Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan was defeated by Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova 6-0, 6-2 in the second round of the women’s singles at the Australian Open yesterday.
Cibulkova, seeded 18, broke Chan’s serve immediately, after the latter had squandered five game points. The Slovakian then reeled off six straight games to take the first set in only 31 minutes.
With Cibulkova’s defeat of South Africa’s Chanelle Scheepers 6-0, 6-0 in the first round, she ended up winning 19 straight games at the tournament until Chan halted her run by winning the second game of yesterday’s second set.
However, Chan only managed to win one more game before the 19-year-old from Bratislava wrapped up her straight sets win.
Cibulkova served much better than her Taiwanese opponent, the former’s first-serve percentage was 76 percent, the latter’s only 56 percent.
In another second round clash, Serena Williams gave herself a “D-minus at best” for her 6-3, 7-5 win over Argentina’s Gisela Dulko, ranked 45th in the world.
Elena Dementieva improved her winning streak this year to 12 matches with 6-4, 6-1 win over Iveta Benesova.
Amelie Mauresmo rallied for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Britain’s Elena Baltacha. Mauresmo, a former No. 1-ranked player now seeded 20th, advanced when Baltacha double-faulted on match point.
In the men’s singles, Rafael Nadal got top marks for his second straight match, a 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 win over Croatia’s Roko Karanusic. The Spaniard has dropped only 11 games in six sets and next faces German veteran Tommy Haas, who beat Flavio Cipolla of Italy, 6-1, 6-2, 6-1.
Fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga showed flashes of brilliance and bravery as he survived a 195-minute marathon to down Ivan Ljubicic 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (10/8), 7-6 (8/7), 6-2.
In the men’s doubles, Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun returned to earth with a bump yesterday after his stunning victory over David Nalbandian in the men’s singles the previous day. Teaming up with Germany’s Rainer Schuettler the pair suffered a 6-2, 6-1 thrashing by Pole Lukasz Kubot and Austrian Oliver Marach.
Kubot and Marach wrapped up the first set in only 33 minutes and things were no better for the Taiwanese/German combo in the second as their opponents wrapped up the win in only 67 minutes.
One consolation for Lu is that his short workout yesterday should leave him reasonably fresh for today’s third round singles clash with Tommy Robredo.
The Rakuten Monkeys on Sunday downed the CTBC Brothers 2-1, handing the hosts their second consecutive loss in the best-of-seven CPBL Taiwan Series at the Taipei Dome. Monkeys’ ace starter Pedro Fernandez of the Dominican Republic dominated on the mound, cruising through six scoreless innings before giving up a run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh inning. He gave up only three hits and walked two batters in a 93-pitch outing, giving his Taoyuan-based team an edge. Offensively, the Monkeys’ leadoff batter Lin Li hit Brothers starter Brandon Leibrandt’s pitch over the center-field wall in the game’s first at-bat,
Rafael Leao on Sunday shot AC Milan to the top of Serie A with a brace in a 2-1 win over ACF Fiorentina who were enraged by the “scandalous” awarding of the penalty that decided the game. Portugal winger Leao pushed Milan one point ahead of local rivals Inter, SSC Napoli and AS Roma with a coolly taken spot-kick, given for what looked like a soft foul on Santiago Gimenez by Fabiano Parisi, with four minutes remaining. That goal capped a fine first league start of the season for Leao and came after he drew the hosts level with a brilliantly struck
The tiny village club of Mjallby AIF on Monday won the top tier Swedish soccer league with a 2-0 away win at IFK Gothenburg, sealing the title with three rounds of matches remaining. Jacob Bergstrom and Tom Pettersson scored the goals in Mjallby’s 20th win in 27 league games. Mjallby has a population of fewer than 1,400 people and plays in an outdated 6,000-seat stadium with stands weathered by the winds of the Baltic Sea. “It’s a huge relief to experience this now, a relief with three games to go,” said Anders Torstensson, a former army officer and secondary-school teacher who coaches the
Sean Dyche on Thursday achieved in his first game with Nottingham Forest what predecessor Ange Postecoglou could not in eight matches in charge: Win. Under its new coach, Nottingham Forest presented a concentrated display resulting in a 2-0 victory over Porto in the UEFA Europa League. It was the first victory for Nottingham in the competition and only the second overall this season, while Porto were defeated for the first time this season. Morgan Gibbs-White converted from the penalty spot in the 19th minute at the City Ground in West Bridgford, England. Igor Jesus doubled the advantage from another penalty in the 77th
RSS