Serena Williams is settling right into the BNP Paribas Open, producing a quick, business-like effort in advancing to the fourth round on Sunday, beating Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan 6-2, 6-0 in 53 minutes.
Four-time Indian Wells winner Roger Federer needed 10 more minutes than Williams to dispatch Diego Schwartzman 6-4, 6-2 in the men’s second round.
Federer hit a 196kph ace to set up match point and blasted a forehand winner to end it, leaving him two shy of 50 career wins in the desert.
Photo: EPA
Three-time champion Rafael Nadal could say the same thing, winning 6-4, 6-2 over Igor Sijsling.
Third-seeded Simona Halep needed three sets to beat Varvara Lepchenko 6-1, 3-6, 6-1. Lepchenko had 56 unforced errors to Halep’s 37.
Next up for Williams is Sloane Stephens, who beat two-time major champion Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-6(4), 1-6, 6-4.
Federer next plays Andreas Seppi in a rematch of the Australian Open, when Seppi stunned Federer in four sets in the third round. Seppi advanced with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Victor Hanescu.
Donald Young led a parade of upsets earlier in the day, with the American beating 31st-seeded Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 6-2.
The highest men’s seed to go down was No. 7 Stanislas Wawrinka, who lost to Robin Haase 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
Eleventh-seeded Grigor Dimitrov nearly followed some of the other seeded players out of the tournament, needing three sets to hold off Nick Kyrgios 7-6(2), 3-6, 7-6(4) over 2 hours.
Kyrgios fell and rolled his ankle in the ninth game of the last set, but managed to break back and had a chance to serve out a victory.
Alexandr Dolgopolov, who made the semi-finals last year, beat No. 29 Santiago Giraldo 6-1, 7-6(4).
Qualifier Michael Berrer advanced when No. 22 Richard Gasquet retired trailing 3-1 in the third set. American Jack Sock outlasted 33rd-seeded Gilles Muller 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(7), saving a match point in the process.
Sixth-seeded Milos Raonic restored order, firing 13 aces and losing just eight points on his serve in defeating Simone Bolelli 6-3, 6-4.
On the women’s side, Heather Watson upset seventh-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska 6-4, 6-4, and Elina Svitolina knocked out 10th-seeded Lucie Safarova 7-6(5), 7-5. Eighth-seeded Ekaterina Makarova was beaten by No. 27 Timea Bacsinszky 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.
Taiwan’s men’s table tennis team won bronze on Saturday at this year’s International Table Tennis Federation World Team Table Tennis Championships in London, matching the country’s best-ever finish at the regular tournament. Consisting of Lin Yun-ju, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7, Feng Yi-hsin, Kuo Guan-hong, Hong Jing-kai and Hsu Hsien-chia, the team won bronze after losing 0-3 to Japan in the semifinals. In the opening match, 24-year-old Lin played the first game against world No. 3 Tomokazu Harimoto 11-5, but ultimately lost the next three closely contested games 9-11, 10-12 and 10-12. Feng then faced world No. 8 Sora Matsushima in
Lin Yun-ju on Thursday handed Taiwan two key victories as they advanced to the semi-finals of the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in London. The Taiwan men’s table tennis team beat Sweden 3-2 in five singles matches. The 24-year-old Lin, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7 and nicknamed the “Silent Assassin,” opened the tie by defeating world No. 2 Truls Moregard 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 13-11) before clinching the deciding fifth match with a 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-5) win over Anton Kallberg to hand his team the overall victory. Kuo Guan-hong put Taiwan up 2-0 with a 3-2 (4-11, 11-8, 8-11,
Taiwanese fire dancer Yang Li-wei advanced to the final of Britain’s Got Talent this weekend after receiving a Golden Buzzer during her live semi-final performance. Yang, a member of Taiwan’s Coming True Fire Group, awed judges and audiences with a high-intensity fire performance featuring flaming umbrellas, fire swallowing and spinning metal structures balanced with her legs. Judge Simon Cowell praised Yang as a star, while guest judge KSI reacted with amazement before pressing the Golden Buzzer, sending her to the finals. The dance group wrote on social media that the Golden Buzzer was “the highest honor” on the talent show, adding: “Twenty-three years
As Super Rugby fast approaches its playoff season it finds itself racing toward a reckoning with many issues that threaten the southern hemisphere tournament. A group of stakeholders met in the New Zealand city of Christchurch late last month to address problems that are making the future of the 31-year-old competition increasingly tenuous. The discussion was made more urgent by the decision by the owners of Moana Pasifika to fold the Auckland-based club for financial reasons. That followed the closure of the Melbourne Rebels at the end of the 2024 season, likewise because of financial difficulties. Problems addressed included player retention as more
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