Taiwanese tennis veterans Hsieh Su-wei and Latisha Chan on Wednesday secured victories in their respective doubles events at Wimbledon.
Hsieh and her partner, Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic, advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles after toppling sixth seeds Elise Mertens of Belgium and Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus.
Hsieh and Strycova, both 33, won the first set 6-4. Keeping up the pressure on Mertens and Sabalenka, the Taiwanese-Czech duo cruised to a 6-2 victory in the second set to secure a spot in today’s semi-finals, in which they are to face France’s Kristina Mladenovic and Hungary’s Timea Babos.
Photo: AFP
The result avenges their previous encounter with the Belgian-Belarussian duo earlier this year at the Miami Open, where Hsieh and Strycova suffered defeat.
Meanwhile, Chan and her mixed doubles partner, Ivan Dodig of Croatia, defeated 11th seeds Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France and Andreja Klepac of Slovenia 6-3, 6-4 in a battle that lasted 109 minutes to advance to the quarter-finals.
Chan and Dodig last month defended their French Open mixed doubles title, giving Chan her third career Grand Slam title since she turned pro in 2004.
Aside from winning the mixed doubles with Dodig at the French Open last year, Chan partnered with Martina Hingis of Switzerland to capture the women’s doubles title at the US Open in 2017.
The Taiwanese-Croatian pair were due to face British pair Evan Hoyt and Eden Silva late yesterday.
In the men’s singles, Roger Federer admitted that he had no idea he had become the first man to win 100 matches at Wimbledon, a feat which set up a mouth-watering semi-final against old rival Rafael Nadal.
Eight-time champion Federer reached his 13th semi-final at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club by defeating Japan’s Kei Nishikori 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 to book his place in the semi-finals of a Grand Slam for the 45th time.
The 37-year-old is also the oldest man to make the last four of a major since Jimmy Connors at the 1991 US Open.
Federer is to face Nadal at Wimbledon for the first time since their epic 2008 final, which the Spaniard won.
“We have a lot of information on Rafa and so does he about us. I know people always hype it up in a big way,” Federer said. “They did that again in Paris this year [when Nadal won their semi-final in straight sets].”
Federer and Nadal have met 39 times in their careers, but just three times at Wimbledon.
The Swiss star won their first two encounters in the 2006 and 2007 finals before Nadal famously triumphed in a five-setter in 2008 that is widely regarded as the greatest Grand Slam final ever played.
Federer said that he was unaware that he had become the first player ever to win 100 matches at the same Grand Slam.
“A fan reminded me on court while I was signing autographs,” Federer said.
“It’s special. It’s been a lot of years I’ve been coming here, but I didn’t think of it while I was playing today. Actually not at all, not once,” he said. “Then as I’m signing, the guy says: ‘Congratulations for your 100.’ Oh, yeah, I didn’t know. I forgot.”
“Now going into the semis, facing Rafa. Yeah, 100 wins here at Wimbledon. Who would have thought? I didn’t, for sure,” he added.
Nishikori, bidding to become the first Japanese man to reach the semi-finals since Jiro Satoh in 1933, broke Federer in the first game on Centre Court. It was enough for the 29-year-old to pocket the first set.
However, 20-time Grand Slam winner Federer roared back, leveling the quarter-final with breaks in the second and sixth games of a 22-minute second set.
It was more of the same in the third as Federer found his range with a break for 4-3 before taking the set on a fourth set point.
Nishikori visibly wilted, saving two break points in the fifth game of the fourth set before fatally cracking in the ninth.
Federer hit 12 aces and 55 winners in a commanding display.
“It was difficult. The beginning was brutal. Kei came out and was smashing return winners,” Federer said. “I had to definitely make some adjustments and stay with him. It was really important for me to get the lead in the second set and protect it.”
“Usually Kei is a great rhythm player. I just think at the end I served really good. It was a good serving performance today against a great return player,” he added.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB