Defending champion Rajeev Ram of the US on Monday beat compatriot Mackenzie McDonald 6-2, 6-3 in the opening round of the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships.
Ram, a two-time winner on Newport’s grass courts — also in 2009, when he won his only other ATP title — needed just 65 minutes to get past 21-year-old McDonald, who was making his tour debut.
Ram, 32, won the first set in 33 minutes on a new-look center court area in the shadows of the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
He said he enjoys coming back to Newport.
“For me, yeah, I’ve won two titles, they’ve both been here,” he said. “I’ve played here every year since I’ve been a pro. A lot of things make it really special.”
After last year’s event, wooden bleachers at center court behind the south baseline were replaced by stadium seats. An electronic scoreboard was installed, which gave the players the option of challenging calls for the first time at the tournament, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary.
Up 4-0 in the second set, Ram doubled-faulted twice in three points to lose the first of two straight games.
“That probably shouldn’t have happened from 40-love up,” he said. “Thankfully, I was up two breaks.”
Ram feels better prepared to defend his title this year.
“It feels a little bit different than it did in 2010, when I was defending it,” he said. “I feel a little bit more confident in my game and what I can do.”
McDonald captured a National Collegiate Athletic Association singles and doubles title at the University of California, Los Angeles before turning professional.
Top seed Steve Johnson, now ranked a career-best No. 25, received a bye and is scheduled to play his first match today.
In other first-round play, eighth seed Donald Young of the US beat compatriot Jared Donaldson 6-1, 6-3; Dudi Sela of Israel ousted Lukas Lacko of Slovakia 6-3, 6-2; and Marco Chiudinelli of Switzerland advanced when fifth-seeded Vasek Pospisil of Canada withdrew with a back injury.
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