Defending champion Rui da Costa of Portugal boosted his hopes of retaining his Tour de Suisse title as he powered to victory on a grueling seventh stage to close the gap on overall leader Mathias Frank to 13 seconds.
Da Costa was in a leading group of three riders alongside Dutchman Bauke Mollema and the US’ Tejay van Garderen entering the final stages, but the pair were unable to match the Portuguese as he sprinted across the line.
“Our goal today was taking some seconds off the riders ahead of us in the overall [standings] and we didn’t just do that, we also won the stage,” Da Costa said.
“I am super happy, although it was shame about the banner,” the Movistar rider added, referring to a distance marker that fell onto the road just prior to the finish and briefly delayed the leaders.
“We lost about 10 seconds there which could be decisive, but the important thing is that I showed that I am in good form for [the concluding individual time-trial on] Sunday,” he said.
Mollema edged Van Garderen to second, with Frenchman Thibaut Pinot, who took the points at the summit of the HC Albula Pass, dropped as the quartet tackled the final descent.
The 206km route from Meilen to La Punt featured four rated climbs, including a brutal 30km climb of the Albula Pass that peaked at 2,315m just inside the final 10km. Switzerland’s Frank came in ninth at 22 seconds, having been left behind by BMC teammate Van Garderen on the climb up the Albula, but remains in yellow, with Da Costa breathing down his neck ahead of yesterday’s eighth stage, a hilly 180.5km route from Zernez to Bad Ragaz.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with