Fourth seed Maria Sharapova rallied for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 second-round win over Spain’s Garbine Muguruza, while Serena Williams destroyed formerUS Open champion Samantha Stosur as order and power was restored to the Rogers Cup in Montreal on Wednesday.
A day after the tournament was left without power and its main attraction when Canada’s Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard suffered a surprise opening-match loss, the event enjoyed a return to normalcy as the electricity was back on and Sharapova advanced.
World No. 1 Williams, just days after bagging her fourth title of the year at Stanford, then joined her with a 6-0, 6-2 thrashing of 2011 Flushing Meadows champion Stosur in a touch under an hour.
Photo: AFP
“It’s been a few weeks since I’ve been in that competitive atmosphere,” said Sharapova, who has not played since her fourth-round loss at Wimbledon. “It’s always quite different, no matter how much you train, you try to prepare for that. Once you step on the court, you feel a little bit more from the crowd, the energy. You get inspired by everything. But you’re ultimately a bit rusty.”
The French Open champion was far from sharp in her return as the promising young Spaniard took advantage of several errors by the Russian to grab the opening set.
However, Sharapova, a three-time winner this season, was able to convert on the big points to stay on track for a first ever title on the Canadian hard courts.
Photo: USA Today
“I didn’t feel good, I made a lot of errors in the first set,” Sharapova said. “When you’re able to finish stronger than your start, that’s always a positive because you give yourself an opportunity to keep playing in the tournament. When you’re in that position, there’s always another chance to work in another match to improve and get better.”
Sixth-seeded German Angelique Kerber, who has four runner-up finishes this season, had no trouble beating Caroline Garcia easing past her 6-4, 6-1. Kerber has had a solid start to her North American hard court campaign after reaching the final in Stanford last week, but in four visits to Canada, has never advanced past the third round.
Eleventh seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, the 2010 Canadian champion, thrashed Czech Klara Koukalova 6-1, 6-2, while qualifier Heather Watson provided an early upset when the Briton shocked 10th seed and Australian Open finalist Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/5).
Ninth-seeded Ana Ivanovic was also sent packing in the second round, losing to US qualifier Coco Vandeweghe in three sets.
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
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
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier