Taiwan and Malaysia were deadlocked at 1-1 after the first day of their Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group II tie in Kaohsiung yesterday.
Malaysia drew first blood on the hard courts at the Yang-Ming Tennis Center when Mohd Merzuki won a marathon seesaw first singles rubber over Taiwan’s Hung Jui-chen 6-2, 6-7 (6/8), 0-6, 6-1, 6-4 in 2 hours, 52 minutes.
Merzuki saved five of 13 break points and converted 10 of 17, winning 133 of the 256 points contested to give Malaysia a 1-0 lead.
Photo: CNA
However, Taiwan’s Huang Liang-chi cruised to a 6-0, 6-0, 6-2 victory over Syed Syed Naguib in just 55 minutes in the second singles rubber to tie the score at 1-1.
Huang saved one of the two break points he faced and converted nine of 13, winning 82 of the 112 points contested.
The hosts, who have never lost to Malaysia in three previous Davis Cup meetings, have been unable to call on the services of Taiwanese No. 1 and world No. 94 Lu Yen-hsun due to injury.
In today’s doubles rubber, which is scheduled to begin at 2pm, Huang is due to team up with Yi Chu-huan as they attempt to claim the lead in the three-day first-round tie.
Two of the other three Asia/Oceania Group II matches were also deadlocked at 1-1 after the first day.
The hosts and Vietnam were tied at 1-1 in Surakarta, Indonesea, while in Nonthaburi, Thailand, the hosts were also being held 1-1 by visitors Sri Lanka. In the other match, the Philippines were leading Kuwait 1-0 in Metro Manila after the first singles rubber.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with