World No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki did little to silence her critics yesterday as she struggled to win her singles match in Denmark’s 2-1 loss to Bulgaria at the mixed teams Hopman Cup in Perth.
The Dane, who is clinging to the top ranking in women’s tennis by 115 points and has been much maligned for failing to win a Grand Slam, made a host of unforced errors in her marathon clash against Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova.
Wozniacki’s grinding 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 win in 144 minutes against her 46th-ranked opponent gave Denmark the lead in the Group A tie, but Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov squared the ledger defeating Frederik Nielsen, 7-6 (7/5), 6-2.
The Bulgarians then came from a set down to win the deciding mixed doubles in a match tiebreak 3-6, 6-4, 10-1 to keep their Hopman Cup hopes alive.
Denmark can still reach the final if they beat the Czech Republic in their final tie tomorrow, when Wozniacki will face her first big test of this year against world No. 2 Petra Kvitova.
On Tuesday, French star Marion Bartoli reduced her opponent to tears as she demolished Australia’s Jarmila Gajdosova without dropping a game.
The ninth-ranked Bartoli, beaten by world No. 5 Li Na in her first singles match on Saturday, slaughtered a misfiring Gajdosova 6-0, 6-0 in just 52 minutes as France beat the host nation 3-0.
Gajdosova, ranked 33rd in the world, was in tears in the dying stages as her game fell apart.
Richard Gasquet secured the tie for the French with a 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 win over Lleyton Hewitt.
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