Italian fifth seed Francesca Schiavone and China’s Meng Yuan led the charge yesterday into the second round of the Bali Open.
Schiavone, who made a major impact the last time she played in Bali in 2005 when she reached the final before falling to Lindsay Davenport, enjoyed an easy return to the tropical island, crushing local hope Sandy Gumulya 6-2, 6-0.
Meng, who gets overshadowed by her more illustrious teammates Li Na and Peng Shuai, rallied from a set down to topple Kazakstan wildcard Yaroslava Shvedova 5-7, 6-2, 7-5.
Her reward is a second round encounter with Swiss veteran and second seed Patty Schnyder.
In another first round match, Poland’s Marta Domachowska ended the short-lived hopes of Indonesia’s Lavinia Tananta 6-2, 6-3.
Slovakia’s top seed Daniela Hantuchova received a bye into the second round and plays either Ukraine’s Olga Savchuk or Alla Kudryavtseva, the Russian who sensationally upset Maria Sharapova at Wimbledon.
Third seeded Flavia Pennetta of Italy, hot off her first Grand Slam quarter-final at the US Open, gets her tournament underway today.
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