Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Thursday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the Madrid Open, while Roger Federer had to save two match points to defeat Gael Monfils and reach the quarter-finals of the men’s singles.
Fifth seeds Hsieh and Barbora Strycova took just 63 minutes to see off the challenge of third seeds Samantha Stosur of Australia and Zhang Shuai of China 6-2, 6-4.
The Taiwanese-Czech duo saved five of seven break points and converted five of nine, winning 71 percent of their first-serve points and 60 of the 100 points contested to advance to the semi-finals.
The fifth seeds were due to face Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan, after the unseeded duo ousted eighth seeds Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands 6-4, 6-3 in 58 minutes.
In the men’s singles, Federer, playing only his second match of a comeback on clay after three years away, needed two hours to defeat French showman Monfils 6-0, 4-6, 7-6 (7/3).
Women’s top seed Naomi Osaka fell for the second time in two months to Swiss Belinda Bencic, exiting 3-6, 6-2, 7-5.
Czech second seed Petra Kvitova, the defending champion, was also a shock loser, going down 6-2, 6-3 to Kiki Bertens, the Dutch seventh seed who was runner-up in last year’s final.
However, men’s top seed Novak Djokovic motored into the last eight as he hammered Jeremy Chardy 6-1, 7-6 (7/2), while five-time champion Rafael Nadal dispatched Frances Tiafoe 6-3, 6-4.
Nadal was next to play Stan Wawrinka after the Swiss completed a national hat-trick on the day, beating Japanese sixth seed Kei Nishikori 6-3, 7-6 (7/3).
Defending champion Alexander Zverev came from breaks down in both of the last two sets to get past error-prone Pole Hubert Hurkacz 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, and was due to play eighth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, a 6-3, 6-4 winner against Fernando Verdasco.
Dominic Thiem, last year’s runner-up, defeated Monte Carlo winner Fabio Fognini 6-4, 7-5.
Against an inspired Bencic, Osaka served for the match in the third set leading 5-4, but could not get to a backhand return winner.
“I feel like I was negative on myself, but I tried to fix it in the third set, but my service percentage was down,” Osaka said.
Djokovic, who now boasts a staggering 66-2 record against French players, said he is slowly lifting his clay game.
“Coming into the match I had confidence knowing I’d never lost to my opponent,” he said.
Djokovic was due to face ninth seed Marin Cilic after the Croatian put out Laslo Djere 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Two-time women’s champion Simona Halep overcame Ashleigh Barty 7-5, 7-5 to reach her fourth semi-final at La Caja Magica.
The Romanian third seed was due to face Bencic.
Former US Open winner Sloane Stephens downed Petra Martic of Croatia 6-4, 6-3 and was due to face Bertens.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier