Russia’s Dinara Safina celebrated her first match as world No. 1 by needing just 51 minutes to blitz Italy’s Sara Errani 6-0, 6-1 in the first round of Stuttgart’s WTA tournament on Tuesday.
The Russian dominated to win the first set in just 26 minutes against Errani, ranked 37th, and it took the 21-year-old Italian 40 minutes to even win a game as the Russian hit five aces in the match.
With plenty of power at the baseline blended with some delicate dropshots Safina began her Stuttgart campaign in style at the first indoor stadium on the WTA tour to host a clay-court tournament.
Olympic champion Elena Dementieva needed more than two hours to survive a scare from Germany’s Anna-Lena Groenefeld before winning 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 earlier in the day.
Having had few problems in the first set, the Russian was put under pressure in the second and could only defend one of the three break points against her, but regained control in the third set.
In the other first round matches, eighth seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland needed a first set-tie break against Aleksandra Wozniak before her comfortable 7-6 (7/2), 6-0 victory over the Canadian.
China’s Na Li beat compatriot Shuai Peng 6-2, 6-3 while Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova won 0-6, 6-4, 6-4 against Italy’s Alberta Brianti.
Seventh-seed Caroline Wozniacki beat Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic in straight sets while France’s Marion Bartoli beat Croatia’s Karolina Sprem 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 just before midnight.
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