Spanish guns David Ferrer and Nicolas Almagro were firing on all cylinders at the Heineken Open ATP tournament yesterday, blasting their way into the quarter-finals with ease.
The top two seeds were making their first appearance in the tournament after first round byes and wasted no time stamping their mark, showing impressive form ahead of the season’s first Grand Slam starting in Melbourne on Monday.
Ferrer, the world No. 5, raced past Lukas Rosol from the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-2, while Almagro, 10th in the world, beat Colombian Santiago Giraldo by the same margin.
Ferrer will play Alejandro Falla in the quarter-finals after the Colombian continued his charmed run with a 7-6 (7/3), 6-3 win over Potito Starace of Italy following his first-round win over seventh-seeded Donald Young of the US.
Almagro found Giraldo difficult to shake off in the opening games with the match going to 4-4 in the first set, but when the Spaniard found his rhythm it was one-way traffic to the end.
Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber, who has a 3-3 record against Almagro, survived a three-setter for the second time in three days when he dropped the first set against Ryan Harrison of the US, before bouncing back to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Frenchman Benoit Paire, who beat former world No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain in the first round, continued his giant-killing run, beating fourth-seed Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina 5-7, 6-2, 6-2.
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