Poland’s world No. 4 Agnieszka Radwanska breezed past Spaniard Larra Arruabarrena 6-0, 6-2 in the semi-finals of the Korea Open yesterday to set up a title clash with Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Pavlyuchenkova, seeded third, had a tough outing against former French Open champion Francesca Schiavone of Italy, but eventually prevailed in the other semi-final.
In a match that could have gone either way and saw only two breaks in 24 service games, the Russian third seed dug deep against the spirited Italian to win 7-6 (13/11), 7-6 (8/6).
Photo: EPA
She had to save three set points in the first set tie-break and battled back from 3-0 down in the second set breaker to close it out.
Top-seeded Radwanska continued her good form on her Seoul debut, having dropped just 11 games in four matches, and only needed 64 minutes to thrash the Spaniard, ranked 113 in the world.
“It was definitely a very good match. I was playing really good tennis,” Radwanska said, after reaching her fourth final of the year.
“It was really hot out there, but I played my 100 percent throughout the match, so that’s why it was two quick sets,” she said.
In the semi-finals of the women’s doubles Taiwan’s Chan Chin-wei Chan and Xu Yi-fan of China continued their impressive run by defeating third seeds Shuko Aoyama of Japan and Megan Moulton-Levy of the US 7-5, 6-1. The Taiwanese/Chinese duo will face top seeds Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears of the US in today’s final.
Additional reporting by staff writer
GUANGZHOU OPEN
Reuters
China’s wild-card entrant Zhang Shuai won her maiden WTA Tour singles title with a 7-6 (7/1) 6-1 victory over Taiwanese-American qualifier Vania King in the Guangzhou Open final yesterday.
Playing in her first singles final, the 112th-ranked Zhang continued her run of straight-set victories to win the US$500,000 hard-court tournament in front of a delighted home crowd.
After an evenly matched first set, Zhang ran through the second, winning 16 of the last 17 points against the 124th-ranked King.
Zhang became the fifth Chinese player to win a WTA title after Li Na, Zheng Jie, Yan Zi and Sun Tiantian.
In the doubles final top seeds Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan and Peng Shuai of China defeated King and Kazakshtan’s Galina Voskoboeva, the No. 3 seeds, 6-3, 4-6, 12-10.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Jobe Bellingham on Tuesday admitted to having “anxieties” on following in brother Jude’s footsteps after joining Borussia Dortmund in the summer. Jobe Bellingham, 19, is two years younger than Jude Bellingham, who joined Real Madrid in 2023 after three years at Dortmund. A centerpiece of the England national team, Jude Bellingham has emerged as one of the best players in the world in recent seasons. The younger Jobe Bellingham joined Dortmund in June from Sunderland after their promotion to the English Premier League. He admitted he understood what the perception would be ahead of the move to Germany. “It’s something you do think about.
Before Tuesday’s 7-2 win at the Atlanta Braves, Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy suggested “most people couldn’t tell you five players on our team.” A look at the standings would indicate more Brewers players soon will be recognized by more fans. After all, it is difficult to overlook a team that not only continues to extend their lead in the National League Central, but also boasts the best record in the majors. “What we’re doing in here right now is special,” right-handed pitcher Freddy Peralta said after allowing only four hits and one run in five innings, while setting a career high with
A baseball team from New Taipei City won the US Pony Palomino Division World Series yesterday in Laredo, Texas, defeating the US West representative team from Azusa, California, 2-1. Ku-Pao Home Economics and Commercial High School earned the right to represent Taiwan in the Pony Palomino (17 to 18 age group) World Series after winning this year's Wang Chen-chih Cup, a competition named after Taiwanese-Japanese baseball legend Wang Chen-chih (王貞治), also known as Sadaharu Oh. In the championship game against Azusa, Ku-Pao's starting pitcher Luo Yu-yan (羅于晏) was erratic early, giving up two hits in the bottom of the first inning, followed
NEXT ROUND: World No. 1s Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka opened their title defenses with straight-sets wins, while Iga Swiatek and Taylor Fritz also advanced Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka got their title defenses off to smooth starts as they powered into the third round of the ATP-WTA Cincinnati Open on Saturday. The men’s and women’s top seeds, each ranked No. 1 in the world, were both competing for the first time since Wimbledon, where Sinner lifted the title and Sabalenka bowed out in the women’s semi-finals. Sinner crushed Colombian Daniel Elahi Galan 6-1, 6-1 in steamy afternoon weather, while Sabalenka beat 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova 7-5, 6-1 under the lights of the night session. Sabalenka needed 54 minutes and a service break in the final game
RSS