Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan and Martina Hingis of Switzerland kept their bid for a second straight title on track at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia yesterday, while sixth seed Simona Halep advanced to the final of the singles.
Second seeds Chan and Hingis battled to a 6-3, 7-6 (9/7) semi-final victory over third seeds Sania Mirza of India and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan in 1 hour, 44 minutes at the Foro Italico in Rome.
The Taiwanese-Swiss duo saved three of five break points and converted three of eight to advance to a final against top-seeded Russian Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina or fourth seeds Timea Babos of Hungary and Andrea Hlavackova of the Czech Republic, who were playing later yesterday.
Photo: Reuters
In the singles, Halep defeated 15th seed Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands 7-5, 6-1 in 1 hour, 17 minutes.
The Romanian saved six of eight break points and converted six of 15 to set up her send consecutive final against either third seed Garbine Muguruza of Spain or eighth seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, who were due to play their semi-final later yesterday.
In the rain-affected men’s singles quarter-finals on Friday, eighth seed Dominic Thiem of Austria ended fourth seed Rafael Nadal’s 17-game winning streak on clay with a 6-4, 6-3 victory in 1 hour, 51 minutes.
Photo: Reuters
“Tomorrow I’ll be in Mallorca fishing or playing golf, or another thing. I’m going to rest a little bit, I think I deserve it,” 14-time Grand Slam champion Nadal told the International Business Times.
“Then from Monday and Tuesday I will start to prepare for Roland Garros. It’s an important event for me. If you do things well, you have more chances in Roland Garros. I hope to play my best tennis in Roland Garros,” he said.
Nadal predicted a bright future for the 23-year-old Thiem.
“He played very aggressive, hitting the ball very strong,” he said. “The court here is probably the smaller on all the center courts on clay, so that makes the players who play with bigger serve and hitting the ball strong, you know, is a little bit more easier for them to see the option to hit winners.”
Novak Djokovic cruised into the semi-finals yesterday after a rain-interrupted 6-1, 6-4 win over Juan del Potro.
The second seed was to play Thiem later yesterday.
Heavy rain in the Italian capital, which began on Friday, mean organizers are playing catch-up in a bid to bring the event to a close by today.
Additional reporting by AFP
A seven-year-old horse had to be euthanized on Friday after breaking its back on the final fence of a Grand National steeplechase race that it won despite sustaining the serious injury. It follows the death of four horses at the Cheltenham Festival last month — including one after the prestigious Gold Cup. Gold Dancer was competing in the Mildmay Novices’ Chase during Ladies Day at Aintree’s Grand National Festival. The horse managed to cross the finish line approximately four lengths ahead of runner-up Regent’s Stroll. “The winner of our second race of the day, Gold Dancer, was pulled up after
Taiwanese gymnast Tang Chia-hung on Sunday topped the men’s horizontal bar event at the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) World Cup in Osijek, Croatia, scoring 15.233 to take his third title this season. Tang delivered an outstanding performance in the final, earning a difficulty score of 6.500 and an execution score of 8.633 with a 0.1 stick bonus. His closest competitor was Milad Karimi of Kazakhstan, who finished second with 14.933 points. It was Tang’s third gold medal in the FIG World Cup series this year, following his horizontal bar wins in Azerbaijan on March 8, and in Turkey on March
The Daredevils yesterday took eight catches in the final as they eked out a victory in the Taiwan Cricket Triangular Tournament against PCCT at Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei’s Songshan District. PCCT’s batting lineup collapsed after they asked the Daredevils to bowl in the T20 decider of the weekend tournament that also involved the Formosa Cricket Club. PCCT were bundled out for 76 in 16.2 overs against a disciplined Daredevils attack. Ninad Malwade was the top scorer in the innings with 21, but he was among those who offered chances to the fielders. Shane Ferreira and Jason Cameron took three wickets each, with
OBJECTIVE REACHED: ’Now for us, it’s about getting healthy, making sure everybody is ready to go, and we can ramp up,’ the Atlanta Hawks’ C.J. McCollum said after the game The Atlanta Hawks on Friday secured an NBA playoff berth with a 124-102 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers as the Boston Celtics locked up the Eastern Conference second seed with a lopsided win of their own. C.J. McCollum scored a game-high 29 points for the Hawks, who came into the contest at sixth in the East and still in danger of falling into the play-in tournament that would see the seventh-through 10th-placed teams battle for the last two playoff berths in each conference. Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Jalen Johnson scored 18 points apiece, and Dyson Daniels added a triple-double of 13
RSS