The Chan sisters survived a Taiwanese rout in the first round of the women’s doubles at Wimbledon on Thursday, while Lu Yen-hsun was beaten in the second round of the men’s singles by world No. 2 Andy Murray.
Third seeds Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan were the only successful Taiwanese to take to the grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis Club in London on Thursday, advancing to the second round with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Ashleigh Barty of Australia and Laura Robson of Britain.
The sisters saved five of seven break points and converted five of eight, winning 67 of the 116 points contested, despite serving up six double faults.
Photo: AFP
“Wasn’t an easy first round, but was a good match to start the Wimbledon Championship, see you all at 2nd round,” elder sister Chan Yung-jan wrote on Facebook.
It was not such good news for the rest of the Taiwanese doubles players, with Hsieh Su-wei, Chuang Chia-jung and Chan Chin-wei all crashing out at the first hurdle in the third Grand Slam of the year.
Hsieh and Nicole Melichar of the US fell to a 6-4, 6-3 defeat to Chinese duo Peng Shuai and Zhang Shuai in 1 hour, 19 minutes. Hsieh and Peng won the doubles title at Wimbledon in 2013 as a partnership.
Photo: EPA
Chuang and Mona Barthel of Germany were ousted 6-3, 6-3 in 1 hour, 12 minutes by Japanese duo Eri Hozumi and Miyu Kato, while Chan Chin-wei and Han Xinyun of China were routed 6-1, 6-4 in just 58 minutes by 10th-seeded US pairing Raquel Atawo and Abigail Spears.
In the singles, Murray maintained his challenge for a second Wimbledon title, crushing Lu 6-3, 6-2, 6-1.
He hit 31 winners and served six aces in a Centre Court masterclass lasting just over 90 minutes and faces Australian world No. 67 John Millman for a place in the last 16.
“There were a lot of close games in the first set, but once I managed to hang on there I settled down,” Murray said. “Towards the end of the second I started hitting the ball much cleaner and was more comfortable. There were a few rain drops and you start to see the groundsmen coming to the edge of the court. Thankfully I had a decent lead. I was quite anxious to get off.”
Lu famously defeated Murray at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the world No. 76’s best Grand Slam performance came at Wimbledon when he made the quarter-finals six year ago.
The 32-year-old was on an impressive 11-match winning streak on grass that brought him two second-tier Challenger titles in Ilkley and Surbiton.
Although Murray was broken in the first game and trailed 3-1, he quickly regained the upper hand, reeling off five successive games to take the opening set.
The Scot pressed home his advantage in the second set and Lu was looking completely disoriented by the time he surged through the third in commanding style.
In other men’s matches, fifth-seeded Kei Nishikori came from behind to beat Julien Benneteau 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 on Centre Court; and No. 9 Marin Cilic needed four sets to beat Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-2, 6-7 (6/8), 6-4, 6-4.
Other winners included John Isner, Sam Querrey, Donald Young, Jack Sock and Steve Johnson.
Viktor Troicki let the chair umpire — and the rest of the world — know exactly how angry he was about a key call one point from the end of his 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 loss to Spain’s Albert Ramos-Vinolas.
“Worst umpire ever in the world! What are you doing? Did you see the ball?” Troicki screamed at chair umpire Damiano Torella after Ramos-Vinolas hit a serve that was initially called out by a linesman behind Troicki.
It was not clear, exactly, who changed that ruling, but Torella announced the score was now 40-30, crediting Ramos-Vinolas with an ace and pushing him to match point, which he claimed.
Troicki began shouting: “No, no, no!” and retrieved a ball to show Torella, saying there was no white chalk on the yellow fuzz, therefore it had not hit a line.
Later, speaking to reporters, Troicki said: “I mean, it was such an obvious call. He [Torella] has no experience, no knowledge about anything.”
“He’s just sitting there, calling the score, not trying to watch the ball,” Troicki said.
The umpire gave Troicki a warning for unsportsmanlike conduct.
In the women’s draw, Garbine Muguruza’s first major tournament as a reigning Grand Slam champion did not last long.
Less than a month after winning the French Open, the second-seeded Spaniard was beaten by a Slovakian qualifier ranked No. 124.
In the biggest upset of the tournament so far, Jana Cepelova beat a listless and mistake-prone Muguruza 6-3, 6-2 on Court 1 in less than an hour to reach the third round.
Earlier, five-time champion Venus Williams picked up a win as the tournament scrambled to get back on schedule after two days of bad weather.
With play starting earlier on the outside courts and the rain holding off, Williams was among nine American players winning first or second-round matches.
Joining Williams among the women’s winners were Sloane Stephens, Madison Keys and Julia Boserup.
The 36-year-old Williams, the oldest player in the women’s draw, defeated 20-year-old Greek qualifier Maria Sakkari 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.
In other women’s matches, No. 4 Angelique Kerber advanced with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Varvara Lepchenko; No. 5 Halep beat Francesca Schiavone 6-1, 6-1; and No. 14 Samantha Stosur lost 6-4, 6-2 to 2013 runner-up Sabine Lisicki.
“I don’t remember the moment, but ever since I was a kid, that’s the first thing I loved,” two-time NBA All-Star Isaiah Thomas said of his lifelong romance with basketball. However, that journey unfolded against the limitations of his size in a game where height often dictates opportunity — a reality he confronted throughout his career. At 175cm, Thomas is less than 2cm taller than the average Taiwanese adult male, while NBA players during his career stood at about 200cm on average. Compared with the NBA’s average career length of less than five years, Thomas’ 13-season career stands out as
Hans Niemann declares he would become a “stone cold killer” in a Netflix documentary released on Tuesday about his feud with five-time classical world champion Magnus Carlsen, a pledge that injects new edge into the lingering fallout from the cheating scandal that shook elite chess. “I’m gonna be a stone cold killer the rest of my life,” the US’ Niemann says in the film. “I’m going to become the best player in the world, and no one is going to believe that now, but this clip will play over and over again in 10 years — just wait.” “I just
Dakar and Rabat have longstanding ties, but relations have been strained since the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final, which Senegal won in mid-January before being stripped of the title, which was transferred to Morocco. Now, the AFCON trophy is something of a thorn in the two countries’ sides. On Rue Mohamed V, the street where Moroccan vendors are based in the Senegalese capital, a police van is parked. “The police have been on high alert since the Confederation of African Football [CAF] decided to award the title to Morocco, but there have been no incidents,” a local resident said.
Top seeded Jessica Pegula on Friday once again fought back from a set down to reach the WTA Charleston Open semi-finals with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win against Russia’s Diana Shnaider. Defending champion Pegula has lost the first set in all three of her matches at the tournament so far, but again dug deep to maintain her hopes of retaining the title. The world No. 5 from the US took 2 hours, 10 minutes to defeat 19th-ranked Shnaider, relying on a formidable service game that included eight aces. Shnaider battled well in the first two sets and broke early for a 2-0 lead
RSS