Taiwan’s Chuang Chia-jung lost out in a closely fought doubles semi-final at the Internationaux de Strasbourg yesterday, the final warm-up tournament before the French Open, the second Grand Slam of the year, begins in Paris tomorrow.
Second seeds Chuang and Darija Jurak fell to a 5-7, 6-4, 10-8 defeat to third seeds Maria Irigoyen and Liang Chen in 1 hour, 41 minutes on the red clay in France.
The Taiwanese-Croatian duo saved just two of seven break points, while converting five of 11 and winning 71 of the 144 points contested, but it was not enough as the Argentine-Chinese pairing advanced to today’s doubles final against top-seeded Spaniards Anabel Medina Garrigues and Arantxa Parra Santonja.
Photo: EPA
In the singles quarter-finals on Thursday, fourth-seeded Kristina Mladenovic downed Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia 6-4, 6-2 to reach her first semi-final this season.
Mladenovic, who received a wild card, led two other Frenchwomen in the last four, Caroline Garcia and lucky loser Virginie Razzano.
In a match featuring 13 breaks of serve, Mladenovic was the strongest on important points and was glad she spent just 68 minutes on the court after a three-setter against Alison Riske in her previous match.
“It was a quick match and it’s the ideal scenario before a semifinal, to be able to get some rest and not walk out on the court tomorrow tired,” she said.
Croatian veteran Mirjana Lucic-Baroni prevented an all-French semifinals by sweeping past Pauline Parmentier 6-0, 6-1.
Nuremberg Open
AP, NUREMBERG, Germany
Third-seeded Annika Beck topped seventh-seeded Anna-Lena Friedsam 7-6 (6), 2-6, 6-2 in an all-German quarter-final in Nuremberg on Thursday.
That was the only match that was completed on a bizarre day interrupted by rain.
Beck will next play Dutch qualifier Kiki Bertens, who advanced when Bogota champion Irina Falconi of Italy quit with a right-ankle injury after losing the first set 6-1.
Julia Goerges advanced to her first semi-final since January when fourth-seeded Lesia Tsurenko pulled out with a left hamstring injury.
Goerges will face either Varvara Lepchenko or Mariana Duque-Marino, whose quarter-final was postponed because of darkness.
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
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite