Second-seeded Grigor Dimitrov and fifth-seeded Alex Bogomolov advanced to the second round of the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships on Monday.
Dimitrov had a 6-2, 6-4 win over Brian Dabul, a semi-finalist in Newport last year, while Bogomolov rallied to beat Mischa Zverev 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.
Sixth-seeded Olivier Rochus, a finalist on Newport’s grass courts last year, also advanced, beating Greg Jones 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
John Isner was scheduled to play yesterday. He was elevated to the No. 1 seeding when defending champion Mardy Fish withdrew after being added to the US Davis Cup team.
In other first-round matches, Donald Young defeated Paul Capdeville 6-2, 6-1; Matthias Bachinger edged Dustin Brown 7-6 (9/7), 6-7 (5/7), 6-1; and Ruben Bemelmans ousted Denis Gremelmayr 6-4, 6-2.
The tournament is played in conjunction with the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies that highlight the week. Andre Agassi will headline the induction on Saturday during a ceremony on Center Court.
BUDAPEST GRAND PRIX
AP, BUDAPEST
Klara Zakopalova defeated Han Xinyun of China 6-0, 6-2 to advance to the second round of the Budapest Grand Prix on Monday.
The third-seeded Czech lost her serve just once, when leading 4-1 in the second set, but otherwise had little trouble with her opponent.
Fifth-seeded Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain cruised to a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Russia’s Anastasia Pivovarova.
However, Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania had to rally in each set before beating Laura Pous-Tio of Spain 6-4, 6-4.
Ajla Tomljanovic of Croatia beat Hungarian wild-card Vanda Lukacs 6-2, 6-2.
The only seeded player to lose was No. 8 Evgeniya Rodina of Russia, who went down 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 to Ukraine’s Olga Savchuk.
SWEDISH OPEN
AP, BASTAD, SWEDEN
Russia’s Vesna Dolonts upset third-seeded Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-4 in the first round of the Swedish Open on Monday.
Last year’s winner Aravane Rezai also advanced to the second round at the clay-court WTA tournament by defeating Uzbekistan’s Akgul Amanuradova 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.
Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus beat Jill Craybas of the US 2-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-1.
Spain’s Lourdes Domingues Lino, the fourth seed, and No. 7 Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic also advanced.
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