World No. 1 Justine Henin brought Hsieh Su-wei's remarkable run at the Australian Open to an end yesterday with a 6-2, 6-2 fourth-round defeat of the 22-year-old from Taipei.
It was the first time a Taiwanese player had progressed so far at a Grand Slam tournament, a feat made all the more impressive by the fact that Hsieh had to win three matches in the qualifying tournament before even making the main draw.
Although things looked ominous when Henin, a seven-time Grand Slam winner, broke Hsieh's serve in the first game of the match, the Taiwanese immediately broke back and won her next service game to love.
PHOTO: AP
She then had a break point in the next game which would have put her 3-1 up but sent a forehand wide and Henin survived the scare.
After that the Belgian began to show the gulf in class that separates her from her 158-ranked opponent.
Henin broke Hsieh's serve in the fifth game and again in the seventh after the Taiwanese had already saved two other break points. Henin then served out the next game to take the set.
The pattern continued in the second set with Henin immediately breaking Hsieh's serve before racing to a 5-0 lead. The Taiwanese saved a match point in the sixth game before surprising everybody by going on to take the game.
She also won the next game to make the score respectable but it was only postponing the inevitable. Henin took her subsequent service game to wrap up the win in 74 minutes.
The Belgian now faces Russia's Maria Sharapova in the last eight.
Meanwhile, Chan Yung-jan and Chuang Jia-jung maintained a Taiwanese presence in Melbourne by beating Laura Granville of the US and Vladimira Uhlirova of the Czech Republic in straight sets in the second round of the women's doubles. Chan and Chuang, the No. 3 seeds, cruised past their opponents 6-1, 6-4 yesterday.
Chan also teamed up with Eric Butorac of the US in the first round of the mixed doubles to pull off an impressive victory over No. 4 seeds Jie Zheng of China and Daniel Nestor of Canada. They took the match 7-5, 7-6 in 69 minutes.
For the first time in almost 36 years, a Parisian derby will be played in French soccer’s top flight when reigning champions Paris Saint-Germain FC take on the nouveau riche Paris Football Club (PFC) today. Not one of the players involved in today’s match — PFC’s 38-year-old third-choice goalkeeper Remy Riou is almost certainly not going to be involved — was born the last time there was a Parisian derby in Ligue 1. That was on Feb. 25, 1990, when Moroccan midfielder Aziz Bouderbala scored a brace as Racing Paris 1 beat PSG 2-1 at the Parc des Princes home that
Stan Wawrinka’s 40-year-old legs did not let him down over three-plus hours in his first singles match of a farewell tour yesterday. Three-time Grand Slam singles champion Wawrinka beat Arthur Rinderknech of France, who is ranked 29th to Wawrinka’s 157th, 5-7, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5). The match went 3 hours, 16 minutes. Wawrinka last month announced that this year would be his last on the ATP tour. “Today was a tough battle ... it’s amazing to come here for the first time, to have so much support,” Wawrinka said yesterday. “Twenty years on tour, you kind of always play in the same place
BOUNCING BACK: Antetokounmpo had just returned from an eight-game injury absence last month, leading the Milwaukee Bucks to their third win in four games Giannis Antetokounmpo threw down the game-winning dunk with 4.7 seconds remaining to lift the Milwaukee Bucks to a 122-121 victory over the Charlotte Hornets and grab a slice of NBA history on Friday. The Bucks trailed by as many as 16 on their home floor, but Antetokounmpo scored 12 of his 30 points in the final quarter to help seal the win in a frantic finish that saw five lead changes in the final 45.7 seconds. The two-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) added 10 rebounds and five assists. It was his 158th regular-season game with at least 30 points, 10 rebounds and
Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka yesterday got her season off to a winning start for Japan in the United Cup, after the UK’s Emma Raducanu pulled out of their singles clash with a fitness issue, while in Brisbane, Taiwan’s Latisha Chan and Wu Fang-hsien crashed out of the women’s doubles. In Perth, despite Osaka’s win, the UK took the match 2-1 with a deciding mixed doubles victory. Osaka was too strong for reserve and 276th-ranked Katie Swan, winning 7-6 (7/4), 6-1 as Raducanu watched from the sidelines. “I’m proud of how I fought,” Osaka said. “I’d never played here, it was tough.” Britain
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