World No. 5 Petra Kvitova suffered her second early exit in just over a week yesterday as she crashed out of the second round of the China Open at the hands of Carla Suarez Navarro.
Last year’s Wimbledon champion lost 6-3, 6-2 to the Spanish player ranked 46th in the world after also being humiliated in straight sets by Croatia’s Petra Martic at the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.
The fourth seed from the Czech Republic had received a first-round bye in Japan, before losing to Martic, then 73rd in the standings, and her poor form in Asia continued in Beijing, largely due to erratic serving.
Photo: AFP
Kvitova, who has yet to confirm her spot at the season-ending WTA Championships in Istanbul, Turkey, featuring the year’s top eight players, hit five double faults in the match, while her opponent did not make any.
Also yesterday, world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka progressed to the second round with ease, thrashing Alize Cornet of France 6-1, 6-0, while second-ranked Maria Sharapova came through 7-5, 7-5 against Romania’s Simona Halep.
“I put myself in a good position in both of those sets, being up a break, and I let her back in the match a couple of times,” Sharapova said.
Photo: AFP
“That’s certainly not the best thing, I’m not exactly proud of it, but the good thing was I was able to regain my focus and win that match. I’m happy to be through,” she said.
Former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki, who won her first title in more than a year in Seoul last month, maintained her recent good form with a 7-5, 6-7 (6/8), 6-2 victory over Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa.
In the men’s singles, last year’s losing finalist Marin Cilic suffered a shock first-round defeat to wild-card Marius Copil, ranked more than 200 places below him in the world.
The fourth-seeded Croat took the first set 6-3 and looked to be coasting, but the Romanian world No. 221 fought back with a number of big serves to take the second on a tiebreak, 7-6 (7/0), and the third 6-4.
“I wasn’t serving consistently well. When I had the break up in all three sets I would lose my serve,” Cilic said.
The world No. 15 lost to Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic in last year’s final and was hoping to go one better this year.
“I’m very disappointed as I always feel here may be the best of the year and the conditions would suit my game almost perfectly,” Cilic added.
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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