The Chan sisters, fresh from their gold-medal winning performance at the Taipei Summer Universiade on Tuesday, got their US Open campaigns off to a winning start on Thursday at Flushing Meadows in New York.
Elder sister Chan Yung-jan and Nenad Zimonjic took 59 minutes to see off Spanish duo Arantxa Parra Santonja and Marc Lopez 6-2, 7-6 (7/2) in the first round of the mixed doubles on Court 7.
The Taiwanese-Serbian pairing saved two of four break points and converted four of five, winning 66 of the 109 points contested to advance to the second round.
Photo: AFP
Younger sister Chan Hao-ching and Michael Venus of New Zealand cruised into the second round of the mixed doubles with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over US duo Amanda Anisimova and Christian Harrison in just 53 minutes on Court 11.
The third seeds saved all seven break points they faced and converted three of four, winning 58 of the 104 points contested to advance to a second-round clash with Alicja Rosolska of Poland and Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico, who defeated Andreja Klepac of Slovenia and Mate Pavic of Croatia 6-3, 5-7, 11-9 in 76 minutes.
In the first round of the women’s doubles, Taiwan’s Chuang Chia-jung and Misaki Doi of Japan rallied from a set down to upset eighth seeds Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Kveta Peschke of the Czech Republic 5-7, 6-2, 6-0 in 1 hour, 48 minutes on Court 14.
The duo saved six of nine break points and converted seven of 12, winning 93 of the 162 points contested.
In the singles, former champions Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal battled into the last 32 while the women’s draw lost the fifth seed from its top eight.
Federer recorded his 80th career win, but he needed five sets for the second successive match before claiming a 6-1, 6-7 (3/7), 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 triumph over Mikhail Youzhny.
Youzhny said he had cramped, which meant he could move left to right, but not forward and back.
“That was hard to watch,” Federer said. “But this was probably the best match we have played against each other.”
Meanwhile, world No. 1 Nadal saw off Japan’s Taro Daniel 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 after being blown off court in the first set.
Andrey Rublev became the second teenager to make the third round when he stunned Bulgarian seventh-seed Grigor Dimitrov 7-5, 7-6 (7/3), 6-3.
Rublev, just 19 and world No. 53, joins 18-year-old Denis Shapovalov of Canada in the last 32 at a Grand Slam event for the first time.
On the women’s side, a record was set when Shelby Rogers from the US and 25th-seeded Australian Daria Gavrilova played out the longest-ever women’s singles match.
Rogers won their 3 hour, 33 minute clash 7-6 (8/6), 4-6, 7-6 (7/5).
Their second-round tie went past the previous-longest of 3 hours and 23 minutes it took Johanna Konta to beat Garbine Muguruza in the second round two years ago.
Russian eighth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 2004 champion, saw her outside chances of taking the world No. 1 ranking end when she lost to Japan’s Kurumi Nara 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
World No. 1 Karolina Pliskova, last year’s runner-up, downed American qualifier Nicole Gibbs 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.
She was joined in the third round by fourth seed Elina Svitolina, one of the pretenders to her top ranking, and French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko.
Ostapenko, the 12th-seeded Latvian, made the third round for the first time with a 6-4, 6-4 win against Romania’s Sorana Cirstea.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but