Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei upset the eighth seed to advance to the second round of the singles at the Japan Open yesterday, while the Chan sisters and Chuang Chia-jung were also victorious in the doubles.
Hsieh got off to a flyer against Polona Hercog in Tokyo, converting three of six break points to claim the first set 6-1, but the Slovenian world No. 59 fought back to win a closely contested second.
However, the Taiwanese world No. 113 was not to be denied as she completed a 6-1, 5-7, 7-5 victory in 2 hours, 10 minutes.
Hsieh saved eight of 16 break points and converted 10 of 18, winning 115 of the 216 points contested to advance to a second-round clash with world No. 78 Kurumi Nara of Japan, who defeated Andreea Mitu of Romania 6-1, 6-4.
Also advancing in the singles were Kateryna Bondarenko, who ousted top seed Carla Suarez Navarro 6-4, 6-4, Jarmila Gajdosova, Johanna Larsson, Nao Hibino, Risa Ozaki, Irina Falconi, Zheng Saisai, Magda Linette and second seed Zarina Diyas.
In the doubles, top seeds Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan took just 56 minutes to dispatch Kimiko Date-Krumm of Japan and Australia’s Gajdosova 6-3, 6-2.
The Taiwanese sisters saved two of four break points and converted five of six, winning 54 of the 93 points contested to set up a quarter-final against Diyas of Kazakhstan and Nicole Melichar of the US, who defeated Japanese wild-cards Eri Hozumi and Miyu Kato 7-6 (7/4), 6-3.
Second seeded Chuang and Liang Chen of China cruised past Christina McHale of the US and Ajla Tomljanovic of Croatia 6-1, 6-2 in just 49 minutes.
The cross-strait duo saved one of three break points and converted six of nine, winning 51 of the 83 points contested to set up a quarter-final clash with Japanese pairing Shuko Aoyama and Makoto Ninomiya, who defeated Alexandra Panova of Russia and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-2.
Taiwan’s Chan Chin-wei and Darija Jurak of Croatia were edged 6-7 (6/8), 7-6 (7/3), 10-5 by third seeds Gabriela Dabrowski and Alicja Rosolska in 1 hour, 51 minutes.
The Canadian-Polish duo saved six of nine break points and converted three of 11 to advance to a quarter-final clash with Ukrainian pairing Bondarenko and Olga Savchuk, who crushed Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands and Larsson of Sweden 6-1, 6-3.
MEDVEDEV AWAITS: The world No. 1 Spainiard said that he is ‘finding the right shots’ as he pushed his record so far this year to 16 victories and no losses Carlos Alcaraz on Thursday extended his unbeaten season and got revenge over Cameron Norrie to reach the semi-finals at Indian Wells for a fifth straight year. The world No. 1 from Spain emerged from a see-saw battle with 29th-ranked Norrie with a 6-3, 6-4 victory. In the semis tomorrow, he faces Russian Daniil Medvedev, who pushed his own ATP winning streak to eight matches with a 6-1, 7-5 victory over defending champion Jack Draper. World No. 2 Jannik Sinner powered past Learner Tien 6-1, 6-2 to line up a semi-final with fourth-ranked Alexander Zverev, a 6-2, 6-3 winner over Arthur Fils. Alcaraz, 22, became
Ollie Watkins’ second-half header on Thursday gave Aston Villa a 1-0 win over Lille OSC in the first leg of their UEFA Europa League round-of-16 tie. Just past the hour mark, Ezri Konsa sent a deep pass that Emi Buendia headed to Watkins in the home team’s box. The England forward noticed goalkeeper Berke Ozer was off his line before sending a looping header over him and into the net. Minutes later, Watkins wasted a chance to double the advantage when he failed to score in a one-on-one with the ’keeper. Nottingham Forest were stunned 1-0 by Danish club Midtjylland, with substitute Cho
Thanks to Italy beating Mexico on Wednesday, the US get another chance in the World Baseball Classic (WBC). What looked like a potentially disastrous early exit for US manager Mark DeRosa and his team turned out to be nothing more than substantial worry and significant embarrassment for about 24 hours. It remains to be seen whether the US really want to win badly enough for the reprieve to matter, as if it is just a switch they can flick, but there is little reason for their fans to be optimistic. The team’s attitude and behavior have been all over the place when
Brice Turang and Pete Crow-Armstrong’s consecutive RBI singles proved to be the difference in the US’ 5-3 win over Canada in a World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarterfinal on Friday night in Houston. The US faces the Dominican Republic, which crushed South Korea 10-0 in seven innings in its quarter-final, in a semifinal Sunday in Miami for a spot in Tuesday’s championship. The Dominican team has won all five games in this WBC by a combined margin of 51-10. It appeared the US squad was headed toward a cozy victory when it built a 5-0 lead by the sixth inning. A first-inning RBI groundout
RSS