Top seed Benoit Paire on Tuesday reached the third round of the ATP Winston-Salem Open, beating Prajnesh Gunneswaran 6-3, 7-5.
France’s Paire, ranked 30th in the world, avenged a loss to India’s Gunneswaran at Indian Wells in March.
Paire broke Gunneswaran in the penultimate game, then capped the contest with his 14th ace on match point to book a round-of-16 meeting with fellow Frenchman Ugo Humbert, who defeated American Bjorn Fratangelo 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
After enjoying a first-round bye, Paire was glad to get to work in the heat and humidity of North Carolina as part of his buildup to the US Open, which starts on Monday.
“Honestly, I like to play before the Slam,” he said. “I did the same in Lyon the week before Roland Garros and I won the tournament and after I made the last 16 at Roland Garros so it was good preparation.”
Second seed Canadian Denis Shapovalov also advanced, beating American Tennys Sandgren 6-2, 6-4.
World No. 73 Sandgren was coming off a first-round victory over three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray, who was playing just his second singles match since the Australian Open.
Sandgren battled back from 0-3 down in the second set, going up a service break before Shapavolov came through with a break in the final game to seal the victory.
“It was definitely a great win,” said Shapovalov, who had not made it past the second round of an ATP event since Lyon in May.
“So far, so good,” said Shapovalov, who next faces Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic, a 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 winner over Australian Alexei Popyrin.
South Korean Lee Duck-hee’s groundbreaking tournament came to an end with a 4-6, 6-0, 6-3 loss to third seed Hubert Hurkacz of Poland.
Lee had become the first deaf player to win an ATP match with his first-round win over Henri Laaksonen.
“I’m a little bit disappointed right now,” Lee said. “I had many chances that I didn’t utilize, but it was a great experience overall.”
BRONX OPEN
Reuters
American wildcard Bernarda Pera on Tuesday upset Czech third seed Barbora Strycova 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 to advance to the quarter-finals of the Bronx Open.
Strycova, who last month reached the Wimbledon semi-finals, battled for nearly two hours before losing to Pera, who is ranked 37 rungs below her in the WTA rankings.
“I was more focused on my game and finding that balance that is so important for me to play well,” the 24-year-old said. “It’s finding the balance between being too aggressive and being too passive.”
Strycova’s poor service game cost her, with a double fault in the first game of the final set opening the door for Pera, and the Czech will have to improve quickly if she is to make an impact at the US Open.
Pera is next to face another Czech player in fifth seed Katerina Siniakova, who advanced after Russian Anastasia Potapova dropped the opening set 6-0 and retired midway through the second set 3-0 down.
China’s Zhu Lin also retired, with France’s Alize Cornet moving into the last eight.
Cornet is to face Italy’s Camila Giorgi, who beat Germany’s Andrea Petkovic 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7/3) in a match that lasted 2 hours, 41 minutes.
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
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite