Taiwanese No. 1 Lu Yen-hsun completed a brace of victories at the Aegon Open in Nottingham, England, on Tuesday by ousting 15th seed Andreas Seppi in the second round.
Lu began the day by finishing off his first-round match, held over from Monday due to rain, 6-4, 6-4 against Belgium’s Ruben Bemelmans, then he returned to the grass courts at the Nottingham Tennis Centre to defeat the Italian world No. 27 6-4, 6-3 in 1 hour, 12 minutes.
World No. 61 Lu, who now has a 3-2 career record against Seppi after winning his past three matches against the Italian, saved all three break points he faced and converted two of five, winning 64 of the 122 points contested.
Lu was due to take on third seed Feliciano Lopez in the third round late yesterday after the Spaniard eased past wild-card Taylor Harry Fritz of the US 6-3, 6-3 on Tuesday.
Top seed David Ferrer suffered a Wimbledon warm-up headache, losing to Marcos Baghdatis.
The Spanish world No. 7 emerged from his first outing on grass this year with a 6-2, 7-6 (7/4) defeat to the unseeded Cypriot.
Baghdatis bagged his first win against a top 10 player in two years by firing nine aces and converting more than 70 percent of his service points.
The 33-year-old Ferrer, winner of three ATP Tour titles this season, was making his first appearance at Nottingham in 11 years.
Ferrer, a French Open finalist in 2013, lost to Andy Murray in the quarter-finals of the French Open at Roland Garros at the start of the month.
He progressed to the quarter-finals at Wimbledon in 2013, where he came unstuck against Juan Martin del Potro.
While Ferrer heads off to the practice courts to continue his preparations for the All England Club, Baghdatis was looking forward to a third-round match with German teenager Alexander Zverev.
The 18-year-old progressed after ousting Brazilian 13th seed Thomaz Belluci 6-7 (7/9), 6-3, 6-4 in 2 hours, 25 minutes.
Also advancing to the third round on Tuesday were Simone Bolelli of Italy, eighth seed Adrian Mannarino of France, fourth seed Leonardo Mayer of Argentina, 16th seed Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic, Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan, Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine, seventh seed Dominic Thiem of Austria, Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine, fifth seed Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay, 12th seed Sam Querrey of the US, 14th seed Joao Sousa of Portugal and second seed Gilles Simon of France.
ADVANTAGE ATLETICO: Well off the pace in La Liga, the Copa del Rey represents Atletico Madrid’s best chance of silverware this season Atletico Madrid on Thursday hammered Copa del Rey holders Barcelona 4-0 in the first leg of their semi-final. After an Eric Garcia own-goal sent Diego Simeone’s side ahead early on, Antoine Griezmann, Ademola Lookman and Julian Alvarez struck to give Atletico a landslide lead by halftime. Barca defender Garcia was sent off in the final stages, with Atletico maintaining their significant advantage on the record 32-time winners, which they take into the second leg at the Camp Nou on March 3. Both sides missed good chances in the second half, with Barca’s Pau Cubarsi having a goal disallowed before Garcia was sent off
Dasun Shanaka hammered the fastest half-century by a Sri Lankan in T20Is as the cohosts thrashed Oman by 105 runs at the World Cup yesterday in Pallekele, Sri Lanka, for their second win in Group B. The 2014 champions piled up 225-5, the highest total of the tournament, before restricting an outclassed Oman to 120-9. The 43-year-old Mohammad Nadeem waged a lone battle for Oman, compiling an unbeaten 53 to become the oldest player to score a 50 in T20 World Cups. Having promoted himself up the order and under pressure to deliver, Sri Lanka skipper Shanaka smashed a 19-ball half-century. It has been
Kawhi Leonard on Sunday scored 41 points, grabbed eight rebounds and made four steals to lead the Los Angeles Clippers in a lopsided 115-96 victory at Minnesota. The 34-year-old forward, a two-time NBA champion, matched the second-best road scoring effort of his career as the Clippers improved to 25-27. “Just being aggressive. My teammates trust me,” Leonard said. “Every moment when I touch the ball — assist, shooting the basketball or getting a rebound — I’m just trying to help the team win.” Leonard made three steals in a row at the start of the contest. “Just wanted to come out early in the
FLOP TO CONQUEROR: It was sweet vindication for Sam Darnold, who played for four NFL teams before his debut season in Seattle ended in the ultimate win The Seattle Seahawks on Sunday coasted to Super Bowl glory, routing the New England Patriots 29-13 as Sam Darnold sealed his journey from flop quarterback to conqueror of the NFL’s biggest prize. Brushing off a reputation for wilting in big games, journeyman quarterback Darnold threw for a touchdown and 200 yards on the grandest stage of all to give the Seahawks their second-ever Lombardi Trophy. “It’s unbelievable. Everything that has happened in my career, but to do it with this team, I wouldn’t want it any other way,” Darnold said. The victory was buoyed by a dominant defensive display and kicker Jason Myers’
RSS