Serb pair Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic are on a French Open collision course after both notched up comfortable wins yesterday to reach the quarter-finals.
Second seed Ivanovic blanked Petra Cetkovska of the Czech Republic 6-0, 6-0, while third seed Jankovic outplayed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-3, 7-6 (7/3).
One more win for each and they will face off against each other in the semi-finals.
PHOTO: EPA
The Belgrade pair are both seeking their country’s first Grand Slam title in women’s tennis on the back of Novak Djokovic’s breakthrough win for the men at the Australian Open in January.
The 20-year-old Ivanovic, who is starting to rival Maria Sharapova in the glamor stakes, won at a canter in a 54-minute long mismatch to underline her potential winner status.
In four straight sets wins so far, she has dropped just 15 games as she bids to go one better than last year in Paris, where she lost badly to the now retired Justine Henin in the final.
Ivanovic will play Patty Schnyder of Switzerland or Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia in the quarter-finals.
Third seeded Jankovic was too solid in the end for Polish youngster Radwanska, but she again had trouble with pain in her right arm and shoulder brought on, she says, by the heavy balls.
As in her second round tie against Marina Erakovic, the 23-year-old needed extensive treatment at the changeover when she was 6-3 and 2-1 up with a break in her favor. That seemed to work fine as on the restart she reeled off three straight games to take a commanding 5-1 lead.
Radwanska, the 2006 junior champion at Roland Garros, rallied to win four games in a row with two breaks of serve to level at 5-5 and then forced a tie-break.
Jankovic made her greater experience tell and she comfortably won through 7/3.
She will next go up against 19-year-old Spanish qualifier Carla Suarez Navarro.
Suarez Navarro had too much power for Flavia Pennetta of Italy, winning 6-3, 6-2.
In the Junior Boys competition, Taiwan’s Yang Tsung-hua defeated Alexandre Foile of Belgium 6-4, 7-5.
Lin Yun-ju on Thursday handed Taiwan two key victories as they advanced to the semi-finals of the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in London. The Taiwan men’s table tennis team beat Sweden 3-2 in five singles matches. The 24-year-old Lin, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7 and nicknamed the “Silent Assassin,” opened the tie by defeating world No. 2 Truls Moregard 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 13-11) before clinching the deciding fifth match with a 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-5) win over Anton Kallberg to hand his team the overall victory. Kuo Guan-hong put Taiwan up 2-0 with a 3-2 (4-11, 11-8, 8-11,
Taiwan’s men’s table tennis team won bronze on Saturday at this year’s International Table Tennis Federation World Team Table Tennis Championships in London, matching the country’s best-ever finish at the regular tournament. Consisting of Lin Yun-ju, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7, Feng Yi-hsin, Kuo Guan-hong, Hong Jing-kai and Hsu Hsien-chia, the team won bronze after losing 0-3 to Japan in the semifinals. In the opening match, 24-year-old Lin played the first game against world No. 3 Tomokazu Harimoto 11-5, but ultimately lost the next three closely contested games 9-11, 10-12 and 10-12. Feng then faced world No. 8 Sora Matsushima in
Taiwanese fire dancer Yang Li-wei advanced to the final of Britain’s Got Talent this weekend after receiving a Golden Buzzer during her live semi-final performance. Yang, a member of Taiwan’s Coming True Fire Group, awed judges and audiences with a high-intensity fire performance featuring flaming umbrellas, fire swallowing and spinning metal structures balanced with her legs. Judge Simon Cowell praised Yang as a star, while guest judge KSI reacted with amazement before pressing the Golden Buzzer, sending her to the finals. The dance group wrote on social media that the Golden Buzzer was “the highest honor” on the talent show, adding: “Twenty-three years
As Super Rugby fast approaches its playoff season it finds itself racing toward a reckoning with many issues that threaten the southern hemisphere tournament. A group of stakeholders met in the New Zealand city of Christchurch late last month to address problems that are making the future of the 31-year-old competition increasingly tenuous. The discussion was made more urgent by the decision by the owners of Moana Pasifika to fold the Auckland-based club for financial reasons. That followed the closure of the Melbourne Rebels at the end of the 2024 season, likewise because of financial difficulties. Problems addressed included player retention as more
RSS