Seventh seeds Hsieh Su-wei and Flavia Pennetta had to dig themselves out of a hole to reach the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at Wimbledon on Monday.
After losing the first set of their third-round match against Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Coco Vandeweghe of the US, the Taiwanese-American duo bounced back to take the second to love and level the match.
However, the seventh seeds then found themselves 1-4, love-30 down in the decider, before digging deep to fight back and complete a 3-6, 6-0, 9-7 victory in 1 hour, 40 minutes on Court 8 at the All England Lawn Tennis Club in southwest London.
Photo: AP
Hsieh and Pennetta saved four of 10 break points and converted eight of 14, winning 99 of the 183 points contested to set up a quarter-final today against fourth seeds Timea Babos of Hungary and Kristina Mladenovic of France.
The winners of that quarter-final face either Cara Black of Zimbabwe and Lisa Raymond of the US or second-seeded Russian duo Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in the semi-finals.
In the other half of the draw, top seeds Martina Hingis of Switzerland and Sania Mirza of India take on ninth seeds Casey Dellacqua of Australia and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan and third seeds Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the US and Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic face fifth-seeded US pairing Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears.
In women’s singles, Maria Sharapova downed Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan 6-4, 6-4 to proceed to the quarter-finals. Sharapova has not dropped a set so far, losing only 23 games in four matches.
Victoria Azarenka downed Swiss teenager Belinda Bencic 6-2, 6-3 to set up a Wimbledon quarter-final clash with old rival Serena Williams on Monday.
Caroline Wozniacki, the Danish fifth seed, blew her chance to make the Wimbledon quarter-finals with a 6-4, 6-4 defeat to Garbine Muguruza in the last 16.
Muguruza made 33 unforced errors to Wozniacki’s 16, but crucially hit 29 winners to Wozniacki’s 10.
It is the third time the Spanish No. 2 has reached a Grand Slam quarter-final, having made the last eight at the French Open last year and this year.
She will face Switzerland’s Timea Bacsinszky for a place in the semi-finals.
Roger Federer and Andy Murray reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals on Monday while controversial Australian Nick Kyrgios was under fire for “tanking” in his last-16 exit.
Seven-time champion Federer reached his 13th All England Club quarter-final with a 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 win over Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut.
The Swiss star claimed victory on a sixth match point against Bautista Agut, whose challenge was seriously compromised by needing treatment on his right ankle after a bad fall in the sixth game of the second set.
British third seed Murray claimed a 7-6 (9/7), 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 win over 2.11m tall Ivo Karlovic to book his place in the quarter-finals for the eighth successive year.
Karlovic, at 36 the oldest man to reach the last-16 in 39 years, fired 29 aces in the three-hour Centre Court encounter, but that was well below par for a man who had blasted 136 in his first three rounds.
French 21st seed Richard Gasquet defeated Kyrgios 7-5, 6-1, 6-7 (7/9), 7-6 (8/6) in a controversial clash to avenge a second round loss last year to the temperamental Australian.
French Open champion Wawrinka defeated Belgian 16th seed David Goffin 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (9/7), 6-4 to reach the quarter-finals for the second successive year.
Wawrinka is bidding to become just the fifth man to win at both Roland Garros and the All England in the same year.
Pospisil became only the third Canadian man to reach the quarter-finals with a 4-6, 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 win over Serbian 22nd seed Viktor Troicki.
It was the world No. 56’s third five-set match in four rounds and his first career comeback from two sets to love down.
Simon reached the quarter-finals for the first time with a 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 defeat of Czech sixth seed and 2010 runner-up Tomas Berdych.
US Open champion Marin Cilic made the quarter-finals for the second successive year with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 win over unseeded Denis Kudla of the US.
The victory on Monday was Cilic’s 26th in a row against US opponents.
Defending champion Novak Djokovic survived a barrage from big-hitting Kevin Anderson to reach his seventh successive Wimbledon quarter-final yesterday.
The top seed came from behind to win 6-7 (6/8), 6-7 (6/8), 6-1, 6-4, 7-5 in a last-16 tie suspended due to bad light on Monday at the end of the fourth set.
The Serb, who has now reached 25 Grand Slam quarter-finals in a row, goes on to face Croatia’s US Open champion Marin Cilic for a place in the semi-finals.
Anderson, the South African 14th seed, fired 40 aces and 71 winners, but committed 41 unforced errors.
Djokovic crashed 43 winners past his opponent but hit just 19 unforced errors.
Home runs are greeted with a celebratory shot of espresso and the donning of an Armani jacket. Victories are marked with bottles of red wine while the soaring voice of opera singer Andrea Bocelli echoes through the locker room. Welcome to baseball, Italian-style. Written off as 80-1 underdogs before the World Baseball Classic started, Italy’s fairytale tournament has carried them all the way to today’s (Taipei time) semi-finals in Miami against Venezuela. On Saturday, Italy — who scored a stunning upset of a star-studded US lineup during the pool phase — kept their unbeaten campaign alive with a nail-biting 8-6
Jannik Sinner on Sunday beat Daniil Medvedev in the Indian Wells final 7-6 (6), 7-6 (4), winning seven straight points to rally from a 4-0 deficit in the second-set tiebreak and claim the title without dropping a single set. The No. 2-ranked Italian beat Medvedev for the ninth time in their last 10 matches to claim his first title at the California desert tournament. Medvedev handed top-seeded Carlos Alcaraz his first loss of the year in the semi-finals of the BNP Paribas Open. Sinner congratulated fellow Italian Kimi Antonelli, who won Formula One’s Chinese Grand Prix earlier on Sunday. “It
Luka Doncic on Monday scored 36 points as the in-form Los Angeles Lakers powered to their sixth straight victory with a 100-92 defeat of the Houston Rockets. A crucial showdown between the third and fourth-ranked NBA Western Conference teams ended with the Lakers pulling away in the final minute of the fourth quarter to claim an impressive win on the road. The victory gives the Lakers (43-25) a valuable cushion over the Rockets (41-26) as they jostle for post-season positions in the West. Doncic was once again instrumental in dragging the Lakers over the line while a hard-nosed defensive effort
THRILLING GAME: The loaded US roster featuring Paul Skenes, Bryce Harper and Aaron Judge reached their third straight WBC final game, after 2017 and 2023 Gunnar Henderson and Roman Anthony on Sunday homered, and the US limited the Dominican Republic’s electric offense to win a thrilling semi-final 2-1 and move one win from capturing their second World Baseball Classic (WBC) championship. The loaded US roster led by NL Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes and featuring stars Bryce Harper and Aaron Judge reached their third straight WBC title game after winning in 2017 and falling to Shohei Ohtani and Japan in 2023. The US are to face the winner of this morning’s (Taiwan time) semi-final between Italy and Venezuela a day later. The Dominicans reached
RSS