Taiwan’s Chan Chin-wei advanced to the quarter-finals of the doubles at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany, on Monday after beating a high-profile pairing in the first round.
Chan and Liang Chen of China, playing their third tournament as a pairing, defeated wild-cards Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, ranked the world No. 34 in singles, and Simona Halep of Romania, the singles world No. 3, who were playing as a partnership for the first time.
Chan and Liang looked far stronger for the first half of the match as they stormed out to a 6-1, 5-1 lead.
After Halep held her serve in the next game, Chan and Liang had four match points on Liang’s serve at 6-1, 5-2, but Bencic and Halep kept bouncing back and they went on to win six games in a row to take the second set 7-5.
The Swiss-Romanian duo then cruised to a 5-1 lead in the super tiebreak and were two points from victory at 8-5, before the cross-strait pairing rallied to win the final five points to complete a 6-1, 5-7, 10-8 victory in 1 hour, 32 minutes.
Chan and Liang saved five of eight break-point chances and converted four of nine to set up a quarter-final against either second seeds Caroline Garcia of France and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia or German wild-cards Antonia Lottner and Carina Witthoeft.
Monday’s only main draw singles match saw Witthoeft oust fellow German Mona Barthel 7-5, 6-3 in 1 hour, 21 minutes to set up a second-round match against either fifth seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia or France’s Garcia, who were due to play yesterday.
Evgeniya Rodina of Russia, Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the US, Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine and Petra Martic of Croatia won their final qualifying matches on Monday to secure spots in the singles main draw.
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