Spain's top seed David Ferrer kept his career-best season rolling yesterday, taking the men's singles at the Japan Open with an easy win over Richard Gasquet of France.
The 25-year-old, who has maintained a career-high world number eight ranking since his semi-final appearance at the US Open, coasted to a 6-1, 6-2 win over the French third seed.
"It's a great feeling. It's my first time to win here in Tokyo on hard courts. It's unbelievable. This is the best moment of my career," he said.
PHOTO: AFP
"I played very good, very consistent. Maybe Richard was a little bit tired," he said.
Everything went perfectly for Ferrer, who stormed ahead 4-0 in the first set and 3-0 in the second. He never faced a crisis during the 53-minute match.
Gasquet missed two break points in the fourth game of the first set and struggled to make good on his other break chances.
PHOTO: EPA
Gasquet admitted that he was tired after winning last week in Mumbai and playing five more matches in Tokyo, saying: "If you are not great physically, it's difficult to beat him."
But the 21-year-old said he still had a good chance at making next month's eight-man season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai. Ferrer is in a good position, currently at number six in the race.
"I will be ninth or 10th next week. I can be in the Masters," Gasquet said.
"But I have to play good in Madrid and Paris. It's really important for me. If I can be in the semi-finals in Madrid, everything will be possible," he said.
Meanwhile, in yesterday's women's doubles final Taiwan's Chuang Chia-jung and Vania King of the US lost to Chinese pair Sun Tiantian and Yan Zi 6-1, 2-6, 6-10.
King and Chuang were opponents in last year's final when the Taiwanese-American teamed up with Jelena Kostanic of Croatia to defeat Chuang and fellow Taiwanese Chan Yung-jan in three sets.
King and Chuang beat crowd favorites Ai Sugiyama and Ayumi Morita 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) in the first round on the way to yesterday's final.
Japan’s Shohei Ohtani is the record-breaking baseball “superhuman” following in the footsteps of the legendary Babe Ruth who has also earned comparisons to US sporting greats Michael Jordan and Tom Brady. Not since Ruth a century ago has there been a baseball player capable of both pitching and hitting at the top level. The 30-year-old’s performances with the Los Angeles Dodgers have consolidated his position as a baseball legend in the making, and a national icon in his native Japan. He continues to find new ways to amaze, this year becoming the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases
Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
Francesco Bagnaia yesterday profited from a mistake by rookie Pedro Acosta to win the Japan MotoGP sprint and close the gap on overall championship leader, Jorge Martin. Spaniard Acosta crashed with four laps to go while leading the field at Motegi, allowing defending world champion Bagnaia to take first ahead of Enea Bastianini and Marc Marquez. Spain’s Martin finished fourth and saw his overall lead over Italian Bagnaia in the championship standings cut to 15 points. “I am very happy because with these conditions, it’s not very easy to win and gain points,” Bagnaia said after a sprint race that took place under
Naomi Osaka is braced for a “battle” after yesterday setting up a clash with Coco Gauff in the round-of-16 of the China Open, while top seed Aryna Sabalenka also marched on. Osaka defeated 60th-ranked American Katie Volynets 6-3, 6-2 and next faces Gauff in a showdown of former US Open champions in Beijing. World No. 2 Sabalenka swatted aside Ashlyn Krueger 6-2, 6-2 for her 14th consecutive victory and plays another American in 24th-ranked Madison Keys. Looking ahead to the Gauff meeting, four-time Grand Slam champion Osaka said: “She’s very athletic, obviously.” “For me, my strongest traits are being aggressive and also my serve,
RSS