Hsieh Su-wei on Monday took just 64 minutes to advance to the second round of the Aegon Open in Nottingham, England, a winning start to the Taiwanese player’s grass-court campaign.
The world No. 116 beat world No. 102 Kristina Kucova of Slovakia 6-1, 6-4 to advance to a second-round clash with either fifth seed Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic or qualifier Grace Min of the US.
The Taiwanese saved one of four break points and converted six of 12 to improve her career record over the Slovakian to 2-1.
Hsieh won their first encounter in Luxembourg in 2013, but Kucova avenged that defeat in Kuala Lumpur last year.
Meanwhile, in Stuttgart, Germany, Roger Federer said that sticking to a limited schedule has helped him enjoy a renaissance late in his career, but the rest time is now over and he is looking forward to returning to action at the Mercedes Cup this week.
The 35-year-old was ruled out for six months last year as he recovered from a knee injury, but made a winning return this season at the Australian Open, Indian Wells and Miami, before opting out of the entire clay-court season.
The former world No. 1 is now eager to get back to competition this year after a 10-week layoff.
“There are no more breaks now,” Federer told the ATP Web site. “I’ve had enough breaks. I’m a practice world champion now and that’s not who I want to be. I want to be a champ on the match courts. So I’m going to be playing a regular schedule for the second part of the season ... and this is the beginning here at the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart.”
During Federer’s absence, Rafael Nadal won four clay-court tournaments, culminating in Sunday’s French Open victory, and Federer said the Spaniard could finish the year on top of the world rankings.
“Obviously Rafa is in great position to finish world No. 1. For him it’s going to be all about staying injury free,” Federer said. “For me it’s about getting back to winning ways, where I left off in Miami.”
Federer said he expected Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Kei Nishikori and Stan Wawrinka to step up their game in the second half of the season.
“It’s going to be an epic finish to the end of the season. Quite exciting actually for the ATP Tour,” he said.
Federer is to play either Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert or German Tommy Haas in the second round in Stuttgart today.
TOOTHLESS: Bologna never looked like finding a way back, and Antonio Conte and his substitutes were waiting to celebrate long before the final whistle SSC Napoli on Monday lifted the Italian Supercoppa with a 2-0 win over Bologna in Riyadh, David Neres netting both goals to earn the league champions a deserved victory over the toothless Coppa Italia winners. Neres opened the scoring with a stunning strike from distance six minutes before halftime and found the net again in the 57th minute when Bologna were caught trying to play out of defense. “We came here as champions of Italy, we wanted this trophy and we showed it with a great performance,” Napoli forward Matteo Politano told Mediaset. “We could have scored a few more goals, but
LOW-GOAL SHOOT-OUT: Of the nine penalties in the shoot-out, only three went in, with Flamengo’s Samuel Lino, and Vitinha and Nuno Mendes of PSG netting Matvei Safonov on Wednesday made four straight penalty saves in a penalty shoot-out to help Paris Saint-Germain beat Flamengo in the Intercontinental Cup final and win a sixth trophy of the year. The Russian goalkeeper was thrown in the air by his teammates after his exploits in the shoot-out, which was won 2-1 by PSG after a 1-1 draw after extra-time. It completed a trophy-laden 12 months for the French team, who had already won the Trophee des Champions, Ligue 1, the Coupe de France, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Super Cup — also on penalties against Tottenham Hotspur in
Fulham on Monday climbed away from the English Premier League relegation zone and left Nottingham Forest mired in the fight for survival after Raul Jimenez’s penalty sealed a 1-0 win. Marco Silva’s side started the day just two points above fourth-bottom Forest, but Jimenez’s first-half goal at Craven Cottage moved them 10 points clear of the bottom three. While Fulham’s relegation fears were eased heading into the Christmas schedule, Forest are just five points ahead of third-bottom West Ham United in the scrap to avoid crashing into the Championship. Forest had won six of their previous eight games in all competitions, with a
LACKLUSTER FIGHT: At one stage, the referee lost patience with the two fighters, warning them in the fourth round that ‘the fans did not pay to see this crap’ Former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua on Friday knocked out YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in their controversial Netflix-backed bout in Miami. The fight at the Kaseya Center, which saw both men reportedly splitting a mammoth purse of US$184 million, had triggered alarm across boxing due to the gulf in physical size and class between Britain’s two-time former world champion Joshua and Paul, an Internet personality who has forged a lucrative career through a handful of novelty boxing contests. However, in the event, Joshua made hard work of defeating his vastly less accomplished opponent, before his superior size and power eventually told
RSS