Taiwan’s Chan sisters edged a thrilling Qatar Open doubles semi-final on Friday, while Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro was set to play in both the singles and doubles finals yesterday.
Fourth seeds Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan fought back from a set down to edge Russian duo Daria Kasatkina and Elena Vesnina — who had ended the 41-match winning streak of top seeds Martina Hingis of Switzerland and Sania Mirza of India in the quarter-finals — 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 10-8 in 1 hour, 54 minutes.
The Taiwanese sisters saved five of nine break points and converted two of 10, winning 80 of the 156 points contested to advance to the final in the super tiebreak at the International Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha.
Photo: Screengrab from Chan Hao-Ching’s Facebook page
The Chan sisters were going for their second WTA Tour title of the season in the final, which was due to be played in the early hours of this morning, after they claimed the inaugural Taiwan Open title in Kaohsiung on Feb. 14.
“Today was a really tough fight, especially after losing the first set, it was difficult, but fortunately we did not give up from start to finish. Kept playing until the last minute to claim this crucial victory. Will come back tomorrow with the same mentality,” Chan Hao-ching wrote on Facebook.
In the second semi-final, Sara Errani of Italy and Spain’s Suarez Navarro cruised past Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain 6-1, 6-4 in just 64 minutes.
In the singles semi-finals, Suarez Navarro restricted No. 3-ranked Agnieszka Radwanska to only two games with a 6-2, 6-0 victory on Friday.
The eighth-seeded Suarez Navarro needed only 62 minutes to beat Radwanska and is slated to next face 18-year-old Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, who reached her first WTA Tour final when German Andrea Petkovic retired with a leg injury while trailing 7-5, 1-0.
Radwanska was 3-1 in head-to-head against Suarez Navarro, which included a crushing 6-1, 6-3 defeat for the Spaniard in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open in January, but she was determined to make amends from the word go.
Suarez Navarro unleashed two of her 21 winners in the first game to break Radwanska. The third-seeded Radwanska broke back immediately, but that was the only high point of the day for her.
Suarez Navarro won the first set in 29 minutes and Radwanska could do nothing in the second, despite her opponent taking a hard tumble while chasing a ball that required on-court medical attention.
“Today, I feel really, really good,” said Suarez Navarro, who is set to improve to No. 6 in the rankings. “I think also she was a little tired from yesterday [when she beat Roberta Vinci is three sets].”
On achieving her career-high ranking, she added: “You work for a long time for this. And to be in the top 10 is obviously good. I feel happy.”
In the other semi-final, Petkovic appeared to be cruising against Ostapenko when she was 5-1 in the first set with a couple of early breaks.
However, she injured her left leg, and also seemed troubled with her back and Ostapenko took full advantage to rattle off the next seven games in a row before the German retired.
“I feel really sorry for Andrea that she had to retire. She is a great player. But I am happy to have fought back from 5-1 down and reach the final,” Ostapenko said.
Suarez Navarro and Ostapenko have met once before — in the first round of last year’s Wimbledon — where the young Latvian was a 6-2, 6-0 winner.
Ostapenko, ranked 88th at the start of the week, is expected to move into the top 50.
AFP, OVIEDO, Spain Lionel Messi received Spain’s most prestigious sports award on Friday in recognition of his glittering career and his work for disadvantaged children’s access to health and education. The Argentine forward, 39, was named winner of the Princess of Asturias Award for Sports in June, with the jury hailing “the most successful footballer of all time” and his social work. Dozens of fans wearing Argentina soccer shirts cheered and chanted Messi’s name as he arrived to the sound of bagpipes and drums at the ceremony in Oviedo, capital of the northern Spanish region of Asturias. Messi collected a formal roll of parchment
The CTBC Brothers took another step yesterday to overcoming a 3-0 deficit in the Taiwan Series with a dramatic 4-3 victory over the Wei Chuan Dragons at the Taipei Dome, extending the championship series to a Game 6. The Brothers got strong performances from starting pitcher Nivaldo Rodriguez and shortstop Chiang Kun-yu, who scored the winning run in the top of the ninth to give CTBC its second straight win in the series. With the score tied at 3-3, Brothers first baseman Huang Wei-sheng hit a sacrifice fly to drive home Chiang, who had reached base with his third hit of the
On the eve of the MLB World Series, there is a realization that these might be the competition’s last games for a while. Owners are pushing for a salary cap, which could prompt a lockout starting on Dec. 2 and result in canceled games next year. “It would be a real bummer to lose a season, that’s for sure,” Tampa Bay Rays ace Drew Rasmussen said on Thursday ahead of the World Series opener against the Milwaukee Brewers. “I think the industry as a whole is in way too good of a place.” The World Series is scheduled to start at 8am today,
FIRST TIME LUCKY: Milwaukee’s first World Series game in 44 years, Misiorowski helped the Brewers to a 3-2 victory against the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday’s opener Jacob Misiorowski stepped on the mound for a World Series debut like no other. “I had so much adrenaline built up,” he said. He threw a pitch the likes of which had never been seen in the Fall Classic. The Miz broke the World Series velocity record with his very first delivery, a 103.5mph (166.6kph) fastball to the Tampa Bay Rays’ Yandy Diaz that was taken high out of the strike zone for a ball. He allowed one run over five innings to get his first postseason win as a starter, helping the Milwaukee Brewers to a 3-2 victory in Friday night’s opener. “I
RSS