Taiwan’s Chuang Chia-jung won a Taiwanese showdown in the doubles final at the Zhonghong Jiangxi International Women’s Open in China yesterday, defeating fellow Taiwanese Chan Chin-wei.
Chuang and her partner, Junri Namigata of Japan, edged Chan and her partner, Xu Yi-fan of China, 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 at the WTA Tour 125K event in Nanchang.
Chuang and Namigata defied the odds by saving seven of eight break-point chances and converting two of 11 to defeat the No. 3 seeds in 1 hour, 34 minutes.
Chuang and Namigata claimed the crucial second break in the sixth game of second set and then defended their serve to lift the title.
SINGLES FINAL
In the singles final, top seed Peng Shuai defeated fellow Chinese Liu Fangzhou 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.
Peng, who has 16 WTA Tour doubles titles, claimed her first WTA Tour singles title in 2 hours, 3 minutes.
BAKU CUP
Elina Svitolina defeated Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski — ranked 40th in the WTA — to defend her Baku Cup title, the second WTA Tour title of the Ukrainian teenager’s career.
Svitolina, ranked 37th in the world, came out firing, winning the first set in just 22 minutes, but things got tougher for the No. 2 seed in the second, which went to a tiebreak.
Svitolina grabbed a 4-0 lead in the tiebreak and never looked back, beating the fifth seed on her first match point, 6-1, 7-6 (7/2).
DOUBLES
In the doubles, Alexandra Panova of Russia and Heather Watson of Britain upset third-seeded Raluca Olaru of Romania and Shahar Peer of Israel 6-2, 7-6 (7/3).
It was Panova and Watson’s first title together. Panova has four WTA Tour doubles titles, while Watson has three.
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
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB