Hsieh Su-wei on Monday emerged the victor of a Taiwanese showdown in the second round of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open, while Serena Williams’ return to the WTA Tour came to an abrupt end as she crashed out of the singles after a 6-3, 6-4 loss to her sister, Venus, in Indian Wells, California.
Unseeded Hsieh and Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic survived a fightback by second-seeded Taiwanese sisters Latisha Chan and Chan Hao-ching to clinch a 6-4, 5-7, 10-6 upset victory in 1 hour, 33 minutes.
Hsieh and Strycova saved three of seven break points and converted four of nine, taking advantage of the Chan sisters’ four double faults to win 75 of the 141 points contested and advance to the quarter-finals.
Photo: AFP
“It’s a very good win for us, to beat such a team,” Strycova told the WTA Web site. “We knew coming in that it would be a tough one, they’re doubles players, so they know what’s going on in the court. We just played the best we could and in the important moment we made the right choices.”
The Taiwanese-Czech duo are due to take on Vania King of the US and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia in the quarter-finals early this morning Taiwan time.
In the women’s singles, Venus closed out the 29th career meeting between the Williams sisters on her second match point as Serena sailed a forehand long to end the third-round showdown.
It was the first meeting between the sisters since they clashed in the final of last year’s Australian Open, which Serena won before taking a 15-month hiatus due to pregnancy.
Serena said she is still easing her way back into match fitness.
“It wasn’t very easy, obviously,” she said. “It was good to play and try to get in the rhythm, and get into the swing again. I can’t really replicate the situation no matter how much I do in practice. I make those shots 10 times out of 10 in practice. It’s just the nerves, the anticipation you feel naturally. It’s a little bit of everything that comes in a match that just doesn’t normally happen.”
Tenth seed Venus moves on to the round-of-16 where she was due to face Anastasija Sevastova, who defeated 12th seed Julia Georges 6-3, 6-3.
It is rare for the Williams sisters to play this early in a tournament and it was the earliest they have faced each other since their first encounter at the Australian Open in 1998.
Venus blasted six aces, but had eight double faults in the 1 hour, 26 minute match in front of a crowd of about 13,000.
“I just have a long way to go,” Serena said. “I have a lot to improve on.”
Despite the loss, Serena still leads their career series 17-12.
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
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite