The Chan sisters on Sunday claimed their second doubles title of the season at the typhoon-affected Hong Kong Open, while Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova came from behind to win a marathon singles final 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (7/3) against Daria Gavrilova in the early hours of yesterday morning.
Top seeds and reigning champions Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan took just 47 minutes to complete a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Chinese duo Lu Jiajing and Wang Qiang at the Victoria Park Tennis Stadium.
The Taiwanese sisters saved the only break point they faced and converted five of eight, winning 51 of the 78 points contested to add the Hong Kong title to the Taiwan Open title they won at the Taipei Arena in February.
Photo: screen grab from Facebook
It was world No. 2 Chan Yung-jan’s 11th doubles title of the season after the Taiwanese and Swiss world No. 1 Martina Hingis claimed the titles in Eastbourne, Mallorca, Rome, Madrid, Indian Wells, Cincinnati, the US Open, Wuhan and Beijing, taking her prize money for the season to just short of US$1.4 million.
Earlier on Sunday, Typhoon Khanun, packing winds of 155kph and heavy rain, had virtually shut down the territory, delaying the final which had originally been scheduled for a 2pm start.
The weather finally relented just after 7pm and typhoon warning signals were lowered across Hong Kong, but an initial attempt to start the final at 8:30pm was aborted when the rain returned.
The final eventually started at about 9:20pm.
In the singles, it was three minutes past 1am yesterday morning when sixth seed Pavlyuchenkova converted the third of her match points.
It enabled the world No. 21 to edge over the winning line after 3 hours, 11 minutes of attritional tennis against her Australian opponent punctuated by frequent rain delays.
Almost an hour earlier the Russian had spurned two championship points at 5-4 on her own serve, only to see another heavy shower send the players scurrying for cover, and Pavlyuchenkova only had herself to blame for not getting the job done earlier after racing into a 3-0 lead when the match eventually began after a near five-hour delay.
She failed to serve out for the first set at 5-3 after being in control almost throughout and saw gritty world No. 22 Gavrilova steal in 7-5 on the back of a run of three unanswered games.
“I’m just happy to finally finish this match in brutal conditions,” Pavlyuchenkova said after being presented with the trophy.
The second set was almost a carbon copy of the first, but this time the Russian managed to hold her nerve at 5-3 and took it to a decider against the seventh seed.
Both players had chances in the third set, but they remained deadlocked as tiredness set in and the clock ticked past midnight
Pavlyuchenkova then broke for 5-4, but once again failed to close out on her own serve.
After a 40-minute final rain delay the pair broke each other’s serve yet again and the match headed for the deciding tiebreak.
Manchester United on Tuesday confirmed Michael Carrick as interim manager until the end of the season, tasking him with leading the Red Devils back into the UEFA Champions League. “Having the responsibility to lead Manchester United is an honor,” said Carrick, 44, who won 12 major trophies in his 12-year playing career at United. The former midfielder previously had an unbeaten three-game stint as caretaker boss at Old Trafford in 2021. Carrick then took on his first permanent managerial role at second-tier Middlesbrough in October 2022 and was sacked in June last year after the club finished 10th in the
Mohamed Salah’s Egypt knocked reigning champions Ivory Coast out of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) with a 3-2 win in the quarter-finals on Saturday, while Victor Osimhen starred as Nigeria beat Algeria 2-0 to set up a clash with hosts Morocco. In Agadir, Morocco, a thrilling last-eight tie saw Omar Marmoush and Ramy Rabia net in the first half for the Pharaohs before an own goal by Ahmed Aboul-Fetouh brought the Ivorians back into it. Salah then got Egypt’s third early in the second half and they held on after Guela Doue again reduced the deficit. Egypt is to face Senegal
AUSTRALIAN ADVENTURE: Sabalenka aims to follow up with a third Australian Open win, while Taiwanese Joanna Garland claimed a WTA 125 title in Canberra Aryna Sabalenka beat Karolina Muchova in straight sets to reach her third Brisbane International final in a row yesterday, a week ahead of the Australian Open. Sabalenka looked in great touch against the tricky Czech, who had won their last three meetings and went into the match as one of the few players with a winning record over the world No. 1. However, Sabalenka showed her class and power as she broke Muchova once in each set to take the semi-final 6-3, 6-4 in 89 minutes to face Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk in the final. “I struggled against her a couple of times [in
Reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on Sunday sparked defending champions Oklahoma City to victory, while Anthony Edwards led Minnesota’s last-minute fightback to beat San Antonio. Gilgeous-Alexander scored 29 points while adding eight assists and five rebounds in the Thunder’s 124-112 home victory over Miami, improving the NBA’s best record to 33-7 after outscoring the Heat 70-53 in the second half. “We locked in defensively. We were finally able to get some stops,” Thunder guard Aaron Wiggins said. “We were able to get out in transition a little bit, get going offensively and find the flow.” Jalen Williams scored 18 points, while
RSS