Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan beat Italy’s Mara Santangelo in three sets yesterday to reach the second round of the Hansol Korea Open in Seoul.
In the first set Santangelo showed some of the form that earned her a career-high world ranking of 27 last year before a succession of injuries helped send it plummeting to 179.
She won the first set easily, only dropping one game, before Chan fought back to take the second set 6-3. The Taiwanese world No. 59 then claimed the deciding set 6-4 to continue her good recent form, having reached the quarter-finals in Bali earlier this month before losing to Daniela Hantuchova.
Other winners at the US$145,000 hardcourt tournament in Seoul yesterday were No. 1 seed Maria Kirilenko of Russia who beat Slovakia’s Lenka Wienerova 6-2, 6-0, and third seed Kaia Kanepi of Estonia who defeated Rika Fujiwara of Japan 6-2, 6-7 (5/7), 6-0.
Two seeds crashed out of the tournament yesterday. Czech Klara Zakopalova defeated Spanish No. 4 seed Carla Suarez Navarro 6-1, 6-7(3/7), 6-4 and Samantha Stosur of Australia thrashed Marina Erakovic of New Zealand in straight sets. The Aussie won the first set 6-2 before claiming the second without losing a game to send the No. 7 seed packing.
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
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
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier