Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and her partner, Timea Babos of Hungary, won the AEGON Classic doubles title on Sunday in Birmingham, England, edging out Lisa Raymond and Liezel Huber of the US 7-5, 6-7 (2/7), 10-8.
The unseeded duo led the first set, but gave up ground to the Americans, the top-ranked pair in the women’s doubles contest, in the second set.
However, Hsieh and Babos won a grueling final-set tiebreak when the duo scored six straight points to reverse a 4-8 deficit and snatch the title, which had a total purse of US$220,000.
The duo were scheduled to face Zheng Jie and Zhang Shuai of China in the semi-finals, but they made it into the final without having to do so after Zheng quit due to an injury suffered playing against Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic in the singles.
Yesterday, Melanie Oudin of the US defeated Jankovic in straight sets to win her first WTA Tour title in a final held over from Sunday after bad weather disrupted the schedule.
Oudin eased to a 6-4, 6-2 victory.
Oudin got an early break, but Jankovic broke back, before the American regained the initiative following a sloppy game from the Serb and she closed out the opening set, before taking a 2-0 lead in the second.
Jankovic rarely threatened a comeback as Oudin, who has received a wild card for Wimbledon, eased over the line in 1 hour, 35 minutes.
GASTEIN LADIES
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France’s Alize Cornet defeated Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium 7-5, 7-6 (7/1) on Sunday to win the Gastein Ladies for her first WTA Tour title in four years.
The seventh-seeded Cornet, who is ranked 73rd in the world, earned her second career title after winning in Budapest, Hungary, in 2008 and she is now 2-3 in WTA finals.
“I can’t believe it,” Cornet said. “This was the tournament I wanted to win this year. I can’t believe I didn’t win a title for the last four years, so now it’s all happiness.”
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