Top-seeded Frenchman Benoit Paire on Wednesday saved a match point and then fought back to beat compatriot Ugo Humbert 3-6, 7-6 (7/2), 6-3 to move into the quarter-finals of the Winston-Salem Open in North Carolina.
Paire, 30, took 2 hours, 27 minutes to beat 21-year-old Humbert, who was the youngest player left in the men’s draw at Wimbledon last month prior to his last-16 exit at the hands of eventual champion Novak Djokovic.
“I’m really happy to win against him,” Paire said. “When you play against a young player from your country, you want to win. It’s good for the confidence.”
Photo: AP / The Winston-Salem Journal
Humbert nearly claimed victory in the second set when he served for the match at 6-5, but Paire managed to break the youngster to take the set to a tiebreak.
Paire is to face Spanish 11th seed Pablo Carreno Busta, who beat Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego 7-6 (9/7), 6-0.
On the other side of the draw, Canadian second seed Denis Shapovalov fired eight aces and converted five break points to beat Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic 6-2, 6-3.
Shapovalov is to face Russia’s Andrey Rublev, who knocked out American sixth seed Sam Querrey in straight sets, avenging his second-round loss to the American at Wimbledon.
With the players breaking each other twice in the match, Rublev triumphed after both sets went into a tiebreak to win 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (12/10).
“It’s a special win for me. He just destroyed me, and now we had a great fight, and we were both so close and I was a little bit more lucky,” Rublev said.
American Frances Tiafoe and Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz advanced as Serbia’s Filip Krajinovic retired due to an illness while Spaniard Feliciano Lopez was too fatigued to continue.
BRONX OPEN
Top seed Wang Qiang of China on Wednesday sailed into the Bronx Open quarter-finals with a convincing 6-1, 6-4 victory over French qualifier Fiona Ferro.
Wang, who received a bye into the last 16, converted six of eight break points to claim her first win since the second round of Wimbledon last month.
“I just tried to build my confidence for this tournament,” Wang said. “For me, it’s preparing for the US Open, so I will try my best this tournament.”
The match began with both players failing to hold serve before Wang took a 3-1 lead.
She then won the next five games in a row after Ferro made a number of unforced errors and double-faulted three times in the opening set alone.
Wang is to face Russia’s Anna Blinkova, who came back from a set down to beat Romania’s Mihaela Buzarnescu 1-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Poland’s Magda Linette also marched into the quarter-finals with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over ninth seed Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus.
Unseeded Linette fired 10 aces and won 88 percent of her first service points to set up a clash with Czech 10th seed Karolina Muchova, who dispatched American wild card Kristie Ahn 6-3, 6-1.
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