Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan and Martina Hingis survived a huge scare to keep their bid for back-to-back doubles titles on track at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Wednesday, while top seed Angelique Kerber was not so fortunate, losing her opening match at the Foro Italico to Estonian qualifier Anett Kontaveit.
Second seeds Chan and Hingis rallied from a set down against Nao Hibino of Japan and Alicja Rosolska of Poland to edge a tight second-round contest 4-6, 7-5, 11-9 in 1 hour, 38 minutes.
The Taiwanese-Swiss duo saved three of six break points and converted three of six, winning 75 of the 144 points contested to advance to the quarter-finals in Rome.
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The second seeds are looking for a third title as a pairing and the second in a week after they triumphed at the Mutua Madrid Open on Saturday.
In the women’s singles, world No. 1 Kerber fell to a shock 6-4, 6-0 loss to Kontaveit.
Kerber joined Andy Murray, the men’s world No. 1, on the sidelines after Murray’s loss to Fabio Fognini on Tuesday.
“Everybody knows I’m not a clay-court specialist,” Kerber said. “I was not playing good last year as well. I had a great year, but I mean, these few weeks I was not playing good and this year it’s the same.”
In the men’s singles, Rafael Nadal hardly had to get his socks dirty extending his winning streak to 16 matches.
Back to being the best player on the ATP Tour over the past month, Nadal advanced from his opening match when Nicolas Almagro retired in the first set with an apparent injury.
Nadal has won consecutive clay-court tournaments in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Madrid.
Also on Wednesday, Olympic silver medalist Juan Martin del Potro defeated Britain’s Kyle Edmund 7-5, 6-4; fifth seed Milos Raonic defeated German veteran Tommy Haas 6-4, 6-3; and 16th seed Alexander Zverev beat Viktor Troicki 6-3, 6-4 and was due to face Italian Fabio Fognini.
“The stadium will be very loud for him. I’m very sure about that,” Zverev said of Fognini. “It’s going to be a fun day, a fun atmosphere and great match.”
Nadal was to face 13th seed Jack Sock, who beat Jiri Vesely 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7/1) after more than two-and-a-half hours.
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
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB