Taiwan's Chen Ti defeated Alex Kuznetsov but compatriot Jimmy Wang lost to Stefano Galvani in the first round of qualifying for the Wimbledon men's singles in Roehampton, London, on Monday.
Chen beat his American opponent 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 to set up a clash with No. 17 seed Jan Hernych. The Czech, ranked more than 150 places higher than the 25-year-old from Keelung, was a straight sets victor over Andrew Coelho of Australia.
Chen, who has yet to play at Wimbledon, needs to win two more matches before he earns a place in the draw for this year’s tournament.
Wang suffered a straight sets loss to his 204th-ranked Italian opponent, taking only one game in the first set and two in the second.
Wang, who has struggled with injury of late, has seen his ranking slip from 85 two years ago to 225.
More than 250 players are vying this week at Roehampton for 16 places in the men’s singles, 12 in the women’s singles’ and places for four pairs in the men’s and ladies’ doubles.
A number of famous names have gained entry into the Championships via the qualifiers over the years including John McEnroe in 1977, Boris Becker in 1984 and Goran Ivanisevic in 1988.
In 1999 Jelena Dokic reached the quarter-finals as a qualifier while Alexandra Stevenson went one better by reaching the semis.
Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun, whose ranking automatically qualifies him for a Wimbledon place, lost in straight sets to Dmitry Tursunov of Russia in the first round of the ATP tournament in Nottingham on Monday.
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
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but