Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei defeated Misa Eguchi to advance to the quarter-finals of the BMW Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
World No. 181 Hsieh, who was given a wild card to play in the tournament, saved 11 of 14 break-point chances and converted six of 13 to complete a 6-3, 3-6, 6-0 victory over the Japanese world No. 132 in 1 hour, 57 minutes on Centre Court at the Royal Selangor Golf Club in the Malaysian capital.
The victory gave Hsieh a 2-1 record against the 22-year-old Japanese, who she beat in Taipei in 2011, but lost to in the round-of-16 in Seoul last year.
Photo: EPA
Hsieh, who helped unveil the new limited edition BMW 520d Sport before her match yesterday, now faces 18-year-old world No. 171 Elizaveta Kulichkova in today’s quarter-finals after the Russian teenager defeated Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan 6-0, 6-2 in the second round on Wednesday.
In yesterday’s other second-round matches, Carina Witthoeft of Germany shocked fifth seed Klara Koukalova of the Czech Republic 7-6 (7/3), 6-0 in 1 hour, 28 minutes, while top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark cruised past Zhu Lin of China 6-4, 6-1.
In the doubles, third-seeded Ukrainian duo Yuliya Beygelzimer and Olga Savchuk defeated Polish pairing Magda Linette and Katarzyna Piter 6-3, 4-6, 10-5 to set up a semi-final tomorrow against top seeds Darija Jurak of Croatia and Koukalova.
Today’s doubles semi-final sees Taiwan’s Chang Kai-chen and Zheng Saisai of China take on Chinese duo Liang Chen and Wang Yafan.
ABIERTO MONTERREY
Top-seeded defending champion Ana Ivanovic of Serbia advanced to the quarter-finals in the Abierto Monterrey Afirme on Wednesday night, beating Pauline Parmentier of France 6-3, 6-2.
Ivanovic is to face France’s Kristina Mladenovic, a 6-4, 6-2 winner over Russia’s Vera Zvonareva in the hard-court event at Sierra Madre Tennis Club.
Second-seeded Sara Errani of Italy and eighth-seeded Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia also won second-round matches.
Errani beat Timea Babos of Hungary 6-3, 6-3, and Rybarikova outlasted Polona Hercog of Slovenia of 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (11/9).
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