Seven-time Grand Slam winner Venus Williams eased through to the quarter-finals of the Hong Kong Open yesterday, dazzling China’s Wang Yafan.
Wang, 21, struggled to get into the match and Williams strode to a 6-0, 6-2 victory.
“I had only seen Williams before on TV,” Wang said through a translator. “I was nervous of playing someone so well-known and that meant I didn’t play very well.”
Williams next faces French eighth seed Alize Cornet in the quarter-finals.
The American has had a resurgent season and is fighting for a place in the eight-player WTA Finals in Singapore on Oct. 25.
Cornet beat Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova in 6-7 (4/7), 6-3, 6-4.
Caroline Garcia of France breezed into the quarter-finals with a 6-0, 6-2 win against Anastasiya Komardina.
She faces world No. 10 Angelique Kerber of Germany, who defeated Japan’s Kurumi Nara 6-2, 6-2.
The other quarter-finals see former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic meet Russian sixth seed Daria Gavrilova and Britain’s Heather Watson play fifth seed Samantha Stosur of Australia.
In the doubles quarter-finals, Taiwan’s Chuang Chia-jung and Luksika Kumkhum were ousted by the fourth seeds.
Alize Cornet of France and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan claimed 6-2, 7-6 (7/3) victory in 1 hour, 20 minutes.
TIANJIN OPEN
AFP, BEIJING
World No. 6 Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland swept into the Tianjin Open quarter-finals yesterday, dismissing the host country’s Wang Qiang in straight sets.
The second seed prevailed 6-1, 6-1 in less than an hour, but sixth seed Teliana Pereira of Brazil went out to unseeded Danka Kovinic of Montenegro, who won 6-2, 5-7, 6-1.
The tournament has seen a run of upsets, the most spectacular when Italian top seed Flavia Pennetta, who won the US Open last month, went out to a player ranked more than 400 places below her, Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok.
Kichenok was eliminated herself yesterday by Duan Yingying of China 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 6-4.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB