Latisha Chan yesterday advanced to the second round of the women’s doubles at the Mutua Madrid Open to complete a clean sweep of victories for Taiwanese players on the clay courts in the Spanish capital.
Fifth seeds Chan and Bethanie Mattek-Sands defeated Christina McHale of the US and Peng Shuai of China 6-4, 6-1 in 69 minutes.
The Taiwanese-US duo saved eight of 11 break points and converted seven of 10, winning 55 of the 101 points contested.
Latisha Chan joined younger sister Chan Hao-ching and fellow Taiwanese Hsieh Su-wei in the second round after they advanced at the weekend.
Eighth seeds Chan Hao-ching and Yang Zhaoxuan on Saturday rallied from a set down to defeat Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia and Renata Voracova of the Czech Republic 1-6, 6-4, 10-4 to set up a second-round clash with Alicja Rosolska of Poland and Abigail Spears on the US.
Hsieh and Daria Gavrilova of Australia on Sunday defeated Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands and Johanna Larsson of Sweden 6-3, 6-4 to set up a second-round match against Russian top seeds Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina.
In the singles, defending champion Simona Halep on Sunday brushed aside Makarova 6-1, 6-0 in the first round.
Top seed Halep recorded her 13th consecutive victory on Madrid’s clay courts.
“I was moving great. I felt the game, I like to play on this court,” Halep said. “Always when I come back here, I feel a little bit more relaxed, so maybe that’s why I can touch my best level.”
Second seed Caroline Wozniacki also eased through, dispensing with Gavrilova 6-3, 6-1.
Third seed and home favorite Garbine Muguruza also advanced with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Peng.
Maria Sharapova beat Mihaela Buzarnescu 6-4, 6-1 for her first clay-court victory of the season.
Victoria Azarenka prevailed over Aleksandra Krunic 6-3, 6-3 in her first clay-court match since the 2016 French Open and the birth of her son.
Azarenka, who had reduced her playing schedule due to a custody dispute with her son’s father, said that she planned to play in Rome, the French Open, Mallorca and Wimbledon.
“I’m trying to get a little bit more stability right now,” the Belarussian said. “As much as I can play, I will. I was so happy to be on that plane, you have no idea. You have no idea how happy I was to just have a fresh European air, European food, everything.”
When Paddy Dwyer arrived in China in 1976, crowds jostled to catch a glimpse of him and his companions — the first Western soccer team to play in the country. China was emerging from the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, and on the brink of market reforms that would take the country from economic stagnation to explosive growth. “All we could see was lines of people running beside our bus, trying to look in the windows, to see their first visual of a white person,” he said. “It was all bicycles,” he said. “There were very few cars to be seen.” Dwyer,
A new NZ$683 million (US$404 million) stadium that was a symbol of Christchurch’s struggle to rebuild after a deadly earthquake struck the New Zealand city is to host its first match tomorrow in front of a sellout crowd. A magnitude 6.2 earthquake killed 185 people in February 2011 and toppled or damaged buildings, including the city’s old Lancaster Park. The stadium, which hosted international rugby and cricket, and was home to the Canterbury Crusaders, was badly damaged and never reopened. It was bulldozed in 2019 and turned into sports fields, leaving the Crusaders without a permanent home. Government funding for a new stadium was
Some of Clearlake Capital Group’s largest investors are growing increasingly concerned about how much time the company’s co-founders are spending on sports investments as they have struggled to complete the fundraising for the private equity firm’s latest flagship fund. One of Clearlake’s co-founders, Behdad Eghbali, has been spending what some investors described as a disproportionate amount of time on the firm’s investment in Chelsea Football Club in recent months. Now, co-founder Jose E. Feliciano and his wife, Kwanza Jones, are nearing a record US$3.9 billion deal to acquire the San Diego Padres. That personal investment by Feliciano has set off the latest
The Philadelphia Flyers and the Pittsburg Penguins on Wednesday put a squeeze on the penalty box in Game 3 of their NHL playoff series — with 11 players cramped inside their designated punishment areas. Each could have snapped a team photo after a melee broke out in the second period of the Flyers’ 5-2 win over the Penguins in their Eastern Conference first-round series. “It was a party in there,” penalized Flyers defenseman Nick Seeler said. The celebration extended into the joyous locker room after the Flyers took a 3-0 series lead. Penguins forward Bryan Rust slammed Travis Konecny to the ice behind the
RSS