China’s Wu Di is ranked No. 495 in the tennis world and rarely impresses in Challenger and Futures tournaments. However, if his ranking were strictly determined by his Davis Cup performances against Taiwan, he would easily be in the top 100.
For the second straight year, Wu has won two singles matches, including the deciding fifth point yesterday, in a Davis Cup tie against Taiwan to lead China to a 3-2 victory in their Asia Oceania Group I playoff.
The loss means Taiwan will face a relegation battle for the right to stay in Group I later this year, against the loser of another playoff between India and New Zealand, while China’s Davis Cup campaign for the year has ended, having preserved their spot in Group I for next year.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
Taiwan entered yesterday trailing 2-1 in the best-of-five tie after splitting Friday’s singles and losing Saturday’s doubles at the Yangming Tennis Courts in Greater Kaoshiung, hoping to sweep the day’s two singles to give them victory.
World No. 178 Yang Tsung-hua, who lost a heartbreaking five-setter to Wu on Friday after cramping up late in the final set, evened the tie at 2-2 with a 6-3, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 triumph over China’s top player, Zhang Ze.
With world No. 189 Jimmy Wang set to play the deciding match against Wu in front of a home crowd, Taiwan’s chances suddenly looked promising. Wang defeated Zhang in four sets on Friday and he has always been a money player for Taiwan in Davis Cup play, winning all three of the decisive fifth matches he has played (twice against China and once against Japan).
Photo: AFP
However, Wu had other ideas, topping Wang 6-4, 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/4) to clinch the tie for his country. In a first-round Davis Cup tie in Shanghai last year in which Taiwan had been heavily favored, Wu played the match of his life, saving a match point and defeating Taiwan’s top player Lu Yen-hsun in five sets, and knocking off Yang in four sets in the final match of a 3-2 playoff win.
Lu has not played in the Davis Cup this year because he is chasing ranking points in a bid to qualify for the men’s singles event at the London Olympics this summer.
Taiwan were forced into a playoff battle against China in the relegation round after losing to South Korea 4-1 in February.
Meanwhile, Australia gave themselves a chance of regaining a place in the World Group when they routed South Korea 5-0 in their Asia Oceania Group I second-round tie yesterday.
World No. 36 Bernard Tomic and Marinko Matosevic completed the clean sweep over South Korea when they won their reverse singles matches at the Queensland Tennis Centre.
Tomic brushed aside Davis Cup debutant Na Jung-woong 6-2, 6-1 in less than an hour after Matosevic had outlasted Cho Min-hyeok 6-2, 2-6, 6-0.
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
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite