Reigning Guangzhou Open champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan failed to make the quarter-finals at this year’s event, crashing out yesterday to her unseeded opponent.
Sixth-seeded Hsieh lost her second-round match against China’s Zhang Shuai 6-2, 6-2 in little over 1 hour, 15 minutes.
Hsieh’s disappointing exit follows a golden year for the world No. 42, who was crowned women’s doubles Wimbledon champion earlier this year.
She remains in the doubles competition in Guangzhou, where she is the top seed with her partner, China’s Peng Shuai.
Meanwhile, France’s Alize Cornet beat Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic in her second-round match after an early scare.
The number two seed was taken to a tie-break in the first set, but won it 7/4 before dominating the second set and taking it to love.
Cornet will play Yvonne Meusburger next following the Austrian’s 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Serbia’s Vesna Dolonc.
Also through to the quarter-finals are China’s Zheng Jie, who claimed victory over Hungary’s Timea Babos 7-5, 7-6 (7/1), and Vania King of the US, who won her clash with Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski 6-4, 0-6, 6-4.
Eighth seed Monica Puig overcame Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-2.
British No. 1 Laura Robson and her compatriot Johanna Konta were in action in the evening session last night.
Both were to face Chinese opposition, with Robson meeting Zheng Saisai and Konta playing Peng Shuai for a place in the quarter-finals.
KOREA OPEN
AP, SEOUL, South Korea
Already a two-time winner this year, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia reached the Korea Open quarter-finals by beating wild-card Lee Ye-ra of South Korea 6-4, 6-1 yesterday.
Pavlyuchenkova, who won her fourth and fifth career titles in April in Monterrey and Estoril, will line up against Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania, who defeated sixth-seeded Julia Goerges of Germany 6-4, 6-0.
The eighth-seeded Annika Beck of Germany also fell, to Vera Dushevina of Russia 6-3, 7-5.
Also through were Lara Arruabarrena of Spain, into her first quarter-finals since February, and Francesca Schiavone of Italy, who last made the last eight on Birmingham grass in June.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later