Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and her partner, Janette Husarova of Slovakia, cruised into the quarter-finals of the doubles competition at the WTA Southern California Open on Monday with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic and Austria’s Tamira Paszek.
Chan and Husarova won seven of 11 break-point chances as their opponents served up 10 double faults to set up a quarter-final with top seeds Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Kvete Peschke of the Czech Republic.
In the singles, Australian fifth seed Samantha Stosur, coming off a shock first-round loss last week, defeated Varvara Lepchenko of the US 7-5, 6-1.
Photo: AFP
Stosur, the 2011 US Open champion, fell behind 3-1 in the opening set, before rallying to capture it in 57 minutes and cruise to victory in her opener at the WTA Tour hard-court event.
“I got off to a little bit of a slow start, losing my first two service games. That isn’t how you want to start matches, but if you start poorly then end well, that’s all that matters,” Stosur said. “I got through that little rough patch at the start and then found my groove a little bit more.”
Stosur had been planning to take the week off and return to her Florida training camp ahead of tournaments the following two weeks in Toronto and Cincinnati, but her crash out at Stanford last week forced a change of plan.
“After not doing as well as I wanted last week, I thought coming here would be a pretty good opportunity to play those matches, and try and build on something a little bit,” she said. “No matter how bad or good you play, if you win you always feel better. Last week was pretty disappointing. To come here and win today in a nicer feeling.”
In other opening singles matches, two-time Grand Slam singles champion Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia was ousted by France’s Virginie Razzano 6-2, 6-4, while 2010 French Open winner Francesca Schiavone beat fellow Italian Flavia Pennetta 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (6/8), 6-4.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was