Taiwan beat Indonesia 2-0 in their Fed Cup Asia/Oceania Group I relegation playoff on Saturday at the National Tennis Center in Astana, Kazakhstan, to retain their place in the group.
Taiwan, who were playing without top players such as Hsieh Su-wei, Chan Yung-jan and Chang Kai-chen, struggled in Pool B, losing their matches against South Korea, Uzbekistan and China all by a 3-0 margin earlier in the week.
Taiwan finally got a much-needed victory when Yang Chia-hsien beat Tami Grende 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 in the opening singles rubber, before Chan Chin-wei battled to a 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-4 victory over Lavinia Tananta.
The dead doubles rubber was not played.
Indonesia were relegated to Asia/Oceania Group II following the loss and are to be replaced by Hong Kong, who won their promotion playoff 2-1 against the Philippines.
Hong Kong’s Eudice Chong defeated Anna Clarice Patrimonio of the Philippines 6-4, 6-1 in the first singles rubber, before Zhang Ling beat Marian Jade Capadocia 6-1, 6-4 to take an unassailable 2-0 lead.
In the Group I promotion playoff, Thailand defeated Uzbekistan 2-1 to advance to the World Group II playoffs in April.
In yesterday’s Fed Cup action, Australia stormed into the semi-finals for the first time in 21 years with a commanding 4-0 performance spearheaded by two Samantha Stosur wins and a comprehensive doubles display.
Stosur, the world No. 16 and 2011 US Open champion, needed exactly one hour to see off 158-ranked teenager Victoria Kan in a straight sets 6-2, 6-3 win over the 18-year-old Fed Cup debutante to secure an unassailable 3-0 lead over Russia.
“I’m very, very happy. She [Kan] can do a lot of different things, she does everything nicely and when she gets older and a little bit more strong I’m sure that will all come together,” Stosur said.
Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua sealed a clean sweep of the Russians with an emphatic 6-1, 6-3 doubles win over Irina Khromacheva and Valeria Solovyeva. Dellacqua said she and Barty had both had a “great week.”
“We are going to play a lot together. Last year, she was only a baby, but she’s 18 soon, she’s becoming an adult and we’re going to play a lot together and hopefully continue to improve on what we did last year,” Dellacqua said.
Australia last made the Fed Cup semi-finals in 1993 and they have not beaten Russia since 1983.
They will meet either Germany or Slovakia next, with the Germans currently holding a 2-0 advantage in their tie in Bratislava.
Australia team captain Alicia Molik was delighted with the result.
“The Fed Cup is always a week to get the best out of each other. The support the players give each other has been fantastic this week and I want the girls to continue like this for the rest of the year,” she said.
Australia went into yesterday’s round with a commanding 2-0 lead after Dellacqua downed Irina Khromacheva, the only one of the four Russians who has competed in the world team event before, in straight sets.
Stosur then dispatched little-known 16-year-old Veronika Kudermetova — ranked 650th in the world — 6-4, 6-0.
She had been due to meet Khromacheva yesterday, but Russia reshuffled its line-up to send top-ranked Kan in against the dominant Australian. Russia, last year’s losing finalists, are without their big names for the clash at the Domain Tennis Centre in Hobart, missing their top 13 players.
Maria Sharapova is currently in Sochi, Russia, for the Winter Olympics, while Russia’s new captain, former world No. 2 Anastasia Myskina, opted for four almost unknown players, of whom the highest-ranked was Kan.
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
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but