Maria Sharapova won both of her matches on Thursday to reach the quarter-finals as the Aegon Classic began to overcome delays caused by three days of showers.
After a first-round bye, it took Sharapova three days to complete her first win on grass this year, a 6-0, 6-3 defeat of US Fed Cup player Bethanie Mattek-Sands. She was then back on court for only 65 minutes for an even more impressive 6-3, 6-1 success against Alla Kudryavtseva, the fellow Russian who sensationally upset her at Wimbledon two years ago.
Both results proved encouraging for Sharapova, especially against Kudryavtseva, who briefly played as though she could spring another surprise, holding three points for a 4-1 lead with a double break of serve.
It required Sharapova to adopt a tenaciously positive attitude on an outside court in cold, blowy and miserably overcast conditions.
She hit 11 aces and conceded only two points on serve in the second set in a performance which suggested that her service was regaining some of the power which was once a formidable barometer of her game, but which lost potency following a shoulder operation two years ago.
Next for Sharapova will be Kazakh qualifier Sesil Karatantcheva, a former French Open quarter-finalist who completed her fifth win of the tournament by eliminating defending champion Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-7 (3), 6-2.
If the second-seeded Sharapova wins, she could play fourth-seeded Belgian Yanina Wickmayer, the steadily improving world No. 16 who won twice on Thursday against Laura Robson, the 16-year-old former Junior Wimbledon champion from Britain, and Tamarine Tanasugarn, the former Wimbledon quarter-finalist from Thailand.
Top-seeded Li Na of China beat Anne Keothavong of Britain 6-2, 6-4, then was tied with Angelique Kerber of Germany after two sets before darkness stopped play.
Also making it through to the quarter-finals were fourth-seeded Aravane Rezai of France, and US qualifier Alison Riske, ranked 192, who was due to face Wickmayer yesterday.
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
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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