Kazakhstan’s Zarina Diyas pulled off the shock of the tournament so far by beating top seed Peng Shuai of China 6-2, 6-2 at the Taipei WTA Ladies Open yesterday.
Diyas, the world No. 348, hit the ball confidently and served powerfully to sweep to victory in the first-round clash in only 1 hour, 2 minutes.
“Today I served really good, so my serve was a big weapon. Also I tried to move her a lot,” the 19-year-old said. “I just played my game, stepped into her returns, also to her serve.”
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Diyas raced through the opening set, which she claimed when Peng sent a return long off a blistering serve. The Kazakhstani then broke her opponent’s serve in the first game of the second set and the writing was on the wall for Peng when she dropped her serve again in the seventh game.
Diyas, whose ambition is to be world No. 1, wasted no time in wrapping things up in the next game to claim probably her best win since she defeated former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic two years ago.
Diyas is one of a growing number of prominent female players from Kazakhstan, although most, like Russian-born world No. 25 Yaroslava Shvedova, are recently naturalized.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
“Tennis in Kazakhstan is really going up, we have good facilities now, it’s getting really big,” Diyas said.
Peng acknowledged that her opponent had played well, but admitted that a shoulder problem had troubled her, especially when serving. She added that she had probably returned from injury too soon to play in Taipei.
“I really wanted to play in this tournament, as I have friends here, and I love the shopping and food,” Peng said, admitting she had a weakness for stinky tofu.
She also revealed that she was looking forward to playing doubles next year with Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei, a long-time friend.
Meanwhile, defending champion Ayumi Morita won her second-round clash against Paula Kania of Poland 6-2, 6-2, but required treatment on a knee injury during the match.
Despite heavy strapping on her right knee, Morita seemed to be cruising to victory at 4-1 up in the second set when she called for the trainer. There was a lengthy delay as she received treatment and when play resumed Morita immediately dropped her serve.
There were no further alarms, though, and the 22-year-old ended the contest in style with an ace on her first match point.
Morita said the injury had restricted her performance because she was scared of aggravating the problem, but was pleased with the way things went overall.
“I think I was serving well, returning well, so I’m very happy with the way I played today,” she said.
Morita hurt her knee during a practice session and the exact nature of the problem is not yet clear.
“I don’t have a match tomorrow, so I will get treatment and try my best,” she said.
Taiwan’s Chang Kai-chen plays Caroline Garcia today following her hard-fought victory against Luksika Kumkhum of Thailand on Tuesday night. Chang won 7-6 (7/5), 5-7, 6-2 to earn the right to face the promising 19-year-old from France, who gave Maria Sharapova a scare in last year’s French Open, before losing in three sets.
In other first-round matches Garcia beat Australia’s Monique Adamczak 6-3, 6-2 and Russia’s Irina Khromacheva defeated Alexa Glatch of the US 7-6 (8/6), 6-3.
In the second round, Japan’s Kurumi Nara beat Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand 6-3, 0-6, 6-4; Kristina Mladenovic of France defeated Thailand’s Nudnida Luangnam 6-1, 6-7 (6/8), 6-2; and Japan’s Kimiko Date-Krumm cruised past Ling Zhang of Hong Kong 6-1, 6-2.
FRUSTRATION: Alcaraz made several unforced errors over four sets against Bosnian Damir Dzumhur, who had never made it past the third round in a major competition Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz reached the fourth round of the French Open after laboring past Damir Dzumhur 6-1, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in the Friday night session. The second-seeded Spaniard had never before played Dzumhur, a 33-year-old Bosnian who had never been past the third round at any major tournament. “I suffered quite a lot today,” Alcaraz said. “The first two sets was under control, then he started to play more deeply and more aggressively. It was really difficult for me.” Dzumhur hurt his left knee in a fall in the second round, and had treatment on Friday on his right leg during the
‘DREAM’: The 5-0 victory was PSG’s first Champions League title, and the biggest final win by any team in the 70-year history of the top-flight European competition Paris Saint-Germain won the Champions League for the first time as Luis Enrique’s brilliant young side outclassed Inter on Saturday in the most one-sided final ever with teenager Desire Doue scoring twice in an astonishing 5-0 victory. Doue supplied the pass for Achraf Hakimi to give PSG an early lead and the 19-year-old went from provider to finisher as his deflected shot doubled the advantage in the 20th minute. Doue scored again just after the hour mark, ending any doubt about the outcome before Khvicha Kvaratskhelia ran away to get the fourth and substitute Senny Mayulu, another teenager, made it five. Inter were
The Greek basketball league finals between Panathinaikos and Olympiakos were suspended by the government on Monday following on-court scuffles involving rival security teams. The best-of-five series is at 1-1. The third game, scheduled for today, has been postponed. The owners of both clubs were summoned to meet with the country’s sports minister. They “will be asked to provide explicit guarantees that this situation will be brought to an end. If not, this year’s championship will be definitively canceled,” government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said. “There can be no tolerance for such pathological phenomena of violence and delinquency.” In online posts, the owners of Panathinaikos and
The Edmonton Oilers on Thursday defeated the Dallas Stars 6-3 to book their place in the Stanley Cup Finals, setting up a repeat of last year’s NHL showpiece against reigning champions the Florida Panthers. The Oilers, bidding to become the first Canadian team to win the NHL’s championship series since the 1993 Montreal Canadiens, head to Florida for Game 1 of the best-of-seven series set for Wednesday. Florida, who are to play in the NHL showpiece for the third straight season, won last year’s title 4-3 to extend Canada’s decades-long Stanley Cup drought. Connor McDavid led Edmonton back to the championship series on
RSS