Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei’s surprise French Open run ended in the third round yesterday after a dramatic 6-4, 4-6, 9-7 defeat to French 28th seed Caroline Garcia.
Hsieh, looking to reach the last-16 of a Grand Slam for just the second time, led 3-1 in the final set before Garcia reeled off four games on the trot.
The Frenchwoman failed to close it out initially, with Hsieh serving for the match at 6-5.
Photo: EPA
The world No. 109 faltered as well though, allowing Garcia to eventually prevail after 2 hours, 39 minutes.
The 23-year-old faces unseeded compatriot Alize Cornet for a place in the quarter-finals, guaranteeing France a player in the last-eight of the women’s draw for the first time since 2011.
Venus Williams had an easier time, cruising to a 6-3, 6-1 round-of-32·victory over Elise Mertens of Belgium.
In the men’s draw on Friday, Novak Djokovic had an all-around difficult day, from a disagreement with the chair umpire to the big deficit he created and then needed to overcome in steady rain.
Diego Schwartzman not only took the second game of his match against Djokovic, he grabbed the opening set, too, and then the third to go up 2-1.
Schwartzman played well during that stretch, but the No. 2-seeded Djokovic’s biggest problem was himself.
He wound up with 55 unforced errors to 43 winners and all sorts of issues on his backhand wing, which produced 33 of those miscues, all under the watchful eye of new coach Andre Agassi.
Djokovic, who completed a career Grand Slam a year ago in Paris, eventually figured out how to steady his game, if not his demeanor.
As Schwartzman became less proficient and complained about issues in his right-hip area — a trainer came out and gave him a massage during a changeover late in the final set — Djokovic became more assertive and more accurate.
Still, there were distractions. In the fourth set, with Djokovic leading 4-0 and serving at 30-all, he was given a fault by chair umpire Carlos Ramos for multiple time violations.
After the ensuing point, Djokovic stared in Ramos’ direction.
Moments later, just about to face a break point, Djokovic yelled at himself, mostly in Serbian.
Then, facing Ramos, Djokovic briefly lifted his racket overhead, before using it to flip a ball backward toward a ball boy.
That was when Ramos interrupted, announcing a code violation warning for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Djokovic walked over and barked: “What’s wrong with you? What did I say? What did I say? What did I say? Why did you give me warning? What, do you understand Serbian?”
Ramos had trouble getting a word in edgewise, but he responded: “Because of what you did. The gesture you made with the racket. This is not acceptable.”
“Did I hit the ball in your direction?” Djokovic said.
Ramos said: “No, you did not,” before warning the player over his attitude.
When play resumed, Djokovic missed a forehand to drop that game, but won eight of nine games the rest of the way.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set