Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the quarter-finals of the singles at the Prague Open on Wednesday, but crashed out in the quarter-finals of the doubles later in the day along with fellow Taiwanese Chuang Chia-jung and Chan Chin-wei.
In the second round of the singles, Taiwanese No. 1 Hsieh rallied after to losing the second set to oust 18-year-old Croatian Ana Konjuh 6-4, 2-6, 6-1 in 1 hour, 37 minutes.
The Kaohsiung-born world No. 78 saved 10 of 13 break points and converted four of eight, winning 82 of the 159 points contested to advance to a quarter-final against Lucie Safarova, who advanced when fellow Czech Lucie Hradecka retired with a neck injury with the second seed leading 6-4, 2-0.
“Obviously, it’s not the best feeling after the match to win like that, but I think I played really well in the first set, served really well — there was a key moment at 5-4 when I was down 40-0 and aced her three times,” world No. 16 Safarova told the WTA Web site. “Overall, I’m happy with my game and ready for the next one.”
Safarova won her only previous meeting with the Taiwanese No. 1 6-2, 6-3 in the second round at Wimbledon last year.
Also advancing to the quarter-finals on a bitterly cold Wednesday afternoon was top-seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, who rallied from a set down to oust Madison Brengle of the US 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 in 2 hours, 8 minutes.
“Yesterday was really hard and today as well,” Kuznetsova said. “It looks like it’s warmer, but it’s not — thankfully it wasn’t snowing. Today I put the heat cream on and almost all the clothes I have with me.”
The cold conditions affected the Russian world No. 13 and it was not until the latter stages that she began to impress.
“It’s difficult, especially on the clay, because I like when the ball bounces high and here it doesn’t bounce at all,” she said. “It was a little bit ugly, but sometimes you need to win ugly matches, especially for me. In the first set I didn’t really play my game. I was struggling to move and when I don’t move my game is a little bit off.”
Kuznetsova was next due to face Monica Puig of Puerto Rico, who defeated Czech lucky loser Barbora Krejcikova 6-4, 6-4.
Also advancing to the quarter-finals were Czech third seed Karolina Pilskova, Australian fourth seed Samantha Stosur, Czech fifth seed Barbora Strycova and Camila Giorgi of Italy.
In the quarter-finals of the doubles, Hsieh and Ysaline Bonaventure of Belgium fell to a 6-1, 6-4 defeat to top-seeded US duo Raquel Atawo and Abigail Spears in 68 minutes; third seeds Chuang and Darija Durak of Croatia were ousted 6-3, 3-6, 10-6 by Maria Irigoyen of Argentina and Paula Kania of Poland in 1 hour, 26 minutes; and second seeds Margarita Gasparyan of Russia and Andrea Hlavackova of the Czech Republic rallied from a set down to defeat Chan and Klaudia Jans-Ignacik of Poland 4-6, 6-4, 10-7 in 1 hour, 27 minutes..
GRAND PRIX SAR
AP, RABAT
Top seed Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland overcame five breaks of serve to beat Kateryna Kozlova of Ukraine 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 and reach the quarter-finals of the Grand Prix SAR on Wednesday.
World No. 15 Bacsinszky was next due to play Johanna Larsson of Sweden, who beat Teliana Pereira of Brazil 6-4, 6-4.
Qualifier Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia, the world No. 123, upset second seed Ekaterina Makarova of Russia 6-2, 6-2, while another qualifier — Marina Erakovic of New Zealand — led 6-4 against seventh seed Lesia Tsurenko when the Ukrainian retired.
Fifth seed Timea Babos of Hungary beat Britain’s Laura Robson 6-1, 6-2 and eighth seed Yulia Putintseva joined her in the last eight with a 6-0, 6-2 win against Germany’s Tatjana Maria.
Kiki Bertens, the 2012 champion, and Pauline Parmentier also progressed to the quarter-finals.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier