Samantha Stosur rebounded to seal the win for Australia over Thailand yesterday in the Federations Cup Asia/Oceania Group I play-offs, putting the host nation in a good position to make the final.
Australia remained unbeaten in the round-robin stage of the women’s team competition with a 3-0 win in the tie against Thailand, their main Group B rivals.
Having already beaten South Korea on Wednesday, the Australians will be expected to easily handle winless Taiwan in their final group match today and advance to the final as the top side in their group.
PHOTO: AFP
Their rivals in the final will be either Indonesia or New Zealand, the two nations unbeaten in Group A and set to play each other today.
Tomorrow’s winner advances to an April play-off for a promotion in 2010 to World Group II — one step closer to the elite event.
In the Australia-Thailand tie, Jelena Dokic set the tone by easily beating Suchanun Viratprasert, 6-1, 6-2.
But the host nation looked set to head into the make-or-break doubles rubber when Stosur, ranked 43rd in the world, found herself one game away from defeat against veteran Thai player Tamarine Tanasugarn, ranked 41st, who led 6-4, 5-2.
Tamarine then collapsed, failing twice to serve out the match and then allowing Stosur to reel off 11 straight games to claim the three-set victory, 4-6, 7-5, 6-0, and seal the win for Australia.
Indonesia, who beat Australia in the Asia/Oceania play-offs last year, made it two wins in a row in Group A, beating India 3-0.
Lavinia Tatanta put the Indonesians ahead by beating Sanaa Bhambri 2-6, 6-3, 6-1, before Sandy Gumulya secured the tie with a 6-0, 6-4 win over Ankita Bhambri.
New Zealand stayed on target with a win over Uzbekistan in a marathon tie, clinching it in the deciding doubles, with Marina Erakovic and Kairangi Vano beating Akgul Amanmuradova and Albina Khabibulina, 7-6 (8/6), 4-6, 6-2.
In Asia/Oceania Group II, Kazakhstan and Hong Kong both remained unbeaten with easy wins over Iran and Singapore, respectively.
■SA TENNIS OPEN
AFP, JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
Young South African Izak van der Merwe and French journeyman Sebastien de Chaunac mocked the world rankings on Wednesday to set up a SA Tennis Open second-round showdown.
Giant Van der Merwe won successive tie-breakers to eliminate in-form German Benjamin Becker, who was 163 places above his opponent on the ATP list released on Monday.
De Chaunac belied his ranking of 225 to topple Spanish third seed Marcel Granollers 7-5, 7-6 on a near-deserted outside court as the small crowd who braved wet, chilly conditions huddled around the Montecasino center court.
■MOVISTAR OPEN
AP, VINA DEL MAR,CHILE
Top-seeded Fernando Gonzalez opened his defense of the Movistar Open title when he edged Argentine qualifier Maximo Gonzalez 7-5, 7-6 (9/7) in the second round on Wednesday.
Fernando Gonzalez had to save six break points in a tough tournament opener that took more than two hours.
■ZAGREB INDOORS
AP, ZAGREB
Ivan Ljubicic will miss the final of his hometown event for the first time after losing in the second round of the Zagreb Indoors on Wednesday.
Despite hitting 19 aces and winning three-quarters of his first serves, Ljubicic fell to Viktor Troicki of Serbia 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 in 2 hours, 20 minutes.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite