Great Britain are on the verge of their first Hopman Cup final after Andy Murray and teenager Laura Robson beat Germany 2-1 yesterday to remain unbeaten in the mixed teams tournament.
With Murray looking sharp early in the new season and Robson emerging as an exciting prospect for British tennis, the third seeds secured the Group B tie against Sabine Lisicki and Philipp Kohlschreiber with a 6-3, 6-2 win in the mixed doubles rubber.
Murray stepped up his preparation for the upcoming Australian Open later this month by trouncing Kohlschreiber in straight sets in the men’s singles, 6-4, 6-1.
The Scot displayed his full repertoire of shots in an ominous performance for his Melbourne rivals.
Murray said he was delighted with his form in disposing of Kohlschreiber.
Kohlschreiber was similarly impressed by Murray’s form.
“He’s getting hot for the Australian Open,” Kohlschreiber said. “He kicked my ass today.”
Murray was ably assisted in the doubles by the 15-year-old Robson, the former junior Wimbledon champion confirming her talent with her impressive form in both the singles and doubles.
Robson was beaten in straight sets by Lisicki but in the doubles, Robson played almost faultless tennis, volleying and serving well and hitting a number of brilliant passing shots.
■AUCKLAND CLASSIC
AFP, AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND
Israel’s Shahar Peer overcame the chants of protesters to make the quarter-finals as three other seeds tumbled in the second round of the Auckland Classic yesterday.
The world No. 31 appeared to cope with the noisy protest against Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians better than her Slovakian opponent Magdalena Rybarikova.
Rybarikova was rattled as around 10 protesters chanted throughout the first set before police moved in to disperse them.
“I have to say it was tough to play during the protest,” she said.
Top-seeded Italian Flavia Pennetta had an easy passage to the quarter-finals after beating Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro 6-2, 6-2.
But French fifth seed Virginie Razzano and seventh-seeded compatriot Aravane Rezai lost their second-round matches.
Razzano lost to Japan’s Kimiko Date Krumm while Yanina Wickmayer beat Ioana Raluca Olaru.
■CHENNAI OPEN
AFP, CHENNAI, INDIA
India’s top player Somdev Devvarman marched into round two with an emphatic win over German Rainer Schuettler on Tuesday.
Devvarman, ranked 127th, won 6-4, 7-5.
In second-round matches yesterday Dutchman Thiemo de Bakker beat compatriot Robin Haase and while Santiago Giraldo of Colombia defeated Czech Jan Hajek.
■QATAR OPEN
AP, DOHA
Roger Federer breezed through to the second round of the Qatar Open crushing Christophe Rochus of Belgium 6-1, 6-2 on Tuesday.
Federer broke Rochus in the fourth and sixth games to take the first set, and then broke him in the first and seventh games of the second set to make sure of the victory.
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