Taiwan’s Chang Kai-chen defied a heavy workload to advance to the semi-finals of the singles at the Jiangxi Women’s Tennis Open in Nanchang, China, yesterday, while fellow Taiwanese Lee Ya-hsuan crashed out of the quarter-finals of the doubles.
Chang survived a titanic battle with Chinese seventh seed Wang Yafan on Center Court at the Nanchang International Sports Center after being handed a punishing two-match schedule for the second consecutive day.
The world No. 191 saved 10 of 17 break points and converted seven of five as she survived a second-set meltdown to wrap up a 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 victory in 2 hours, 10 minutes at the WTA 125K tournament.
Chang faces Lu Jiajing in today’s semi-finals, after the Chinese player rallied from a set down to beat Han Na-lae of South Korea 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.
Chang returned to Center Court late yesterday evening with partner Zheng Saisai of China in the semi-finals of the doubles.
The third seeds were trailing having lost the first set 7-6 (7/5) to second-seeded Chinese duo Han Xinyun and Zhang Kailin at press time last night.
Earlier, in the last remaining doubles quarter-final on Court 2, Lee and Alison Bai of Australia fell to a 6-3, 6-0 defeat to Japanese pairing Miyu Kato and Kotomi Takahata.
Lee and Bai saved five of 10 break points, but only converted one of five as their Japanese opponents won 53 of the 93 points contested to wrap up the victory in 54 minutes.
The Japanese duo next face top seeds Chan Chin-wei of Taiwan and Wang in today’s second doubles semi-final.
In yesterday’s other singles quarter-finals, top seed and former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic defeated Chinese fifth seed Duan Yingying 7-6 (7/3), 6-0 and China’s Han Xinyun rallied to stun her eighth-seeded compatriot Liu Fangzhou 5-7, 6-2, 6-1.
BAKU CUP
Karin Knapp of Italy advanced to the Baku Cup semi-finals with a win over Alexandra Panova of Russia 6-2, 7-6 (7/4) yesterday.
She next faces Russia’s Margarita Gasparyan, who beat compatriot Evgeniya Rodina 6-3, 6-2.
The other semi sees Patricia Tig of Romania face Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia after Tig beat Croatia’s Donna Vekic — also by a score of 6-3, 6-2 — and Pavlyuchenkova down Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium 6-1, 6-3.
BRASIL CUP
In the Brasil Cup women’s singles quarter-finals on Thursday, Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the US beat Tereza Martincova of the Czech Republic 7-6 (7/2), 4-6, 6-1; Teliana Pereira of Brazil defeated Germany’s Laura Siegemund 6-3, 7-5; Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova downed Maria Teresa Torro of Spain 7-6 (7/4), 6-4; and Germany’s Annika Beck eliminated Gabriela Ce of Brazil 6-3, 6-3.
The Taoyuan Pauian Pilots on Sunday fell short in their bid for a first East Asia Super League (EASL) title after a 90-81 loss to Japan’s Utsunomiya Brex in Macau. The defeat marked the second straight year the defending P.League+ champions missed out on the EASL crown, but they remain the first team to reach back-to-back championship games in the league’s three-year history. The outcome was largely decided by long-range shooting. The Pilots struggled from beyond the arc, hitting just five of 20 attempts, while the Brex converted 19 three-pointers, shooting 46.3 percent from long range. Seven of the eight Brex players
Former reality TV star Jessie Holmes on Tuesday night cruised to a repeat victory in the Iditarod, the about 1,609km sled dog race in Alaska. Holmes guided his dog team across the finish line in the old Gold Rush town of Nome, a Bering Sea coastal community. The race started on March 8 in Willow, a day after the ceremonial start in Anchorage. The course took dog teams and their mushers over two mountain ranges, along the frozen Yukon River and across the unpredictable Bering Sea ice. Holmes, a former cast member on the National Geographic reality show Life Below Zero, is the
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