Top seeds Chan Yung-jan and Martina Hingis yesterday took just 43 minutes to see off the challenge of sixth seeds Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Kveta Peschke 6-1, 6-0.
The Taiwanese-Swiss duo did not face a single break point and converted five of six, winning 51 of the 66 points contested.
It was the sixth time this year that the pairings have clashed, with Chan and Hingis improving their record over the German-Czech duo to 4-2.
In the semi-finals, the top seeds face third seeds Sania Mirza and Peng Shuai after the Indian-Chinese duo rallied from a set down to edge seventh seeds Alicja Rosolska of Poland and Abigail Spears of the US 3-6, 6-3, 10-5 in 1 hour, 15 minutes.
ATP TOUR
At the ATP Tour’s Chengdu Open, Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun took just 53 minutes to see off Russian fourth seed and US Open quarter-finalist Andrey Rublev 6-2, 6-1 in the second round of the singles.
Three weeks after defeating Bulgarian world No. 8 Grigor Dimitrov and Belgian world No. 12 David Goffin at the US Open on his way to a quarter-final defeat to eventual champion Rafael Nadal, the 19-year-old Russian world No. 37 was blown away by the Taiwanese world No. 63, who saved both break points he faced and converted four of 12, winning 57 of the 91 points contested.
In the quarter-finals Lu faces world No. 113 Marcos Baghdatis, who rallied from a set down to oust German world No. 66 Peter Gojowczyk 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 in 1 hour, 46 minutes.
Lu has a 1-1 career record against the Cypriot — losing in Kuala Lumpur in 2009, before avenging that defeat in Los Angeles in 2011.
Lu returned to the court later yesterday with partner Divij Sharan in the quarter-finals of the doubles.
The Taiwanese-Indian duo defeated fourth seeds Dominic Inglot of Britain and Daniel Nestor of Canada 6-3, 6-3 in 60 minutes to advance to the semi-finals.
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