Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic on Saturday continued their pressure on competitors in the women’s doubles at Wimbledon, taking them to the round of 16.
The third-seeded duo beat Switzerland’s Viktorija Golubic and Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-2, 6-2 to stay in the tournament. They next face the 15th-seeded Romanian pairing of Irina-Camelia Begu and Monica Niculescu.
If Hsieh and Strycova win their match tomorrow and the sister team of Latisha Chan and Chan Hao-ching defeat their matchup with sixth-seeded duo Elise Mertens of Belgium and Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, the two pairings from Taiwan would go head-to-head in the quarter-finals.
Photo: AFP
Meanwhile, eight-time Wimbledon singles champion Roger Federer registered a record 350th win in Grand Slam matches in his 7-5, 6-2, 7-6 (7/4) victory over Lucas Pouille of France and in the process reached the fourth round for an unprecedented 17th time.
“It’s a nice number to achieve. I’ve enjoyed my time at the Slams,” said Federer of his Grand Slam record. “It’s been nice winning that much.”
Earlier, his great rival and two-time Wimbledon champion, Rafael Nadal, had a much more enjoyable experience than his previous match as he eased into the round-of-16 with a 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 romp over French veteran Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
The ease with which Nadal made the fourth round for the ninth time was replicated on the women’s side by Ashleigh Barty, who is to break new ground in appearing in the round of 16 for the first time.
Seven-time women’s champion Serena Williams is also into the second week for the 16th time.
Nadal, who embraced Tsonga fondly at the end in stark contrast to the chilly handshake he had with fiery Australian Nick Kyrgios in the previous round, said that he was delighted with the manner of his victory.
“I was very happy,” Nadal said. “I played a great match from the beginning to the end. Jo is one of those players you don’t want to face early, but today was my day.”
Andy Murray’s hopes of men’s doubles glory ended early as he and French partner Pierre-Hugues Herbert went out in the second round, but he was to end the day on a celebratory note as his star partnership with Williams eased into the second round of the mixed doubles, beating Germany’s Andreas Mies and Alexa Guarachi of Chile 6-4, 6-1.
Two of the top 10 seeds did bow out, as Dutch fourth seed Kiki Bertens lost to the Czech Republic’s Barbora Strycova and American ninth seed Sloane Stephens lost to Britain’s French Open semi-finalist Johanna Konta.
Barty overwhelmed British wild card Harriet Dart 6-1, 6-1, while 37-year-old, seven-time champion Williams produced her most convincing display in dispensing with German Julia Goerges 6-3, 6-4.
Barty is the first Australian woman to make the second week since 2010.
“Incredible — new territory for me,” Barty said.
Eleventh seed Williams, who defeated Goerges in last year’s semi-finals, is bidding to equal Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24 Grand Slam titles.
“It’s been an arduous year for me, so every match I’m hoping to improve tons,” said Williams, who had a knee problem which affected her season.
However, there was no fairytale win in the mixed doubles for the star of the championships Coco Gauff.
The 15-year-old American — who has wowed the crowds in reaching the last 16 of the women’s singles — and her British partner Jay Clarke lost 6-1, 6-4 in the first round to Robert Lindstedt and Jelena Ostapenko.
Additional reporting by AFP
TOOTHLESS: Bologna never looked like finding a way back, and Antonio Conte and his substitutes were waiting to celebrate long before the final whistle SSC Napoli on Monday lifted the Italian Supercoppa with a 2-0 win over Bologna in Riyadh, David Neres netting both goals to earn the league champions a deserved victory over the toothless Coppa Italia winners. Neres opened the scoring with a stunning strike from distance six minutes before halftime and found the net again in the 57th minute when Bologna were caught trying to play out of defense. “We came here as champions of Italy, we wanted this trophy and we showed it with a great performance,” Napoli forward Matteo Politano told Mediaset. “We could have scored a few more goals, but
Backup quarterback Luke Weaver on Wednesday night threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to Nick Cenacle with 10 seconds left, as the University of Hawaii rallied for a 35-31 comeback victory over the University of California, Berkeley in a thrilling Hawaii Bowl. Weaver entered the game after Micah Alejado took a hard hit on the previous play. With the Rainbow Warriors (9-4) in range for a tying field goal, coach Timmy Chang took a shot at the end zone, and Cenacle got between two defensive backs and made the contested catch. “How amazing is that?” Chang said. “It’s a program that is built
Fulham on Monday climbed away from the English Premier League relegation zone and left Nottingham Forest mired in the fight for survival after Raul Jimenez’s penalty sealed a 1-0 win. Marco Silva’s side started the day just two points above fourth-bottom Forest, but Jimenez’s first-half goal at Craven Cottage moved them 10 points clear of the bottom three. While Fulham’s relegation fears were eased heading into the Christmas schedule, Forest are just five points ahead of third-bottom West Ham United in the scrap to avoid crashing into the Championship. Forest had won six of their previous eight games in all competitions, with a
LACKLUSTER FIGHT: At one stage, the referee lost patience with the two fighters, warning them in the fourth round that ‘the fans did not pay to see this crap’ Former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua on Friday knocked out YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in their controversial Netflix-backed bout in Miami. The fight at the Kaseya Center, which saw both men reportedly splitting a mammoth purse of US$184 million, had triggered alarm across boxing due to the gulf in physical size and class between Britain’s two-time former world champion Joshua and Paul, an Internet personality who has forged a lucrative career through a handful of novelty boxing contests. However, in the event, Joshua made hard work of defeating his vastly less accomplished opponent, before his superior size and power eventually told
RSS