Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei crashed out of the Pattaya Open in the first round on Tuesday.
Slovenia’s Tadeja Majeric ousted the Taiwanese 6-2, 7-6 (7/4) to set up a second-round meeting with Japan’s 43-year-old Kimiko Date-Krumm, who defeated sixth seed Garbiqe Muguruza of Spain 6-7 (2/7), 7-5, 7-6 (8/6).
Hsieh’s service let her down in the Thai resort as she produced four double faults and won only 58 percent of points on her first serve a day after she exited the doubles along with her sister Hsieh Shu-ying.
Also in the first round on Tuesday, two-time champion Vera Zvonareva claimed the first victory of her comeback following an 18-month absence from the game due to illness and injury.
The Russian won 6-3, 6-2 over the tenacious Peangtan Plipuech of Thailand, who saved 14 of 19 break points she faced and engaged Zvonareva in some lengthy rallies to stretch the match to 1 hour, 42 minutes.
Both top seed Sabine Lisicki of Germany and second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia withdrew with injury, while there were victories for Romanian third seed Sorana Cirstea as well as Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina of Russia.
Zvonareva, who has been out of the game due to an upper respiratory illness and a right-shoulder injury, was playing only her third event since Wimbledon 2012.
Earlier this month the 29-year-old Russian, who required surgery on her shoulder, lost her first-round matches in Shenzhen and at the Australian Open, so her win in Pattaya came as a relief.
“I’m just so happy... I haven’t expected anything from myself. I just wanted to go out and try to focus, try to fight for every ball,” Zvonareva said. “After such a long time it is very difficult, not game-wise, but mentally, to stay focused for a long period of time.”
Zvonareva continues to wear strapping on her shoulder and admitted that the injury is still at the back of her mind.
“I wouldn’t say I’m worried, but I’m hesitating a little bit on certain shots,” she said. “It’s still a little bit mental obviously, after you have surgery. I know I will never have the same shoulder I had before, so I’ll just have to get used to that feeling.”
Lisicki had struggled in her first-round match on Monday, taking two hours to overcome Croatia’s Donna Vekic in three sets, and admitted after the match that it had been almost impossible for her to serve effectively.
“It was pretty obvious I wasn’t able to serve in the second and third sets,” Lisicki said on Tuesday. “I tried everything and won the match yesterday, and was hoping it could get better overnight, but unfortunately it didn’t. Now the first plan is for me to get healthy again. I will see my doctors at home and make plans from there.”
Kuznetsova also later withdrew, citing a left-hip injury.
“I would like to play more, but my injury got worse last night. I have to protect my body and to recover as soon as possible,” Kuznetsova said.
OPEN GDF SUEZ
AP, PARIS
Daniela Hantuchova faces top seed Maria Sharapova in the second round of the Open GDF Suez after beating Marina Erakovic on Tuesday.
Hantuchova was leading 6-3, 3-0 and looked headed for a straight-sets victory when Erakovic retired with a lower-back injury.
Sharapova leads Hantuchova 8-1 in their head-to-heads, with the Slovak’s only win against the four-time Grand Slam champion coming when they first played 10 years ago.
Seventh seed Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain is also through to the second round after winning 6-1, 6-4 against qualifier Johanna Larsson of Sweden and she next plays Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia.
In other first-round matches, Frenchwoman Alize Cornet, Yvonne Meusburger of Austria, Karin Knapp of Italy and Germany’s Andrea Petkovic all advanced.
Cornet labored past Magdalena Rybarikova of Serbia 6-3, 5-7, 6-2, while Meusburger beat Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany 7-5, 6-1.
Cornet closed out the first set on serve after breaking Rybarikova twice. The Serb struggled on her serve in the second set, but Cornet missed chances to break her midway through the set and then twice dropped her own serve.
At 6-5, Rybarikova broke Cornet again to level the match, but Cornet then broke twice at the start of the third set to regain control.
Knapp advanced 6-4, 6-1 against Spain’s Lara Arruabarrena and Petkovic won 6-2, 6-3 against Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia.
Knapp next faces third seed Sara Errani and Petkovic plays either No. 5 Simona Halep of Romania or Kristina Mladenovic of France.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite