Taiwan’s Chuang Chia-jung and Hsieh Su-wei continued their impressive form in the Australian Open women’s doubles by beating Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Patty Schnyder of Switzerland 6-4, 6-2 yesterday in their third-round match.
Chuang and Hsieh, who have yet to drop a set at this year’s event, served effectively, winning an impressive 79 percent of their points on first serve compared with their opponents’ figure of 44 percent.
Later in the day, Chuang had further cause for celebration when she and Dick Norman of Belgium knocked No. 8 seeds Barbora Zahalova Strycova of the Czech Republic and Austria’s Oliver Marach out of the mixed doubles with a 6-4, 6-4 victory.
Once again, the first serve percentage was impressive, as the Belgian-Taiwanese pair claimed 27 out of 33 points on their first serve, including seven aces.
Meanwhile, Chan Yung-jan’s promising run in the women’s doubles came to an end in a third-round defeat by 12th seeds Victoria Azarenka of Belarus and Maria Kirilenko of Russia.
The Belarussian-Russian pair cruised to a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Chan and Poland’s Agnieska Radwanska, who may have been feeling the effects of a tough victory over China’s Peng Shuai in the singles earlier in the day.
Although Chan said she intends to renew her partnership with regular doubles partner Zheng Jie of China, she may well take to the courts with Radwanska again.
“If she [Zheng] isn’t playing in a tournament, we may team up again,” Chan said last week of Radwanska, who at 21 is the same age as Chan.
Chan added in the long-run, she and Radwanska may play together more regularly, with 27-year-old Zheng approaching the veteran stage of her career.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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