The Chan sisters on Sunday advanced to the quarter-finals of the mixed doubles at the French Open, while fellow Taiwanese Hsieh Su-wei crashed out of the third round of the women’s doubles.
Unseeded defending champions Latisha Chan and Ivan Dodig knocked out eighth seeds Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Robert Farah of Colombia 6-2, 7-6 (8/6) in their second-round clash in 1 hour, 18 minutes on Court 7 at Roland Garros.
The Taiwanese-Croatian duo saved three of five break points and converted four of five, winning 56 percent of their points on second service to set up a quarter-final against French duo Amandine Hesse and Benjamin Bonzi, who rallied from a set down to defeat Lyudmyla Kichenok of Ukraine and Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico 3-6, 7-5, 10-4.
Photo: AP
Sixth seeds Chan Hao-ching and Oliver Marach defeated Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain and Neal Skupski of Britain 6-4, 7-5 in 1 hour, 20 minutes later on Court 7.
The Taiwanese-Austrian duo saved both break points they faced and converted two of three, winning 75 percent of their points on first serve to advance to a quarter-final against Nadiia Kichenok of Ukraine and Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi of Pakistan, who defeated Darija Jurak of Croatia and Austin Krajicek of the US 6-4, 4-6, 10-7.
In the women’s doubles, third seeds Hsieh and Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic were beaten 7-5, 6-1 by Lyudmyla Kichenok and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 7-5, 6-1 in 1 hour, 29 minutes on Court 1.
In the fourth round of the men’s singles yesterday, Novak Djokovic became the first man to reach the quarter-finals for 10 successive seasons, while Kei Nishikori set up the toughest challenge on a clay court — facing Rafael Nadal.
Top seed and world No. 1 Djokovic continued his bid to hold all four Grand Slam titles simultaneously for the second time by thrashing Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.
“It was tricky with the rain, but that’s Paris,” the 2016 champion said after playing in drizzly conditions. “I’m really confident with my serve. I hope it continues like that.”
Japanese seventh seed Nishikori came back from 1-4 and 3-5 down in the final set to beat Benoit Paire of France and set up a quarter-final against Nadal.
Nishikori won 6-2, 6-7 (8/10), 6-2, 6-7 (8/10), 7-5 in a shade under four hours.
“I don’t remember the moment, but ever since I was a kid, that’s the first thing I loved,” two-time NBA All-Star Isaiah Thomas said of his lifelong romance with basketball. However, that journey unfolded against the limitations of his size in a game where height often dictates opportunity — a reality he confronted throughout his career. At 175cm, Thomas is less than 2cm taller than the average Taiwanese adult male, while NBA players during his career stood at about 200cm on average. Compared with the NBA’s average career length of less than five years, Thomas’ 13-season career stands out as
Hans Niemann declares he would become a “stone cold killer” in a Netflix documentary released on Tuesday about his feud with five-time classical world champion Magnus Carlsen, a pledge that injects new edge into the lingering fallout from the cheating scandal that shook elite chess. “I’m gonna be a stone cold killer the rest of my life,” the US’ Niemann says in the film. “I’m going to become the best player in the world, and no one is going to believe that now, but this clip will play over and over again in 10 years — just wait.” “I just
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Top seeded Jessica Pegula on Friday once again fought back from a set down to reach the WTA Charleston Open semi-finals with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win against Russia’s Diana Shnaider. Defending champion Pegula has lost the first set in all three of her matches at the tournament so far, but again dug deep to maintain her hopes of retaining the title. The world No. 5 from the US took 2 hours, 10 minutes to defeat 19th-ranked Shnaider, relying on a formidable service game that included eight aces. Shnaider battled well in the first two sets and broke early for a 2-0 lead
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