Taiwan’s Chang Kai-chen advanced to the second round of the Japan Open by beating Christina McHale of the US 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) yesterday.
Chang had two aces and converted five of 12 break points at the Utsubo Tennis Center in Osaka, Japan.
Also in the first round yesterday, Samantha Stosur of Australia advanced by beating Erika Sema of Japan 6-4, 6-2, while Jamie Hampton of the US defeated Ayumi Morita of Japan 6-3, 6-2.
Stosur, who won the tournament in Osaka in 2009, had five aces and converted five of six break points.
The world No. 9 reached the semi-finals of the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo earlier this month and is seeking her first title of the year.
France’s Pauline Parmentier, Casey Dellacqua of Australia, Britain’s Heather Watson and Misaki Doi of Japan also advanced to the second round.
VICTORIA AZARENKA
AFP, BEIJING
World No. 1 Victoria Azarenka warned she was planning to finish the season with a flourish after ending a seven-month win drought at the China Open on Sunday.
“I have two more tournaments to play. It’s going to be about 10 more matches, so I’m looking forward to maximizing that potential in all of them,” Azarenka said. “It’s just going to be the last two pushes. I’m actually really happy that in the end of the year I am still able to have that determination I had in the beginning of the year, and the desire to go out there and win, and show my best tennis, to progress throughout difficult times physically and mentally.”
Azarenka next plays an indoor event in Linz this week as she prepares for the WTA Championships season finale, involving only the world’s top eight players, in Istanbul, Turkey, later this month.
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
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
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier