Petra Kvitova eased past Austria’s Patricia Mayr-Archleitner 6-2, 6-3 on Thursday at the Generali Ladies to reach her second quarter-final since since she won at Wimbledon.
The top-seeded Czech player, ranked a career-high fourth, had a shaky start as she dropped serve to love early in the opening set, but she soon took control of the match.
Kvitova, who reached the semi-finals in Tokyo last month, will play former champion Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia in the quarter-finals.
The eighth-seeded Hantuchova rallied to beat Ksenia Pervak of Russia 5-7, 6-3, 6-4.
Hantuchova was two breaks down in the second set, before winning six straight games. She closed out the win on her second match point.
In other second-round play, Jelena Jankovic rallied to defeat Britain’s Anne Keothavong 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 to advance to the quarter-finals.
The former world No. 1 won just one service game in the opening set, but dominated the match afterward.
The third-seeded Jankovic will take on Russian qualifier Evgeniya Rodina for a place in the semi-finals.
No. 7 Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia threw away a 5-1 lead in the first set, before beating Italy’s Sara Errani 6-7 (1/7), 6-3, 6-1.
Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic downed Italy’s Alberta Brianti 6-4, 6-2 without facing a break point.
In her sixth quarter-final of the season, Safarova will take on Sorana Cirstea of Romania.
JAPAN WOMEN’S OPEN
AFP, OSAKA, JAPAN
The quarter-final matches of the Japan Women’s Open were postponed until today because of steady rain, organizers said yesterday.
Defending champion Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand is scheduled to play third seed Angelique Kerber of Germany, while US Open champion Samantha Stosur of Australia is set to take on Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa.
Former champion Marion Bartoli of France meets Japan’s Ayumi Morita, while Petra Cetkovska of the Czech Republic is scheduled to play China’s Zheng Jie.
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