Alex Bogomolov Jr unexpectedly found himself in the spotlight at the Hall of Fame Championships on Wednesday, upsetting fifth-seeded Arnaud Clement of France 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the opening round of the rain-hampered event.
Playing in the one of the few mid-afternoon matches, Bogomolov beat Clement in front of an unusually large crowd on a side court.
Heavy rain halted the only three matches that were played on Tuesday. Despite bright sunshine, center court and one of the two side courts were still soggy on Wednesday.
PHOTO: EPA
Officials were unable to get center court in playable condition despite spending most of the day trying.
In other opening-round matches, third-seeded Sam Querrey of the US beat Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo of Spain 6-3, 6-2, Nicholas Mahut of France beat American Amer Delic 6-4, 6-4, while sixth-seeded Philipp Petzschner of Germany defeated Horacio Zeballos of Argentina 6-4, 6-7 (4/7), 6-2 in a match that started on Tuesday.
Two-time defending champion Fabrice Santoro of France had his match against Italy’s Flavio Cipolla halted by rain at 3-3 in the first set.
■BUDAPEST GRAND PRIX
AP, BUDAPEST
Shahar Peer of Israel upset defending champion Alize Cornet of France in straight sets in the second round of the Budapest GDF Suez Grand Prix on Wednesday.
Peer jumped ahead 5-1 in the first set before losing her serve, but did not allow Cornet much of a comeback and quickly closed out the set 6-2. The second set was even more lopsided and ended 6-0.
In today’s quarter-final, Peer will face sixth-seeded Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine who defeated Ioana Raluca Olaru of Romania 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.
Also in the second round, Romania’s Edina Gallovits upset third-seeded Sybille Bammer of Austria 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.
Bammer won the first set as expected and was up 2-0 in the second when Gallovits won three games in a row.
In the decisive set, Gallovits played more consistently and forced her opponent to commit more errors.
Gallovits will play qualifier Petra Martic of Croatia, who beat Ukraine’s Maria Koryttseva 6-3, 6-2.
In the only first round match played on Wednesday, top-seeded Patty Schnyder of Switzerland defeated Andrea Petkovic of Germany 7-6 (7/3), 6-1.
Schnyder’s next opponent will be Italy’s Maria Elena Camerin.
■SWEDISH OPEN
AP, BASTAD, SWEDEN
Gisela Dulko of Argentina saved four match points in ousting fifth-seeded Sorana Cirstea of Romania 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7/5) to reach the Swedish Open quarter-finals on Wednesday.
Dulko saved three match points at 5-3 down in the last set and another when Cirstea served for the second-round match at 5-4.
The Argentine, who upset Maria Sharapova in the second round at Wimbledon, ultimately overcame Cirstea in the tie-breaker.
Dulko will meet second-seeded Dominika Cibulkova, who defeated Nuria Llagostera Vives of Spain in straight sets 6-1, 6-1.
Top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki was also a comfortable winner, 6-4, 6-2 over Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic.
Third-seeded Flavia Pennetta of Italy cruised past Masa Zec Peskiric of Slovenia for the loss of three games, while seventh-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain conceded only five against Ellen Allgurin.
The Philadelphia 76ers, fueled by 36 points from Tyrese Maxey and a triple-double from Joel Embiid, on Thursday beat the Houston Rockets 128-122 in an NBA overtime thriller. Cameroonian big man Embiid scored 32 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and handed out 10 assists, posting the ninth triple-double of his career to help the Sixers end the Rockets’ three-game winning streak. Rockets star Kevin Durant scored 36 points and Amen Thompson added 17, but Thompson was scoreless in the fourth quarter. Even so, the Rockets led by nine midway through the final frame, Maxey tying it at 115-115 with 40.1 seconds left. Durant missed a
The Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo on Friday said that he will probably be out for an extended period after hurting his right calf again after a similar injury caused him to miss eight games earlier this season. Antetokounmpo had his right calf wrapped in the first half of their 102-100 loss to the Denver Nuggets. He did not appear comfortable the rest of the night and left for good with 34 seconds remaining. “At the end, I could not move no more, so I had to stop playing,” Antetokounmpo said. The two-time NBA Most Valuable Player said he expected to undergo an MRI
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LICENSE TO THRILL: Fans of Learner Tien, the youngest man to reach the quarter-finals in 11 years, wore ‘L Plates,’ signs for learning drivers, in support of the 20-year-old Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien and Japanese partner Eri Hozumi yesterday dominated eighth seeds Ellen Perez of Australia and the Netherlands’ Demi Schuurs to advance to the Australian Open quarter-finals, the furthest the Taiwanese has made it since her first appearance in Melbourne in 2020. Wu and Hozumi overpowered world No. 21 Perez and world No. 20 Schuurs 6-2, 6-2 in 1 hour, 11 minutes at 1573 Arena in much cooled temperatures since Saturday’s blazing 40°C disrupted play. World No. 34 Wu has now made it further in the Australian Open since she was knocked out in the third round in 2024. The Taiwanese-Japanese duo
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