Gilles Simon of France needed nearly three hours to edge out Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun 6-7 (4/7), 7-5, 6-4 in his opening match at the Thailand Open on Wednesday.
“I was down a set and a break and he had points for 5-2,” said third-seed Simon, who is now through to the quarter-finals. “It was an amazing match. His level was really high and I had the sensation that I was also playing well.”
The match was only decided in the closing moments as Simon, the world No. 12, earned a break to go 5-4 up, before serving out the victory against a player ranked 56 places below him.
“I was almost on the plane back home at one point. I’m very happy to win this match,” the Frenchman said.
Simon will meet Matthias Bachinger in the quarter-finals today. The unseeded German beat Danai Udomchoke of Thailand, 7-6 (5), 6-3.
Defending champion Guillermo Garcia-Lopez crashed out yesterday as second seed Gael Monfils survived a scare to win in three sets.
Spain’s Garcia-Lopez, the fourth seed, was stunned by US outsider Donald Young, ranked 55, who won 6-1, 6-7 (0/7), 7-5 after a match -lasting more than two-and-a-half hours.
Young will play in only his third career quarter-final at the ATP level when he meets Japan’s Go Soeda, who put out German Tobias Kamke 6-2, 7-6 (9/7).
Murray was due to begin his campaign at the event, where he finished runner-up six years ago to Roger Federer, against German Michael Berrer.
? MALAYSIAN OPEN
AFP, KUALA LUMPUR
Serbia’s Viktor Troicki swept into the quarter-finals of the Malaysian Open in straight sets yesterday, joined by former champion Nikolay Davydenko in the last eight.
Second seed Troicki beat Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 6-1, 6-4, while 2009 champion Davydenko put out Poland’s Lukasz Kubot 6-3, 7-6 (7/2) indoors at the Putra Stadium.
Troicki, a member of the Serbian team that lost to Argentina in the Davis Cup semi-finals, earned revenge for a defeat at the hands of Istomin in last year’s New Haven semi-finals.
“I lost to him in a strange match last year. I knew I had to play more offensive and take my chances when they came,” said the 15th-ranked Serb, who is next scheduled to face Russian Dmitry Tursunov.
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