Taiwan took a 2-1 lead against Malaysia in their Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group II first-round match in Kaohsiung yesterday.
Huang Liang-chi and Yi Chu-huan cruised to a 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Mohd Merzuki and Syed Syed Naguib in 1 hour, 28 minutes in the doubles rubber at the Yang-Ming Tennis Center.
The Taiwanese duo did not face a single break point and converted five of 15, winning 100 of the 161 points contested to put the hosts in control ahead of today’s reverse singles matches.
Malaysia had taken an early lead on Friday when Merzuki defeated Hung Jui-chen 6-2, 6-7 (6/8), 0-6, 6-1, 6-4 in the opening singles rubber, but Huang leveled the tie by easing past Syed Naguib 6-0, 6-0, 6-2 in the second singles rubber.
To advance to the second round, Taiwan need to win one of today’s two reverse singles rubbers in Kaohsiung when Huang is due to take on Merzuki, before Hung faces Syed Naguib.
In the other Asia/Ocenia Group II first-round matches, the Philippines advanced to the second round when Francis Alcantara and Treat Huey cruised to a 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 victory over Kuwait’s Abdulrahman Alawadhi and Abdulhamid Mubarak to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in Metro Manila.
Thailand took a 2-1 lead over Sri Lanka when Sanchai and Sochat Ratiwatana defeated Yasitha de Silva and Dineshkanthan Thangarajah 6-0, 6-2, 6-3 in their doubles rubber in Nonthaburi, Thailand.
In Surakarta, Indonesia, the hosts were tied 1-1 with Vietnam after the doubles rubber was suspended due to rain.
TIGHT GAME: The Detroit Pistons, the NBA’s second-best team, barely outlasted the Washington Wizards, who fell to an NBA-worst 1-10 with their ninth consecutive loss Cade Cunningham’s triple double, Daniss Jenkins’ three-pointer at the buzzer and Javonte Green’s overtime dunk lifted Detroit past Washington 137-135 on Monday, stretching the Pistons’ win streak to seven games. In an unexpected thriller, the NBA’s second-best team barely outlasted a Wizards club that fell to an NBA-worst 1-10 with their ninth consecutive loss. “We knew how big this game was for us,” Jenkins said. “We wasn’t going to let nothing stop us from getting this W.” Cunningham made 14-of-45 shots and 16-of-18 free throws for a career-high 46 points, and added 12 rebounds, 11 assists, five steals and two
LIKE FINE WINE: Thirty-eight-year-old Djokovic won his 101st title of his career in Athens, becoming the oldest tournament winner since Ken Roswell, 44, in 1977 Elena Rybakina on Saturday clinched her biggest title since Wimbledon in 2022, defeating world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 7-6 (7/0) at the WTA Finals in Riyadh. The world No. 6 put on yet another serving masterclass and was at her returning best as she became the first Kazakh and the first player representing an Asian country to lift the WTA Finals singles trophy. Having gone 3-0 in round-robin play, Rybakina earned a record US$5.235 million and would finish the year ranked No. 5 in the world. “It’s been an incredible week, I honestly didn’t expect any result, and to go so far,
EMPTY STANDS: Maccabi fans were banned from attending by police, who cited violence and hate crimes when the team played Ajax in Amsterdam last season Aston Villa beat Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv 2-0 on Thursday in a Europa League game played amid heightened security measures, with more than 700 police officers deployed to deal with possible protests. Morgan Rogers put through Ian Maatsen in first-half stoppage time for the defender to score from a tight angle and Villa doubled the lead on the hour with Donyell Malen hitting the bottom corner from the penalty spot. It was Villa’s third win from games in the competition. The game at Villa Park had become the center of a political debate after Maccabi fans were banned from attending, as
An amateur soccer league organized by farmers, students and factory workers in rural China has unexpectedly drawn millions of fans and inspired big cities to form their own, raising hopes China can grow talent from the ground up and finally become a global force. The nation of 1.4 billion people has about 200 million soccer fans, more than any other country, but it has failed to build world-class teams, partly due to a top-down approach where clubs pick players from a very small pool of prescreened candidates. The professional game is marred by a history of fixed matches, corruption, and dismal performances,
RSS