Taiwanese No. 1 Lu Yen-hsun continued to punch above his weight at the China Open yesterday, ousting world No. 24 Viktor Troicki in the second round of the men’s singles.
Lu, the world No. 100 playing with a wild card in Beijing, defeated the Serbian 6-4, 7-5 in 1 hour, 28 minutes, converting three of nine break points.
Lu, who was also victorious in his only previous meeting with Troicki at Wimbledon in 2011, next faces fourth seed David Ferrer of Spain, who defeated Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic 7-6 (7/5), 6-2.
Photo: AP
In other matches, world No. 5 Tomas Berdych was stunned in straight sets by Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas as he became the latest seed to exit the roller-coaster China Open yesterday.
The second-seeded Czech, who won the rain-delayed Shenzhen Open final on Monday, was sent packing 6-4, 6-4 a little over 24 hours after arriving in Beijing and after only 107 minutes on court.
Milos Raonic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the fifth and eighth seeds, had also failed to negotiate the first round in what has been an eventful tournament so far.
“I made one tournament title. The other one didn’t go my way,” Berdych said after his first-round defeat to the 37th-ranked Cuevas.
“It’s always a difficult part of the year,” he added. “We have to travel a lot. The conditions are always very different, very difficult, week by week here in China. It’s not easy to adjust.”
It was a different story for Garbine Muguruza, who retired from last week’s Wuhan Open final against Venus Williams with an ankle problem, but bounced back to beat Irina Falconi 6-2, 6-1.
The Spaniard, nicknamed “Mushroom” by Beijing fans because her name sounds like “mushroom” in Chinese, would qualify for the WTA Finals if she wins her next match against Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.
“I think I want to finish in a good way the year. I want to go on holidays and say: ‘Look, I had a great year, I did everything I could, to go off the court feeling that I did all my effort,’” Muguruza said.
However, 13th seed Andrea Petkovic’s China Open is over after she was bundled out in three sets by Italy’s Sara Errani, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
With Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova both missing Beijing, the women’s draw has been prised wider open by the retirements of Simona Halep and Eugenie Bouchard, and Petra Kvitova’s early defeat.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Fred Kerley is competing unaugmented against drug-fuelled athletes at this weekend’s Enhanced Games and still hopes to race in the 2028 Olympics, the suspended former 100m world champion said on Friday. Arguably the biggest name at the divisive event in Las Vegas, where doping is permitted, the US sprinter said he had chosen not to take any of the banned substances including testosterone and steroids that his competitors have been using. “I don’t need it. God gave me fast feet for a reason. And I’m here to showcase my talent,” Kerley said. Kerley last September became the first US competitor and first track
MLB is experiencing an epidemic of guys being dudes. At ballparks all across the US, groups consisting of mostly young men are joining in on the “Tarps Off” trend that is loud, goofy, infectious and new to the baseball world. Joining in on the fun is simple: Go to the section where the party is happening, take off your shirt and start twirling it above your head. Soccer-like chants or singing usually follow — injecting a jolt of energy for a sport that is occasionally chided for its lack of energy inside the stadium. After getting its start in St Louis, Missouri, on
Hull City AFC are to play Middlesbrough for a place in the Premier League after Southampton on Wednesday failed in their appeal against expulsion from the Championship playoff final for spying on opponents. Southampton were thrown out of the final on Tuesday and handed a four-point deduction for next season after they had beaten semi-final opponents Middlesbrough. “The original sanction of expulsion ... remains in place, as does the four-point deduction to be applied to the 2026/27 Championship table and the reprimand in respect of all charges,” the English Football League said in a statement. The final is to be played at Wembley
INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL: Officials, players and fans winging across all of North America are likely to make this the most polluting World Cup ever, say scientists The largest and likely most lucrative ever World Cup this summer could set a record for the most-polluting sporting event in history, environmental experts say. “Unlike the case of the Olympic Games, where the carbon footprints have been reducing over the last several editions, this is totally opposite in the case of FIFA men’s World Cup,” said David Gogishvili, a geographer at the University of Lausanne (Unil). The summer’s World Cup has been expanded to 48 teams for the first time. It is being played in three countries — Mexico, Canada and the US — for the first time. It is going to
RSS