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.
TIGHT GAME: The Detroit Pistons, the NBA’s second-best team, barely outlasted the Washington Wizards, who fell to an NBA-worst 1-10 with their ninth consecutive loss Cade Cunningham’s triple double, Daniss Jenkins’ three-pointer at the buzzer and Javonte Green’s overtime dunk lifted Detroit past Washington 137-135 on Monday, stretching the Pistons’ win streak to seven games. In an unexpected thriller, the NBA’s second-best team barely outlasted a Wizards club that fell to an NBA-worst 1-10 with their ninth consecutive loss. “We knew how big this game was for us,” Jenkins said. “We wasn’t going to let nothing stop us from getting this W.” Cunningham made 14-of-45 shots and 16-of-18 free throws for a career-high 46 points, and added 12 rebounds, 11 assists, five steals and two
With a hat-trick on Wednesday, Victor Osimhen moved atop the UEFA Champions League scoring table, with the Nigeria striker netting all three goals in Galatasaray’s 3-0 victory over Ajax in Amsterdam. Osimhen moved to six goals this season in Europe’s elite club competition, one more than Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland. The Istanbul club signed Osimhen to a permanent deal from SSC Napoli in the summer for a record transfer fee in the Turkish League reportedly worth US$86 million. The 26-year-old striker needed less than 20 minutes to complete his first hat-trick in the competition. He headed in the opener in the
An amateur soccer league organized by farmers, students and factory workers in rural China has unexpectedly drawn millions of fans and inspired big cities to form their own, raising hopes China can grow talent from the ground up and finally become a global force. The nation of 1.4 billion people has about 200 million soccer fans, more than any other country, but it has failed to build world-class teams, partly due to a top-down approach where clubs pick players from a very small pool of prescreened candidates. The professional game is marred by a history of fixed matches, corruption, and dismal performances,
Amanda Anisimova on Wednesday pulled off a stellar comeback to get the better of Iga Swiatek 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 6-2 and book her spot in the last four of the WTA Finals in Riyadh, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei won in the doubles at the women’s year-ending event. Making her tournament debut this week, the fourth-seeded Anisimova secured the runner-up spot in the Serena Williams Group behind Elena Rybakina. Rybakina completed round-robin play with a perfect 3-0 record, thanks to a 6-4, 6-4 success against Russian alternate Ekaterina Alexandrova earlier in the day. Anisimova improved her three-set record this season to an impressive
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