Fourth seeds Hsieh Su-wei and Flavia Pennetta cruised into the third round of the women’s doubles at the French Open on Saturday.
The Taiwanese-Italian duo, whose fledgling partnership has yet to produce any notable results, but who seem to be playing themselves into some form at the season’s second Grand Slam, defeated Madison Brengle of the US and Tatjana Maria of Germany 6-1, 6-3 on Court 17 at Roland Garros.
Hsieh and Pennetta saved one of the two break-point chances they faced and converted eight of 11, winning 62 of the 98 points contested to advance to a third-round clash with Janette Husarova of Slovakia and Paula Kania of Poland, who comfortably ousted Czech sisters Karolina and Kristyna Pliskova 6-2, 6-1.
In the second round of the mixed doubles, Chan Yung-jan and John Peers advanced to the quarter-finals with a comfortable 6-1, 6-4 victory over Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands.
The Taiwanese-Australian pairing saved one of three break-point opportunities and converted five of seven, winning 59 of the 97 points contested to set up a quarter-final against Zheng Jie of China and Henri Kontinen of Finland, who edged past Andreja Klepac of Slovenia and Rajeev Ram of the US 6-3, 1-6, 11-9.
Nottingham Forest FC are to go into the Europa League play-off round after a 4-0 win over Ferencvaros TC on Thursday, while Celtic FC secured their place in the knockout phase with a victory over FC Utrecht. Aston Villa FC finished second in the league phase after recovering from two goals down to beat FC Red Bull Salzburg 3-2 with their spot in the last 16 already assured. Forest stood an outside chance of climbing into the top eight going into the final round of matches, but needed to beat Robbie Keane’s Ferencvaros and rely on other results going their way. Sean Dyche’s
HEATED RIVALRY: The pair had met 14 times previously, with Sabalenka winning eight of the encounters and entering the final as the favorite to take the title Elena Rybakina took revenge over world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka to win a nail-biting Australian Open final yesterday and clinch her second Grand Slam title. The big-serving Kazakh fifth seed held her nerve to pull through 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne in 2 hours, 18 minutes. It was payback after the Belarusian Sabalenka won the 2023 final between two of the hardest hitters in women’s tennis. The ice-cool Rybakina, 26, who was born in Moscow, adds her Melbourne triumph to her Wimbledon win in 2022. It was more disappointment in a major final for Sabalenka, who won the US Open
Denver superstar Nikola Jokic returned from a 16-game injury absence to post a 31-point, 12-rebound double-double on Friday and propel the Nuggets to a 122-109 NBA victory over the Los Angeles Clippers. Three-time NBA Most Valuable Player Jokic had not played since suffering a bone bruise in the left knee he hyperextended in a game against Miami on Dec. 29 last year. The Serbian big man did not miss a beat. He led all scorers, connecting on eight of 11 shots from the field, and also handed out five assists with three steals while playing just 24 minutes, 32 seconds as the
BATTERED AND BRUISED: Alcaraz suffered a cramp in the third set, but was allowed treatment despite Zverev’s protests, and continued on to win in five-and-a-half hours An ailing Carlos Alcaraz battled past Alexander Zverev yesterday in five epic sets to reach his first Australian Open final and move within a match of becoming the youngest man to complete a career Grand Slam. The world No. 1 outlasted the German third seed 6-4, 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (3/7), 6-7 (4/7), 7-5 over a titanic 5 hours, 27 minutes in hot conditions to head to tomorrow’s title match. He only narrowly avoided crashing out after a huge fright at 4-4 in the third set when he pulled up in pain with what appeared to be cramp. He was allowed to have treatment
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