Taiwanese sisters Latisha Chan and Chan Hao-ching, and siblings Hsieh Su-wei and Hsieh Cheng-peng on Friday both notched victories in their respective doubles events at Wimbledon.
The ninth seeded Chan sisters cruised past Belgian duo Alison van Uytvanck and Greet Minnen 6-2, 6-1 in less than an hour to advance to the third round of the women’s doubles.
They entered Wimbledon on a high by winning the women’s doubles at a Wimbledon warm-up event at the Nature Valley International, but they are next to face the formidable sixth seed duo of Belgian Elise Mertens and Belarussian Aryna Sabalenka.
Photo: AFP
Mertens and Sabalenka last month reached the finals of the French Open women’s doubles and won top-tier events in Indian Wells and Miami in March.
Meanwhile, elder sister Hsieh Su-wei and younger brother Hsieh Cheng-peng scored a relatively easy victory in the first round of the mixed doubles against Japanese duo Miyu Kato and Ben McLachlan, winning the match 6-4, 6-4 in 59 minutes.
This is the first and probably last time the Hsiehs are to pair up in a tournament, because the 33-year-old Hsieh Su-wei said she would focus on playing singles as she moves closer to retirement.
The pairing was a one-time arrangement to please their fans and have some fun, Hsieh Su-wei said.
They will next meet this year’s French Open mixed doubles champions Latisha Chan and Ivan Dodig of Croatia.
Also on Friday, fifteen-year-old sensation Cori “Coco” Gauff’s magical journey continued, when the US youngster saved two match points to reach the last 16.
Gauff battled back from 2-5 down in the second set and held her nerve when Slovenian opponent Polona Hercog clawed her way to 4-4 from 1-4 in the decider.
Her reward is a fourth-round clash on “Manic Monday” against former world No. 1 Simona Halep.
“I’m just super relieved that it’s over, it was a long match,” Gauff said. “She was playing unbelievable. It was my first match on Centre Court, people say Court One is my court, maybe Centre can be too now.”
Gauff’s dramatic victory on an enthralled Centre Court overshadowed Novak Djokovic’s passage to the last 16 for the 12th time.
The four-time champion is one of just four top 10 seeds left in the tournament along with Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Kei Nishikori.
Defending champion and world No. 1 Djokovic defeated Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz 7-5, 6-7 (5/7), 6-1, 6-4.
He will next face Ugo Humbert of France, the world No. 66.
“He was fighting. He was playing well, serving well and hitting clean and accurate shots,” said Djokovic, who is now level with Boris Becker in third place on the all-time list with 12 last-16 places.
However, Kevin Anderson, last year’s runner-up and fourth seed, slumped to a shock 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) defeat to Argentina’s Guido Pella, the 26th seed.
“He made life really difficult for me,” said Anderson, who was playing just his second tournament since March after recovering from an elbow injury.
Pella goes on to face 2016 runner-up Milos Raonic for a place in the quarter-finals.
Raonic, the 15th seed, reached the fourth round for the fifth time by seeing off the sport’s tallest man, Reilly Opelka of the US, 7-6 (7/1), 6-2, 6-1.
France’s Benoit Paire booked a last 16 place for the second time with a 5-7, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3, 7-6 (7/2) win over Czech qualifier Jiri Vesely.
He is to meet Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut, who stunned Russian 10th seed Karen Khachanov 6-3, 7-6 (7/3), 6-1.
In the women’s event, Czech Karolina Muchova, the world No. 68, put out Estonian 20th seed Anett Kontaveit 7-6 (9/7), 6-3.
Muchova is making her Wimbledon debut, as is 19-year-old Dayana Yastremska, and the 35th-ranked Ukrainian marked the occasion by also making the last 16.
She put out Switzerland’s Viktorija Golubic 7-5, 6-3 and next meets unseeded Chinese player Zhang Shuai.
Romanian seventh seed Halep came from 1-3 down in the first set to defeat fellow former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka 6-3, 6-1.
Azarenka was undone by 33 unforced errors.
Additional reporting by CNA
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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