Jeremy Chardy beat Bjorn Phau of Germany 6-2, 7-5 in the first round of the Grand Prix Hassan II on Monday.
The sixth-seeded Frenchman broke Phau twice in the opening set and again decisively in the 11th game of the second set.
It was Chardy’s first victory at an ATP tournament this year, with his only other two singles wins this year were for France against Austria in the Davis Cup last month. His sole career title was on clay two years ago at Stuttgart, Germany.
Chardy next faces Pablo Andujar of Spain, who defeated Florent Serra 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 after breaking the Frenchman five times.
Also, eighth-seeded Victor Hanescu of Romania rallied to beat Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Hanescu, a French Open quarter-finalist in 2005, conceded six double faults in dropping serve four times but saved 13 break points.
Pere Riba downed Jesse Huta Galung of the Netherlands 6-3, 6-3. The Spaniard, whose only other Tour win this year was in the Australian Open first round, will play fourth-seeded Andrey Golubev of Kazhakstan.
FAMILY CIRCLE CUP
AFP, CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA
South African Chanelle Scheepers surprised 13th seeded Patty -Schnyder of Switzerland 6-4, 6-4 in the opening round of the WTA Charleston tournament on Monday.
The US’ Vania King beat No. 16 seed Verna Dushevina 6-4, 7-6 (9/7) and Jill Craybas defeated fellow American Shelby Rogers 3-6, 6-2, 6-0 to reach the second round.
In other matches, Chinese 11th seed Peng Shuai trounced American qualifier Sloan Stephens 6-2, 6-1, No. 12 seed Julia Goerges 7-6, 6-4 victory over Olga Govortsova and 14th-seeded Bethanie Mattek-Sands beat qualifier Alexandra Stevenson 6-2, 6-1.
ANDALUCIA EXPERIENCE
AP, MARBELLA, SPAIN
Fourth-seeded Alexandra -Dulgheru of Romania and eighth-seeded Sara Errani of Italy won in three sets Monday to advance to the second round of the Andalucia Tennis Experience.
Dulgheru beat Anastasia Pivovarova of Russia 7-6 (3), 6-7 (5), 7-5, and Errani defeated Sorana Cirstea of Romania 1-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Roberta Vinci was the only seeded player to lose, the No. 7 Italian going down 7-5, 6-3 to Sandra Zahlavova of the Czech Republic.
Laura Pous-Tio of Spain downed Polona Hercog of Slovenia 6-1, 6-2, and Czech player Klara Zakopalova came from behind to beat Belarus’ Anastasiya Yakimova 1-6, 7-5, 6-3.
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