Rising Australian star Bernard Tomic yesterday kept his squad from falling behind in their Davis Cup clash with China, winning his singles match to even the match up at 1-1 after the first day of play.
The 18-year-old Tomic, who reached this year’s Wimbledon quarter-finals and has seen his ATP ranking soar to a career-high 71, defeated Zhang Ze in four sets, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.
The win helped stave off major embarrassment for the Australian squad in new captain Pat Rafter’s first Davis Cup match after Marinko Matosevic, ranked 141st, fell to Chinese teen Wu Di in five sets, 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Rafter had told his team not to be complacent heading into the Asia-Oceania Group 1 second-round match up against China, which they were expected to dominate.
The winner earns a berth in the World Group playoff in September.
Rafter said before the competition that China were a challenge in the Davis Cup, adding: “I expect them to be very tough and a very disciplined team.”
Australia’s long-time team leader Lleyton Hewitt — a two-time Grand Slam winner — was left out of the singles lineup, but will team up with Chris Guccione in today’s doubles rubber against Li Zhe and Gong Mao-Xin.
Hewitt, who made his Davis Cup debut in 1999, is Australia’s most successful Davis Cup player with a 36-9 record in singles and 8-3 record in doubles. The match up against China at the Beijing International Tennis Center is his 30th.
However, Hewitt — who has seen his ATP ranking slump to 173rd — was beaten out for the No. 2 singles spot by Matosevic.
China have named a young team including 19-year-old Wu, who is ranked just 404th in the world, 21-year-old Zhang, 23-year-old Gong and 24-year-old Li, a doubles specialist.
JAPAN VS UZBEKISTAN
AFP, KOBE, JAPAN
A dehydrated Farrukh Dustov was forced to retire after taking a set off Kei Nishikori, leaving Uzbekistan and Japan tied at 1-1 in their Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Group 1 second-round match up yesterday.
Earlier, 68th-ranked Denis Istomin had given Uzbekistan a boost, beating Tatsuma Ito 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 in the opener of the best-of-five contest.
Then Dustov, ranked a lowly 294th against Nishikori’s 50th this week, kept the momentum on his side by taking the first set 7-6 (7/2).
However, 25-year-old Dustov began to struggle with dehydration and abandoned the match after losing the following sets 3-6, 1-6.
Istomin will team up with Murad Inoyatov in the doubles today against Nishikori and Go Soeda, before two reverse singles matches tomorrow.
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
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB