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.
Backup quarterback Luke Weaver on Wednesday night threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to Nick Cenacle with 10 seconds left, as the University of Hawaii rallied for a 35-31 comeback victory over the University of California, Berkeley in a thrilling Hawaii Bowl. Weaver entered the game after Micah Alejado took a hard hit on the previous play. With the Rainbow Warriors (9-4) in range for a tying field goal, coach Timmy Chang took a shot at the end zone, and Cenacle got between two defensive backs and made the contested catch. “How amazing is that?” Chang said. “It’s a program that is built
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