Maria Sharapova on Thursday was handed a wild card for the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, Ohio, a key warm-up for the US Open, the season’s final Grand Slam which has yet to guarantee the Russian star a place.
Former world No. 1 and five-time Grand Slam winner Sharapova is still rebuilding her career following a 15-month doping ban which ended in April.
Injury then ruled her out of contention for Wimbledon, where she had been due to play qualifying after French Open organizers had refused her a wild card.
The Cincinnati event, which runs from Aug. 14 to Aug. 20, also granted a wild card to Victoria Azarenka, the two-time Grand Slam winner who only recently returned to the WTA Tour after maternity leave.
“The addition of these players adds to our already strong player field,” tournament director Andre Silva said. “We anticipate the WTA’s No. 1 ranking to be on the line during the tournament and adding players of this caliber will make the battle for the top spot even more compelling.”
Sharapova, 30, was champion in Cincinnati in 2011, with Azarenka taking the title two years later.
Sharapova, now ranked No. 173, has not played since being injured in Rome in May, but returns next week at the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, California.
The Russian star tested positive for meldonium, a heart and blood boosting drug, at last year’s Australian Open. She said that she had taken it for several years and did not know it had been placed on the banned list at the beginning of last year.
JIANGXI OPEN
Staff writer
Hsieh Su-wei crashed out of the quarter-finals at the Jiangxi Open yesterday, ousted by 23-year-old Chinese wild-card Wang Yafan, who had dispatched fellow Taiwanese Chan Kai-cheng from the WTA tournament in Nanchang, China, on Thursday.
World No. 112 Hsieh fell to a 7-6 (9/7), 6-0 defeat to the world No. 147 on 1 hour, 45 minutes in the first quarter-final on Centre Court.
Wang saved five of seven break points and converted all five she created, winning 75 of the 138 points contested despite sending down five double faults.
The win evened the career record between the two players to 1-1 after Hsieh won their only previous encounter in the round-of-16 in Nanjing, China, in 2015.
In the semi-finals, Wang faces either Nao Hibino of Japan or fellow Chinese Lu Jingjing, who on Thursday rallied from a set down to defeat former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic 2-6, 6-1, 6-2.
The Serb appeared to have problems with the heat after taking the first set as the temperature reached 39?C.
“I was feeling really weak,” Jankovic told the WTA Web site. “I was continuing to play, because I don’t like to give up. I just didn’t have any power. I was trying my best, [but] I just physically couldn’t find the energy or the power to go till the end.”
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