Hsu Chieh-yu advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles competition at the Rio Open on Wednesday, while fellow Taiwanese Chan Chin-wei suffered a shock first-round defeat.
Hsu and her partner, Elitsa Kostova of Bulgaria, rallied from losing the first set to shock third-seeded British duo Jocelyn Rae and Anna Smith 3-6, 6-3, 12-10 in 1 hour, 20 minutes on the Brazilian clay courts.
Hsu and Kostova saved two of five break-point opportunities and converted three of 11 to set up a semi-final against either top seeds Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania and Maria Irigoyen of Argentina or Veronica Cepede Royg of Paraguay and Beatriz Garcia Vidagany of Spain, who were due to play their quarter-final yesterday.
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In the other half of the draw there was another shock as second seeds Chan and Raluca Olaru of Romania fell to a 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/4) defeat to Brazilian duo Beatriz Haddad Maia and Teliana Pereira in 1 hour 57 minutes.
Chan and Olaru saved six of nine break-point chances and converted three of seven, but it was not enough as they crashed out of the competition at the first hurdle.
In the singles, second seed Begu reached the quarter-finals, defeating Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the US 6-2, 6-4.
Several other seeded players also advanced to the quarters at the WTA-ATP event, South America’s biggest clay-court tournament.
Fifth seed Johanna Larsson of Sweden defeated local hope Gabriela Ce 7-6 (7/4), 6-4; Germany’s Dinah Pfizenmaier beat fourth seed Madison Brengle 7-5, 0-6, 7-5; and Julia Glushko of Israel defeated Grace Min of the US 6-3, 6-1.
In first-round matches, sixth seed Anna Schmiedlova beat Alison van Uytvanck 6-3, 6-0 and Polona Hercog defeated An-Sophie Mestach 6-3, 6-4.
In the men’s draw, Austria’s Andreas Haider-Maurer defeated third seed Tommy Robredo of Spain 6-3, 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals.
Unseeded Juan Monaco of Argentina also made the last eight, beating Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen 6-1, 7-6 (7/4).
Second seed David Ferrer was leading 7-6 (10/8), 2-0 when Thiemo de Bakker retired from their second-round match, while Joao Souza beat Blaz Rola 6-4, 6-7 (9/11), 6-4.
Top seed Rafael Nadal was due to face Pablo Carreno Busta yesterday.
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