Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Tuesday was a two-time victor at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, while Russian star Maria Sharapova giggled with delight as she revealed how she plucked up the courage to pop the question and got to practice with Rafael Nadal on the clay courts in Rome.
Qualifier Hsieh had to wait for the rain to ease before cruising past Belarussian world No. 45 Aryna Sabalenka 6-2, 6-4 in 1 hour, 22 minutes.
The Kaohsiung-born world No. 50 saved one of three break points and converted five of seven, winning 64 of 118 points to advance to a second-round clash with British world No. 22 Johanna Konta.
Photo: AFP
Hsieh has a 2-2 career record against Konta and although she lost their most recent encounter on the grass courts at Wimbledon last year, she did win their last match on clay at last year’s French Open.
Hsieh returned later to book a spot in the second round of the doubles as she teamed up with Daria Gavrilova to defeat Alicja Rosolska of Poland and Abigail Spears of the US 6-4, 6-4 in 1 hour, 14 minutes.
The Taiwanese-Australian duo saved two of five break points and converted five of 16 as Hsieh advanced to another second-round clash with Konta, who is partnering Zhang Shuai of China.
On the practice courts, Sharapova and Nadal hit balls together on the red clay of the Foro Italico where they are both multiple winners.
“I saw he was practicing on the court right before me and I said to my team: ‘Wouldn’t it be amazing if I just came up to Rafa and said would you hit a couple balls with me?’ And they’re like: ‘Yeah, what’s wrong with that? And I was like: ‘A lot of things. There’s a lot of things wrong with just coming up to Rafa.’ They’re like: ‘No, you should. It’s not like you’re asking him to go on a date, and so I did,” Sharapova said after advancing to the second round of the singles past Australian Ashleigh Barty. “He probably thought I was really weird. I think he still thinks I’m really weird.”
In her first-round match, five-time Grand Slam winner Sharapova needed 2 hours, 30 minutes to master world No. 18 Barty 7-5, 3-6, 6-2.
She next meets Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova as she bids to recapture the title she won three times in 2011, 2012 and 2015.
“This tournament has been special in my career,” said the 31-year-old, who received a wild-card entry last year as she made her comeback from a 15-month doping ban.
She retired injured from her second-round match to end her hopes of qualifying on merit for Wimbledon’s main draw after being denied a wild-card entry to Roland Garros.
“It’s brought me a lot of great matches and a lot of match play toward the Grand Slam that we all look forward to playing, and usually it’s the last tournament I play before Roland Garros, so it is an important one,” said two-time French Open champion Sharapova, who reached the quarter-finals at the Mutua Madrid Open last week.
US national team star Folarin Balogun was among the scorers as AS Monaco on Friday won 3-1 at Paris Saint-Germain, dealing a blow to the side from the French capital before they face Chelsea in a crunch UEFA Champions League round-of-16 tie. Maghnes Akliouche gave Monaco a first-half lead at the Parc des Princes, and Aleksandr Golovin doubled their advantage early in the second half of the French Ligue 1 clash. Bradley Barcola pulled one back for the reigning European champions, but Balogun struck shortly after with a fifth goal in his last five games as Monaco claimed a precious
Teenage star Lamine Yamal’s superbly-taken goal on Saturday earned Barcelona a 1-0 win at Athletic Bilbao in Spanish La Liga. The champions restored their four-point lead over second-placed Real Madrid, who had on Friday temporarily closed the gap by beating Celta Vigo. Atletico Madrid tightened their grip on third with an entertaining 3-2 win over Real Sociedad. Yamal, 18, curled into the top corner after 68 minutes to split the sides at Athletic’s San Mames stadium. “We’re already seeing what Lamine can do — he puts it right in the top corner, and there’s nothing the keeper can do,” Barca
Liverpool on Tuesday suffered an embarrassing 2-1 defeat at Wolverhampton Wanderers as Andre’s stoppage-time strike sealed a dramatic victory for the English Premier League’s bottom club. Arne Slot’s side fell behind to Rodrigo Gomes’ strike in the closing stages at Molineux. Mohamed Salah hauled Liverpool level with his first goal in 11 top-flight games dating back to November last year. However, Andre’s first goal for Wolves inflicted the latest humbling loss in a chastening season for Liverpool. It was the first time the Premier League’s bottom club had beaten the reigning champions since Crystal Palace defeated Chelsea in 2017. Liverpool
Taiwan yesterday defeated the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks’ farm team 5-1 in their final warm-up game ahead of their World Baseball Classic (WBC) Pool C opener. Taiwan’s bullpen used an unconventional rotation, with a different pitcher throwing each inning for the first seven innings. Together, they combined for eight strikeouts while allowing only four hits. The lone run surrendered came in the bottom of the eighth inning after a pitcher from Japan’s independent league took the mound. The pitching strategy was designed to preserve the arms of the Taiwanese ahead of their game against Australia at the Tokyo Dome tomorrow morning. Taiwanese-American Stuart Fairchild
RSS