Taiwanese sisters Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan crashed out of the first round of the doubles at the Western & Southern Open on Tuesday.
The Taiwanese duo saved four of eight break-point chances, but only converted one of three to slump to 6-4, 6-3 loss to eighth seeds Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia and Anastasia Rodionova of Australia in 1 hour, 5 minutes.
Kudryavtseva and Rodionova face the winners of the first-round clash between Australia’s Samantha Stosur and Zhang Shuai of China and Marina Erakovic of New Zealand and Spain’s Arantxa Parra Santonja in the second round.
Photo: AFP
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and her partner, Peng Shuai of China, who received a bye into the second round as the No. 2 seeds, face Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia and Lucie Safa of the Czech Republic after the Russian-Czech pairing defeated Martina Hingis of Switzerland and Flavia Pennetta of Italy 7-6 (10/8), 1-6, 10-6 in their first-round clash.
In the men’s singles, world No. 1 Novak Djokovic rallied to beat Gilles Simon of France 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in his opening match on Tuesday.
The Cincinnati tournament is the only Masters series event Djokovic has never won, finishing as the runner-up four times. If he wins this week, he will become the first player with titles at all nine ATP Masters events.
First, he had to get past Simon.
He had trouble putting away the Frenchman, whom he has now beaten eight straight times. The opening game of the third set went 20 points and 15 minutes, with Simon surviving six break points.
Djokovic finally broke through for a 4-3 lead and served out the 2 hour, 9 minute match.
The last set alone took 59 minutes and Djokovic committed 36 unforced errors in the breezy evening conditions.
“Let’s be honest: I don’t enjoy playing bad,” Djokovic said. “I don’t enjoy missing a lot of balls from the baseline. That was frustrating for me. I’m not playing at a level that I need to be and it’s obvious. I keep pushing myself.”
The women’s singles lost the defending champion on Tuesday when Victoria Azarenka withdrew because of an injured right knee. Defending men’s champion Rafael Nadal withdrew before the tournament because of an injured wrist.
While Djokovic managed to advance despite his struggles, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Venus Williams made quick exits after leaving their winning touch in Canada.
Two days after he beat Roger Federer for his second Masters title in Toronto, Frenchman Tsonga lost to Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny 6-1, 6-4.
“I don’t have the energy to compete,” Tsonga said after the match. “I just gave everything last week. Before the match, I believed I was able to play at a good level, but on court I realized that was going to be impossible, and it was.”
Venus beat sister Serena while reaching the finals in Montreal on Sunday, finishing runner-up. She lost to Lucie Safarova 6-7 (2/7), 6-3, 6-4 in the first round on Tuesday.
“I wish I could have felt today like I did in Montreal, just to make it more competitive,” Venus said.
Venus and Tsonga had energizing weeks in Canada and hoped to keep their momentum going in Cincinnati, using it as a springboard to the US Open. Both soon realized their successful weeks came at a cost.
Venus arrived on Sunday night and opened Tuesday morning, leaving little time to recover from her deep tournament run.
“Yeah, it was definitely a quick turnaround,” Venus said. “Maybe it would have been a little better to play a little later in the day, but I think she just played so well. No matter what shot I hit, she hit a winner.”
Tsonga beat Djokovic, Andy Murray, Grigor Dimitrov and Federer to win in Toronto, the first time in 12 years a player beat four straight top 10 opponents at a Masters tournament. He arrived in Cincinnati on Monday and could not practice because of rain. He plans to rest for a few days.
“I didn’t have enough today to compete at a good level,” Tsonga said.
In the women’s singles, fifth seed Maria Sharapova broke Madison Keys of the US to go up 3-0 in the final set and held on for a 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 win that was gratifying. The Russian was coming off a loss in the third round in Montreal.
“I didn’t have a great week last week,” Sharapova said. “No matter who is across the net, it’s never easy going out in the first round because you want to change that result around.”
Azarenka’s withdrawal is the latest setback in her season full of injuries. She has been sidelined for much of the year with an ailing left foot. She aggravated an injury to her right knee in Montreal, where she lost in the quarter-finals, and hoped a few days of rest would take care of it.
“I started to feel a little bit better and did everything I could, but it’s just not enough time for me to feel good to play a full match,” Azarenka said.
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