Taiwanese No. 1 Lu Yen-hsun crashed out of the Chennai Open quarter-finals yesterday, although he still has much to play for in India after success in the doubles on Thursday.
World No. 15 Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain proved too strong for world No. 38 Lu, defeating the Taiwanese veteran 7-6 (9/7), 6-4 in 1 hour, 48 minutes in the main stadium last night.
It was Lu’s second career defeat to the Spaniard after Bautista Agut downed the Taiwanese 6-4, 6-2 in their only other meeting in St Petersburg, Russia, in 2012.
Photo courtesy of Lu Yen-hsun
Yesterday’s match was a much closer affair, with Lu breaking his opponent first in the seventh game, the sixth seed taking 4-3 lead and then producing an ace to hold his next service game.
Lu served for the set at 5-4 and had a set point at 40-30, but the third-seeded Spaniard clung on to break back and level at 5-5, before both players held serve to set up the tiebreaker.
Lu had another chance to claim the set at 6-5 in the tiebreaker, but the Spaniard rallied once again, eventually claiming a 9-7 victory.
Bautista Agut then broke Lu in the third game of the second set when Lu double-faulted on a break-point opportunity and the Spaniard held his service games to complete the victory and set up a semi-final against Slovenian qualifier Aljaz Bedene, who rallied from a set down to stun fifth seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the other early evening quarter-final on Court 1.
In the doubles on Thursday, Lu and England’s Jonathan Marray upset second seeds Andre Begemann of Germany and Robin Haase of the Netherlands to book a spot in the semi-finals today.
The Taiwanese-English duo rallied from a set down, helped by their opponents serving seven double faults, to record a 3-6, 7-6 (7/2), 10-6 victory in 1 hour, 22 minutes.
Lu and Marray saved three of five break-point chances and converted just one of six, but it was enough to set up a semi-final against India’s Purav Raja and Adil Shamasdin of Canada, who were 7-6 (7/5), 4-6, 10-4 winners over Bautista Agut and Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland in their quarter-final.
On the WTA Tour yesterday, Hsieh Su-wei’s bid for a first title of the season with new partner Sania Mirza at the Brisbane International in Australia was thwarted by fourth seeds Caroline Garcia of France and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia.
The duo crashed out after their opponents fought back from a set down to record a 4-6, 7-6 (7/1), 10-8 victory in the super tiebreak in 1 hour, 37 minutes.
Top-seeded Hsieh and Mirza saved 10 of 13 break-point chances and converted four of five, but it was not enough as they exited the warm-up tournament for the Australian Open in the semi-finals.
Garcia and Srebotnik are to play former world No. 1 Martina Hingis and Sabine Lisicki in today’s final after the Swiss-German duo defeated Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands and Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic 7-6 (7/3), 6-3 in yesterday’s other semi-final.
OUT AGAINST INDONESIA: Taiwan reached the semi-finals at the tournament for the first time by defeating Denmark, with Chou Tien-chen beating Viktor Axelsen Taiwan yesterday crashed out of the Thomas Cup team competition in Chengdu, China, but achieved their best result at the top-tier badminton event by reaching the semi-finals. Indonesia were too good in the semis, winning 3-0 to advance to today’s final against China, who eliminated Malaysia 3-1. In the opening singles of the men’s team clash at the Hi-Tech Zone Sports Center Gymnasium 2, Anthony Ginting defeated Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen 21-18, 21-19 in 51 minutes, which put a huge hole in Taiwan’s aspirations to perhaps even make the final. In the men’s doubles, Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Ardianto downed Lee Yang and Wang
NO DOUBT: Spurs star Wembanyama was unanimously selected as NBA Rookie of the Year, winning all 99 votes to become the first Frenchman to capture the honor The Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night produced a dominant defensive display to seize a commanding 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven playoff series against the Denver Nuggets with a 106-80 road victory. The third-seeded Timberwolves harassed Denver relentlessly to claim a second straight win over the NBA champions as the series heads back to Minneapolis for Game 3 on Friday. Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards scored 27 points apiece, but the star of the show was Minnesota’s suffocating defensive effort, which knocked Denver out of their stride almost from the tip-off. The Timberwolves finished with 11 steals and 12 blocks, in sharp contrast to
Top-ranked Iga Swiatek on Saturday came through “the most intense and crazy final” she has ever contested to avenge her loss to Aryna Sabalenka in last year’s Madrid Open final with a grueling three hour, 11 minute victory in the Spanish capital. Coming back from 1-3 down in the decider and saving three match points in total, Swiatek claimed a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (9/7) victory to secure the Madrid Open trophy for the first time. “Well, who is going to say now that women’s tennis is boring, right?” Swiatek said. Swiatek, who picked up the 20th title of her career, and ninth at
One of Malaysia’s top soccer clubs has pulled out of today’s season-opening Charity Shield after a spate of assaults, including an acid attack, on players in the country. It leaves the kickoff of Malaysia’s season this weekend under a cloud following the unprecedented acts of violence against players, which have left the country shocked and angry. Authorities said they have imposed tighter security, but Selangor said that they would not play in the showpiece curtain-raiser against Malaysian Super League champions Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) citing “a series of criminal incidents and recent threats.” Selangor and Malaysia winger Faisal Halim is in intensive care