Taiwanese No. 1 Lu Yen-hsun completed the first part of a double shift at the Aegon Open in Nottingham, England, yesterday after his first-round match was held up by rain on Monday evening.
World No. 61 Lu was leading 6-4, 4-2 when the match was suspended on Monday, but he returned to the Nottingham Tennis Centre grass courts yesterday morning and sealed a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Belgium’s Ruben Bemelmans inside 10 minutes.
Lu saved four of five break-point chances and converted three of six to wrap up the match in 1 hour, 14 minutes on Court Three, winning 67 of the 121 points contested.
Lu was due to return to Court One later yesterday to play his second-round match against world No. 27 Andreas Seppi of Italy, who as the 15th seed received a bye in the first round of the final warm-up tournament ahead of Wimbledon, which starts on Monday next week.
Aljaz Bedene warmed up for his first Wimbledon since switching nationality to British by beating Diego Schwartzman in one of just five completed first-round matches on Monday.
Slovenia-born Bedene, who was granted British citizenship in March, won 6-1, 6-7(5/7), 6-2 against his Argentine opponent and was due to play eighth seed Adrian Mannarino of France in the second round yesterday.
Santiago Giraldo of Colombia won 6-1, 1-6, 6-1 against Andreas Haider-Maurer of Austria, while Simone Bolelli, Malek Jaziri and Dudi Sela were all straight-sets winners before rain washed out play.
The top seeds were due on court yesterday, with David Ferrer, Feliciano Lopez and Gilles Simon all starting their title challenges. Ferrer was set to play Marcos Baghdatis in the headline match.
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli yesterday vowed to “keep raising the bar” after winning the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest driver in Formula One history to lead the championship standings. The 19-year-old Italian took advantage of a mid-race safety car to jump into the lead after a dreadful start from pole position, crossing the line ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Antonelli’s Suzuka victory came two weeks after the first grand prix win of his career in China, and sent him top of the championship standings after three races, nine points ahead of team-mate George Russell. Mercedes are struggling to
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
Teng Kai-wei, the only Taiwanese player on an opening-day roster in this year’s Major League Baseball (MLB) season, took his first win of the year with the Houston Astros in his season debut. Teng entered in relief in the top of the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, with the Astros trailing 5-0. He pitched 2-1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts, as Houston scored 11 runs during his outing to snatch an 11-9 comeback victory. The win is the Astros’ first of the season and the third of Teng’s MLB career. “It’s my first time pitching for the Astros, so
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