Taiwan’s Chan sisters survived a roller-coaster day at the WTA Tour’s Wuhan Open yesterday to advance to the semi-finals of the doubles, while Lu Yen-hsun failed with his comeback bid and exited the ATP Tour’s Chengdu Open in the second round.
Second seeds Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan were a set down and facing a break point when their second-round match against Slovenian duo Andreja Klepac and Katarina Srebotnik was suspended due to rain on Wednesday, but they fought back yesterday to complete a 3-6, 7-5, 10-8 victory in 1 hour, 31 minutes.
The sisters saved five of 10 break points and converted four of six to set up a quarter-final against familiar adversaries Raquel Atawo and Abigail Spears later in the day.
Photo: AFP
The second seeds carried on their good form to win the first set against the American duo, before it all fell apart as the sisters suffered muscle cramps and called the doctor, before losing the second to love.
However, the Chans rediscovered their touch in the super tiebreak to complete a 6-3, 0-6, 10-4 victory in 1 hour, 22 minutes and improve their career record against the Americans to 4-2.
The Taiwanese pairing saved two of six break points and converted two of nine, winning 53 of the 102 points contested to advance to today’s semi-finals.
“Dramatic day ... but very happy we made it,” Chan Yung-jan wrote on Facebook.
Fellow Taiwanese Chuang Chia-jung and Kateryna Bondarenko also won their rain-affected second-round clash, completing a 6-4, 4-6, 10-8 victory over seventh-seeded Czech duo Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradrecka in 1 hour, 36 minutes.
However, the pairing fell to a 6-4, 6-2 defeat to Christina McHale of the US and Peng Shuai of China in their quarter-final in just 67 minutes.
In the women’s singles, world No. 5 Simona Halep downed Madison Keys in the quarter-finals to book her place WTA Final for the third consecutive year.
Big serving Keys took an early lead in the first set, breaking the Romanian’s serve twice, but was unable to maintain the momentum as Halep equalled and then took the set 6-4.
Halep — who turned 25 this week — dropped just two games to take the second set and confirm her place in the eight-player season finale in Singapore.
Only world No. 1 Angelique Kerber and Serena Williams have so far qualified for the highly lucrative tournament, and the field remains wide open for the remaining five spots.
In Chengdu, Lu rallied from a set down to level his second-round singles match with fifth seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas, but the Spaniard fought back to complete a 7-6 (7/4), 3-6, 6-4 victory in 2 hours, 28 minutes.
Joining the fifth seed in the quarter-finals were South Africa’s Kevin Anderson, who ousted second seed Nick Kyrgios of Australia 3-6, 7-6 (8/6), 6-2, and sixth-seeded Serbian Viktor Troicki, who outlasted Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.
The New Taipei Kings claimed the inaugural Taiwan Professional Basketball League (TPBL) championship on Sunday, defeating the Kaohsiung FamilyMart Aquas 108-89 in the final. Playing at home, the Kings pulled ahead with Jeremy Lin’s (林書豪) clutch three-pointers, securing their victory over the Aquas in the TPBL final. The Kings came out strong in the first quarter, dominating to build a 35-18 lead. By halftime, they had stretched their advantage to 61-38. In the third quarter, the Aquas narrowed the deficit to 12 points, but Lin stepped up, sinking several tough three- pointers to extend the lead. In the final quarter, the Kings pushed the
In an unlikely Ethiopian outpost of one the most French of pastimes, four men are leaning over their petanque balls, arguing over who is winning. Petanque, the bowling game also known as boules, is more readily associated with French village squares where locals launch metal balls at a jack while enjoying an afternoon drink, but for decades, it has also been a beloved pastime for members of a club near the iconic Meskel Square in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. It was founded in the early 20th century to cater to French railway workers, who built a line connecting Addis Ababa
Taiwanese women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei and Australian teenager Maya Joint on Tuesday eased into the Eastbourne Open quarter-finals in England as Hsieh prepares for the Wimbledon Championships next week. Four-time Wimbledon women’s doubles champion Hsieh and 19-year-old Joint fired two aces and converted five of eight break points to defeat Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Poland’s Katarzyna Piter 6-3, 6-3 in 58 minutes on the grass court. Hsieh and Joint are today to face fourth seeds Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic and Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, who advanced on Monday with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Quinn Gleason of the US and
BEAT THE HEAT: A brutal heat wave in the US has made cooling breaks standard. Dortmund’s coach said the weather could shape the destiny of the tournament Chelsea on Tuesday beat Esperance of Tunisia 3-0 to set up a FIFA Club World Cup last-16 tie against SL Benfica, who earlier defeated Bayern Munich 1-0, as furnace-link heat and the threat of thunder and lightning wreak havoc at the tournament. Elsewhere, minnows Auckland City claimed a memorable draw against Boca Juniors, while Los Angeles bowed out of the tournament with a stalemate against Flamengo. In Charlotte, Andreas Schjelderup scored the only goal for Benfica in their Group C clash with Bayern in front of 33,287 fans, finishing first-time from a cutback by his fellow Norwegian Fredrik Aursnes in the 13th
RSS