Top seed Maria Sharapova was bundled out of the Auckland Classic women’s tennis tournament in the quarter-finals yesterday, beaten in straight sets by unheralded Greta Arn.
The 31-year-old Hungarian, whose best world ranking was 81 in 2002 and is now ranked 88th, dominated the former world No. 1 and three-time Grand Slam winner from the start to win 6-2, 7-5.
Sharapova is currently ranked 18th as she rebuilds following shoulder surgery and had earmarked the tournament as crucial to her preparation for the Australian Open and as part of her bid to regain the world top spot.
However, she made too many unforced errors, starting when she dropped her serve in the opening game, and was philosophical about her shock loss.
“But that’s the way it goes. You look forward to the next one. That’s the good thing about tennis,” she said. “Just because I lost doesn’t take anything away from the tournament for me.”
Arn was ecstatic. Before the match, she described playing Sharapova as “a dream come true” and afterwards said she was stunned by the outcome.
Sharapova was the biggest name she has beaten and “I don’t know what to say. I am like a little girl. My dream has come true.”
Arn will play fourth-seed Julia Goerges in the semi-finals after the German dropped the first set of her quarter-final against wildcard Kateryna Bondarenko from Ukraine before recovering to win 5-7, 6-2, 6-2.
Defending champion Yanina Wickmayer was under no pressure as she coasted into the semi-finals with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Romania’s Simona Halep to set up a semi-final against China’s Peng Shuai, who beat British qualifier Heather Watson 6-4, 7-5.
HOPMAN CUP
AP, PERTH, AUSTRALIA
Lleyton Hewitt produced his best performance of the Hopman Cup yesterday, beating Andrey Golubev 6-3, 6-3 to help Australia beat Kazakhstan in the mixed team competition.
Hewitt won his first singles match of the team tournament against Ruben Bemelmans of Belgium, but lost the second to Novak Djokovic.
Also, Alicia Molik gave the Australians the win by beating Sesil Karatantcheva 6-3, 6-2 in the women’s singles match to make it 2-0.
Molik had lost her two previous matches while Karatantcheva was called in to replace the injured Yaroslava Shvedova.
In the other match, Justine Henin defeated Ana Ivanovic 6-4, 6-3 to give Belgium a 1-0 lead over Serbia.
The former top-ranked Henin, who had looked shaky in her earlier victories over Molik and Karatantcheva, seemed to have overcome her lingering elbow injury despite dropping a break early on.
After winning the first set, she took an early lead in the second set and extended it to 4-1 before closing out the match.
Djokovic will next play Bemelmans as Serbia needs to win just one of the three matches to reach tomorrow’s final.
WORLD TEAM CHALLENGE
AFP, HONG KONG
Maria Kirilenko came from behind to defeat US teenager Melanie Oudin and hand second seeds Russia an early lead over the Americas at Hong Kong’s World Team Challenge yesterday.
The 23-year-old, who finished last year as the world No. 20, gave rising star Oudin a lesson in tenacity and concentration, fighting her way from a set down to sneak a second set tie-breaker before taking the decider 6-0.
Kirilenko, competing in the season-opening exhibition as part of her preparations for the Australian Open, was on the back foot for large swathes of the match, but relied on her superior experience to put her 19-year-old opponent to the sword.
The Hong Kong curtain-raiser, which finishes tomorrow, features four teams with three players each — representing Russia, Europe, the Americas and Asia-Pacific — in singles and mixed doubles play.
It was hardcourt specialist Oudin, ranked No. 61, who started the match stronger, pinning back Kirilenko with an array of crosscourt drives, but she was unable to capitalize in a performance marred by sloppy returns.
Both players looked heavy on their feet in the early exchanges, moving sluggishly and sharing more than 50 unforced errors in the first two sets.
Oudin broke Kirilenko in the fourth game after her first foray to the net in the most thrilling rally of the day. They both dropped service games before Oudin managed to hold for 5-2, serving out to finally take the first set 6-3 after seeing three set points saved by the Russian.
Kirilenko began to find her rhythm in the second set, but allowed herself to be drawn into a slugfest with an opponent clearly more comfortable at the baseline and Oudin dominated with a series of powerful groundstrokes.
Oudin was unable to close out her opponent, however, double-faulting as she was serving for the match and allowing Kirilenko to sneak back in at 6-6 and take the tie-break comfortably.
It was immediately clear from Kirilenko’s body language that she felt she had the upper hand and an increasingly deflated Oudin never recovered as the merciless Russian seized the advantage to take the deciding set 6-0.
BRISBANE INTERNATIONAL
AFP AND AP, BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA
Fourth seed Marion Bartoli cruised into the semi-finals of the Brisbane International tennis tournament after crushing Czech opponent Barbora Zahlavova Strycova in straight sets here yesterday.
The Frenchwoman, the highest seed left in the women’s draw, was in complete control during the 87-minute quarter-final despite dropping her first service game.
However, after recovering from 1-2 down in the first set, the 26-year-old Bartoli never looked back, peppering Zahlavova Strycova with her powerful groundstrokes and pouncing on any loose shots with devastating effect.
Bartoli was particularly punishing on Zahlavova Strycova’s serve, standing well inside the baseline to receive both first and second serves.
The Czech world No.69 had no answers.
In other action, second-seeded Andy Roddick beat Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 6-2, 6-3 to reach the men’s singles semi-finals.
The eighth-ranked American hit seven aces and converted 65 percent of his first serve points to beat the 20th-ranked Baghdatis.
Also, Kevin Anderson of South Africa rallied to beat Santiago Giraldo of Colombia 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 to reach the last four.
Earlier, top-seeded Robin Soderling of Sweden held on to beat Michael Berrer of Germany 6-3, 7-6 (7) and reach the quarter-finals.
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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
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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