Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond, the recently reunited US duo whose nine WTA Tour doubles titles include the 2011 US Open and the WTA Championships, defeated Taiwanese sisters Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan 6-2, 6-2 on Tuesday at the Internazionali d’Italia in Rome.
The US pair saved three of four break-point chances and converted five of nine to complete their first-round victory in 56 minutes at the Foro Italico. They next face eighth-seeded German duo Julia Goerges and Anna-Lena Groenefeld in the second round.
In Tuesday’s biggest women’s doubles match, fifth seeds Cara Black of Zimbabwe and India’s Sania Mirza battled past Switzerland’s Martina Hingis and Sabine Lisicki of Germany.
Black, a two-time doubles winner in Rome, and Mirza are second on the Road to Singapore leaderboard, while Hingis, a former singles and doubles champion in Rome, and Lisicki earned most of the points that have put them in 10th place on the leaderboard by capturing the doubles title in Miami, where they defeated Black and Mirza in straight sets in the semi-finals.
Down 8-7 in the super tiebreak, Black and Mirza won three straight points to pull out a 6-4, 2-6, 10-8 triumph. With a 16-4 record this season, the duo next face Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova and Mirjana Lucic-Baroni of Croatia in the second round.
Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic and Alisa Kleybanova of Russia rallied from a 5-3 first-set deficit and a 4-2 second-set deficit to beat Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova and Samantha Stosur of Australia 7-5, 6-4.
Also advancing on Tuesday were Spain’s Anabel Medina Garrigues and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan, eighth on the Road to Singapore leaderboard, who defeated Russia’s Vitalia Diatchenko and Oksana Kalashnikova of Georgia 6-2, 5-7, 10-4.
They next face joint world No. 1s and top seeds Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan and China’s Peng Shuai, who received a bye into the second round.
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