Andy Murray had a shaky start to his preparations for next year’s season on Thursday, losing in straight sets to Janko Tipsarevic in the opening match of the World Tennis Championship exhibition tournament.
Two early breaks in each set helped Tipsarevic dispatch the third-ranked Murray 6-3, 6-4.
The ninth-ranked Serb now faces Nicolas Almagro, a late replacement for Rafael Nadal who pulled out of the tournament with a stomach bug.
Photo: AFP
“It’s not every day that you get to play a Grand Slam champion and an Olympic gold medalist,” Tipsarevic said. “I know it’s an early season tournament, but I can tell you that the six of us take this very seriously.”
“I knew I could beat Andy as I have beaten him before. He’s a totally different animal now as he won a Grand Slam and Olympic gold so beating him here has given me confidence. Both of us have very similar games so it’s great to come out on top,” he added.
In Thursday’s other match, fifth-ranked David Ferrer swept aside No. 6 Tomas Berdych 6-2, 6-4 to set up a semi-final against top-ranked Novak Djokovic, who won the tournament last year. Ferrer easily won the first set after jumping out to a 5-0 lead and broke Berdych early in the second to clinch the win.
“I played well today and I was surprised as it has been a long time without playing a competition,” Ferrer said. “It’s a fast court and this was the first time I played at night but I played a good game. I will enjoy a victory for now, but tomorrow I will have to play my best against Novak.”
Ahead of his title defense in Abu Dhabi, Djokovic said he was excited about next year’s season and that he’s making the French Open — the only Grand Slam tournament he has yet to win — his top goal of the year.
“I managed to have the best year of my career in 2011 and I knew that it was going to be difficult in 2012 to maintain No. 1 in the world and play consistently,” Djokovic said. “I did, and so this year was an even more successful year from a psychological aspect. Ambitions are always high and I want to win every Grand Slam and major tournament I play and this year is no different.”
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