Taiwan’s Chan Chin-wei and Nicole Melichar crashed out of the quarter-finals of the Istanbul Cup doubles competition on Thursday, despite a spirited second-set fightback.
The Taiwanese-American duo fell to a 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) defeat to wild-cards Anett Kontaveit and Elizaveta Kulichkova in 1 hour, 22 minutes.
Chan and Melichar converted the only break point they created in the first set, but saved just one of four as the Estonian-Russian pairing took a one-set lead, despite serving up two double faults.
The Taiwanese-American duo rallied in the second set, saving two of four break points and converting two of six to force a tiebreak, but it was not enough as their opponents wrapped up the victory, winning 74 of the 134 points contested to advance to today’s semi-finals.
In the singles on Thursday, Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria was the only seed — the No. 8 and the last — to reach the quarter-finals.
Pironkova defeated Kurumi Nara of Japan 6-3, 1-6, 6-1, then learned that fourth seed Alize Cornet of France had been overhauled by Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium and fifth seed Camila Giorgi had lost an all-Italian match with Francesca Schiavone.
Flipkens won 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 and Schiavone 6-4, 7-6 (8/6) to make her first quarter-final since February.
They were due to meet yesterday.
Ukrainian qualifier Kateryna Bondarenko, who ousted Venus Williams, beat Mona Barthel of Germany 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 in their second-round match.
GASTEIN LADIES
Russian qualifier Daria Kasatkina rallied to beat former champion Julia Goerges 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 and reach her first career quarter-final at the Gastein Ladies on Thursday.
World No. 151 Kasatkina, who lost in straight sets to Goerges in Bucharest last week, came back from a break down in the second set to beat the German, who won the clay-court event in 2010.
Kasatkina next faces top seed Sara Errani, who saved a match point and won the final five games to beat Ukrainian qualifier Maryna Zanevska 6-2, 4-6, 7-5.
Leading 2-0 in the second set, the Italian lost 11 of the next 15 games.
Zanevska, who was looking to advance to her first career quarter-final, missed a match point while serving at 5-2 and failed to win another game.
Earlier, seventh seed Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia won the first set 6-1, before Andreea Mitu pulled out. The Romanian had received treatment on her neck and shoulders after five games.
Schmiedlova next faces Annika Beck of Germany in the quarter-finals.
The final second-round match between third seed Karin Knapp of Italy and Johanna Larsson of Sweden was suspended because of a thunderstorm and was rescheduled for yesterday.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later