Chan Yung-jan became the fourth Taiwanese player to fall foul of the curse of Court 5 at Wimbledon on Saturday as she crashed out of the second round of the mixed doubles.
Chan and John Peers of Australia, who had earlier come through a grueling five-set men’s doubles second-round match with partner Britain’s Jamie Murray, fell to a 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (11/9) defeat to Croatian duo Marin Draganja and Ana Konjuh in 1 hour, 33 minutes.
Chan and Peers, the 14th seeds, converted the only break point they created and saved two of three, but it was not enough as the Croatians edged both tiebreaks and won 85 of the 169 points contested to end Chan’s participation at the All Engalnd Club in southwest London at the end of the first week.
Of the six Taiwanese who started the third Grand Slam of the year, just two made it to the second week — Hsieh Su-wei and Chan’s younger sister, Chan Hao-ching, in the women’s doubles — while the other four all met their end on Court 5 — Chuang Chia-jung and Chan Chin-wei in the women’s doubles on Wednesday and Lu Yen-hsun in the men’s doubles earlier on Saturday.
The good news for the survivors is that they have avoided Court 5 in the third round of the women’s doubles today, with Chan Hao-ching and Alison van Uytvanck of Belgium due to face fifth-seeded US duo Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears on Court 11, before seventh seeds Hsieh and Flavia Pennetta of Italy take on Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Coco Vandeweghe of the US on Court 8.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite