not convert their chances as Gianluigi Donnarumma’s superb saves inspired PSG’s 3-1 aggregate victory. Arsenal were punished for
RSS