Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan and Zheng Jie of China ousted the third seeds in the doubles at the Aegon International in Eastbourne, England, yesterday to claim a spot in the quarter-finals of the final warm-up tournament before Wimbledon.
Chan and Zheng, the runners-up at the Australian Open in January, warmed up for the third Grand Slam of the year by downing third seeds Timea Babos of Hungary and Kristina Mladenovic of France in the first round on the grass courts at Devonshire Park in a match delayed a day by rain on the south coast of England.
The cross-strait duo edged a tight first set 7-6(7/5), converting their second set point in a tiebreak after 46 minutes, before completing the victory by taking the second set 6-3 31 minutes later.
Photo: AFP
Chan and Zheng saved three of four break-point opportunities and converted two of five, winning 69 of the 131 points contested to advance to a quarter-final clash against either Spanish pairing Anabel Medina Garrigues and Arantxa Parra Santonja, or Julia Goerges of Germany and Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic.
Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova begins her title defense next week without any official grass-court matches following her withdrawal at Eastbourne.
“I didn’t feel well when I came here last Thursday,” Kvitova said. “I have a sore throat. I have to stay in bed, and drink tea and rest. I had to make this decision. I hope to be fine for Wimbledon. I’ll stay here in Eastbourne and then slowly move to London. Of course, I wanted to play here, but it doesn’t make sense to play and then not be ready for Wimbledon, I’m not the only one not to play before Wimbledon.”
Kvitova, who claimed the title at the All England Club in 2011 and last year was the top seed in the singles.
Kvitova has not played since losing in the fourth round of the French Open at Roland Garros.
With rain delaying the start of play for several hours at Devonshire Park, the program was reduced.
Svetlana Kuznetsova, the champion in 2004 and playing in Eastbourne for the seventh time, reached the second round with a 7-6(7/5), 6-4 defeat of Magdelana Rybarikova.
Kuznetsova improved to a 36-8 career record on grass.
While all 16 seeds had byes into the second round, second seed Caroline Wozniacki was eagerly preparing for her pre-Wimbledon start after an early exit on the Paris clay last month.
The Danish world No. 5 said that making the clay-grass switch is one of the easiest parts of her season.
“I think automatically I just switch, it’s a very easy switch for me to go from clay to grass,” the former world No. 1 said. “It’s worse for me to go from hard court to clay, because you have to get the sliding in and stuff. Here, it just comes naturally to me. It’s easy and I’m like a little kid at a candy store whenever I step on grass for the first time. It’s never been an issue for me.”
Irina Falconi of the US defeated Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania 6-1, 6-1, former Australian Open finalist Dominika Cibulkova made a winning return after sitting out since February with a foot injury, beating Britain’s Harriet Dart 6-1, 6-3, while Polona Hercog beat Madison Brengle of the US 7-5, 6-4.
Twelve days after winning her second Grand Slam title at the French Open, Coco Gauff fell at the first hurdle on grass in Berlin on Thursday as beaten Paris finalist Aryna Sabalenka advanced to the quarter-finals. Recipient of a first round bye, American Gauff lost 6-3, 6-3 to Chinese qualifier Wang Xinyu as world number one Sabalenka beat Rebeka Masarova 6-2, 7-6 (8/6) in her second round tie. Winner of 10 main tour titles, including the US Open in 2023 and the WTA Finals last year, Gauff has yet to lift a trophy in a grass-court tournament. “After I won the first
While British star Jack Draper spent the past week trying to find rhythm and comfort in his first grass tournament of the season at the Queen’s Club Championships in London, Jiri Lehecka on Saturday bulldozed everything in his path. After more than two furious hours of battle, their form was reflected in the final scoreline as Lehecka toppled a frustrated Draper, the second seed, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 to reach the biggest final of his career, against Carlos Alcaraz. Lehecka is also the first Czech to reach the men’s title match at Queen’s since Ivan Lendl lifted the trophy in 1990. Draper, who
Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka staged a “crazy comeback,” saving four match points before beating Elena Rybakina 7-6 (6), 3-6, 7-6 (6) in the quarter-finals of the Berlin Open on Friday. Sabalenka was 6-2 down in the final-set tie-breaker, but won six straight points to reach her eighth semi-final of the season. “Elena is a great player and we’ve had a lot of tough battles,” Sabalenka said. “I have no idea how I was able to win those last points. I think I just got lucky.” “I remember a long time ago when I was just starting, I won a lot of matches being down
The Canterbury Crusaders edged the Waikato Chiefs 16-12 in an intense Super Rugby Pacific final battle in Christchurch yesterday to claim their 15th title in 30 years of the Southern Hemisphere competition. Hooker Codie Taylor scored a try and Rivez Reihana contributed 11 points from the kicking tee as the most dominant team in Super Rugby history extended their perfect home playoff record to 32 successive matches since 1998. The Chiefs, who were looking for a first title since 2013, scored first-half tries through George Dyer and Shaun Stevenson, but were unable to register a point after the break and fell to