Second seed Petra Kvitova was on Thursday barely troubled in her first match at the Stanford Classic as the big-hitting Czech needed just an hour to demolish Kateryna Bondarenko 6-2, 6-2 in a second-round encounter.
The two-time Wimbledon champion looked back to her best as she builds strength following a career-threatening knife attack at the end of last year and did not face a single break point against her 111th-ranked Ukrainian opponent.
“I served very well, and I was just trying to play my game, which I always try, and sometimes that works, sometimes not,” Kvitova said after her victory in California, in which she hit 31 winners.
Kvitova is playing her fourth event since spending six months recovering from stab wounds to her left hand inflicted by an intruder at her home in the Czech Republic.
Kvitova suffered second-round losses at the French Open and Wimbledon, but now has the US Open, starting later this month, firmly in her sights.
Next up for the Czech is a quarter-final against eighth-seeded American Catherine Bellis, who advanced with a 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 victory over Veronica Cepede Royg of Paraguay.
All four second-round matches on Thursday were won in straight sets as the form book prevailed.
Russian fourth seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beat American Alison Riske 6-4, 6-0, while sixth seed Coco Vandeweghe thrashed fellow American Nicole Gibbs 6-0, 6-2.
Vandeweghe seems to be thriving under the guidance of coach Pat Cash.
“I think we’re out of the honeymoon,” she said jokingly, before explaining that Cash is a hard taskmaster.
All eight seeds advanced to yesterday’s quarter-finals, with top-seeded Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza opening proceedings against Ana Konjuh of Croatia.
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