Staff reporter, with Reuters, PARIS
Taiwan’s Chan sisters on Saturday advanced to the third round of the women’s doubles at the French Open, but once again elder sister Yung-jan cruised, while younger sister Hao-ching had to battle past resolute opponents.
Third seeds Chan Yung-jan and Martina Hingis took just 54 minutes to ease to a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland and Krystina Pliskova of the Czech Republic at Roland Garros in Paris.
Photo: EPA
Golubic and Pliskova won the first game, but then lost 12 of the next 13 as they failed to create a single break point against the back-to-back winners in Madrid and Rome last month.
The Taiwanese-Swiss duo converted five of eight break points to stretch their winning streak to 10 matches and set up a third-round clash with 13th seeds Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands and Johanna Larsson of Sweden.
Twelfth seeds Chan Hao-ching and Barbora Krejcikova had a much tougher time, eventually ousting Chinese duo Liang Chen and Wang Qiang 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 in two hours, four minutes.
Photo: AP
The Taiwanese-Czech duo saved six of 11 break points and converted seven of 12 to set up a tough-looking third-round match against sixth-seeded Czech pairing Lucie Hradecka and Katerina Siniakova.
Kei Nishikori yesterday survived a two-set blackout to beat Chung Hyeon 7-5, 6-4, 6-7 (4) 0-6, 6-4 in their rain-delayed French Open third round tie, winning the first ever all-Asian battle at this stage of the tournament.
Japanese eighth seed Nishikori looked to be cruising into the fourth ound on Saturday after grabbing the opening two sets against the in-form 21-year-old South Korean, who is ranked 67th in the world.
Chung battled back to force a tiebreak in the third, which he won, and then raced to a 3-0 lead before rain saved the day for Nishikori, who slammed his racket onto the ground in frustration just before the rain interruption.
On a sun-kissed Court One yesterday, Chung, Asia’s rising tennis star, picked up where he had left off on Saturday to hand Nishikori his first grand slam bagel in six years.
The experienced 27-year-old, in his 100th Tour-level clay-court match, recovered his composure in time though, taking more risks and playing the angles to stretch Chung.
He earn a break to go 4-1 up and won the three-hour, 51 minute marathon when Chung double-faulted on match point.
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