Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan yesterday advanced to the doubles final at the Wuhan Open, while unseeded Ashleigh Barty upset eighth seed Jelena Ostapenko to reach the singles final.
Top seeds Chan and Martina Hingis won a hard-fought semi-final against third seeds Sania Mirza of India and Peng Shuai of China 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 in 1 hour, 48 minutes on Center Court at the Optics Valley International Tennis Center in Wuhan, China.
The Taiwanese-Swiss duo saved seven of 12 break points and converted six of 13, winning 73 of the 138 points contested to advance to today’s final against Shuko Aoyama of Japan and Yang Zhaoxuan of China after they were handed a walkover when Australian fourth seeds Barty and Casey Dellacqua pulled out of the second semi-final, with Barty citing fatigue.
Photo: AFP
Aoyama and Yang progressed through the quarter-finals on Thursday when Russian second seeds Elena Vesnina and Ekaterina Makarova retired in the first set.
Chan and Hingis, who won the US Open title earlier this month, are looking to claim their eighth title of the season.
Regardless of the result of the final, Hingis is set to replace Lucie Safarova at the top of the WTA Tour doubles rankings on Monday.
Photo: AFP
In the singles, Barty took 1 hour, 14 minutes to defeat Latvian Ostapenko 6-3, 6-0.
World No. 37 Barty saved one of the two break points she faced and converted five of 10, winning 61 of the 98 points contested, as French Open champion and world No. 10 Ostapenko saw her winning streak in Asia come to an end after winning her second career title in Seoul on Sunday.
In the final, Barty faces French world No. 20 Caroline Garcia, who defeated Greek qualifier Maria Sakkari 6-3, 6-2 in 1 hour, 19 minutes.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later