Taiwan’s No.13 seed Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the quarter-finals of the Aegon Classic grass-court tournament on Thursday by defeating Melinda Czink of Hungary 6-1, 6-2 in the third round.
Hsieh was scheduled to face eighth-seeded Ekatarina Makarova of Russia in a quarter-final match yesterday in the rain-stricken tournament.
China’s Zheng Jie also reached the quarter-finals on Thursday, but admitted she almost missed the event after forgetting to enter.
Zheng clinched a 6-4, 6-1 win over Andrea Hlavackova of the Czech Republic, having had to play the qualifying rounds last weekend despite her ranking of 32, trumping some main draw players who stand at 120 in the world.
“I had to enter six weeks before, and at the time I was practicing in China and forgot. I wanted to come here anyway though, even if it meant playing in the qualifying. Before Wimbledon it’s only two weeks of grass-court tournaments,” Zheng said.
COMFORTABLE
Zheng, who became China’s first Grand Slam semi-finalist at Wimbledon in 2008, once again showed her comfort on grass, winning eight of the last nine games against the big-hitting Hlavackova.
“I’m so happy to be in the quarter-finals,” Zheng said. “I have played five singles matches already this week, and doubles also, so I’m a little bit tired.”
“Sometimes playing a lot of matches is good and sometimes it’s not, but I’m happy I made it through today and I just need to focus on the next match right now,” she added.
VINCI LOOMS
Zheng will next face fourth-seeded Italian Roberta Vinci, who dropped the middle set of her match against Britain’s Heather Watson, but rebounded to win 6-3, 4-6, 6-1.
Vinci is fresh off her first Grand Slam title, winning the doubles at the French Open with Sara Errani.
Zheng leads Vinci in their head-to-head series 2-1, winning their last two matches in straight sets. Yesterday’s quarter-final was their first career meeting on grass.
Also moving on were fifth seed Jelena Jankovic, Irina Falconi and Melanie Oudin.
Stephanie Foretz Gacon of France and Japan’s Misaki Doi played in the last match of the day, with Doi leading 6-4, 2-2 when play was suspended because of rain.
Additional reporting by staff reporter
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