German wild card Daniel Brands stunned top seed Gilles Simon of France, beating the world No. 7 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 to advance to the third round of the German Open in Hamburg on Tuesday.
World No. 16 Tommy Robredo, seeded fourth, also suffered an early exit at the hands of Spanish compatriot Ivan Navarro, ranked No. 103, losing 7-5, 7-6.
Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas came from a break down in the first set to sweep past ninth-seed Juergen Melzer from Austria 7-6, 6-3 while Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka, seeded fifth, lost 6-2, 6-4 to Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
PHOTO: AFP
French 13th-seed Paul-Henri Mathieu was lucky to escape against No. 145 Pere Riba of Spain, battling his way through three sets to win 6-1, 2-6, 7-6.
Serb Viktor Troicki, seeded 10th, also had to battle hard — for two hours and 40 minutes — until breaking the resistance of Russian Teimuraz Gabashvilli 3-6, 6-2, 6-4.
■INDIANAPOLIS
AFP, INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA
Fragile Russian top seed Dmitry Tursunov received an unexpected confidence boost on Tuesday as Michael Berrer made 16 double faults in a 6-3, 2-6, 6-0 loss at the ATP Indianapolis Championships.
Surprising second seed Dudi Sela continued his recent red-hot pace as the Israeli sent home American veteran Vince Spadea 7-5, 6-1.
Russian Igor Kunitsyn, a member of the defeated Russian Davis Cup side, was another unlikely seed who shined, defeating of Argentine Brian Dabul 6-4, 6-1.
German fifth seed Benjamin Becker stopped Go Soeda, a Japanese qualifier, 6-2, 6-3.
Two American journeyman booked spots in the second round. Qualifier Jesse Levine beat Thai Danai Udomchoke 6-1, 7-6 (12/10) while Alex Bogomolov stopped Italy’s Flavio Cipolla 6-2, 6-3 to next face Sela.
Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun came out fighting but lost in the end to Eduardo Schwank of Argentina 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
■SLOVENIA OPEN
AP, PORTOROZ, SLOVENIA
Second-seeded Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain was ousted by Vesna Manasieva 6-3, 1-6, 7-5 in the first round of the Slovenia Open on Tuesday.
The No. 141 came through qualifying for only the second time this year — after Wimbledon — for her first win on the main tour since last September. Medina Garrigues was ranked 20th. Also advancing was Russian Ksenia Pervak, who overcame Julia Georges of Germany 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 and fourth-seeded Roberta Vinci of Italy easily beat Nastja Kolar of Slovenia 6-2, 6-0.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set