All three Taiwanese crashed out of the Rogers Cup on Saturday in the semi-finals of the doubles in Montreal.
Second seeds Hsieh Su-wei and Peng Shuai of China lost a thriller to fourth seeds Cara Black of Zimbabwe and Sania Mirza of India.
Hsieh and Peng squandered a set point in the first set to eventually lose in the tiebreaker, but they rallied to take the second.
In the super tiebreak, Black and Mirza grabbed a comfortable 9-6 lead, but Hsieh and Peng rallied and had match point at 11-10.
However, from there Black and Mirza won three straight points, closing out a 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 13-11 victory on their fifth match point in 1 hour, 50 minutes.
Black and Mirza’s victory ended a three-match losing streak against the cross-strait pairing and set up a final against top-seeded Italian duo Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci, who also exacted a measure of revenge over Taiwanese sisters Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan.
The Italians lost their only previous encounter with the Taiwanese sisters in the Aegon International semi-finals in Eastbourne, England, in June, their last defeat before going on to win Wimbledon, but on Saturday, Errani and Vinci reeled off nine straight games from 5-4 down in the first set for a 7-5, 6-0 triumph.
The Chan sisters saved six of 12 break-point chances, but they only converted two of six, to lose in 1 hour, 11 minutes.
Errani and Vinci haved played Black and Mirza four times this year, losing the first clash, before winning the next three, including the Porsche Grand Prix final in Stuttgart, Germany.
Errani and Vinci have a 20-12 career record in WTA Tour doubles finals, while Black and Mirza are 3-2.
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