John Isner led an exodus of seeded players at the rain-interrupted Topshelf Open when he crashed out 6-7 (3/7), 6-3, 6-4 to Evgeny Donskoy on Monday.
The third-seeded Isner was shown the exit along with No. 6 Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus, No. 7 Victor Hanescu of Romania and No. 8 Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain.
Neither Isner nor Donskoy could break serve in the opening set that Isner edged in a tiebreak, but Donskoy hit back quickly, breaking Isner’s first service game of the second set and breaking once more in the final set to book a place in the second round of the Wimbledon warm-up.
Earlier, Baghdatis was a set down to Carlos Berlocq and trailing 2-1 in the second when rain forced the players off court. The Cypriot could not use the pause to regroup and lost 6-2, 6-4.
Hanescu lost 6-4, 6-3 to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Andrey Kuznetsov beat Gimeno-Traver 7-6 (7/4), 6-3.
In the women’s event, third-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro advanced with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Johanna Larsson and Lauren Davis of the US ousted Andrea Hlavackova 6-3, 6-4.
Second-seeded Dominika Cibulkova was 2-1 up in the third set against Lourdes Dominguez Lino when play was suspended by rain. The Slovak held on to take the final set to advance 6-1, 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (7/3).
Defending champion and losing Roland Garros finalist David Ferrer was to open his campaign yesterday against Xavier Malisse and 2011 women’s tournament winner Roberta Vinci was to take on Kaia Kanepi.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set