Fourteen-year-old Madison Keys made her WTA Tour debut a memorable one, upsetting Russia’s Alla Kudryavtseva 7-5, 6-4 on Monday in the opening round of The MPS Group Championships.
The American fell behind 5-2 in the first set but used powerful ground strokes to break Kudryavtseva twice to win the set.
Keys lost the first game of the second set before going on a four-game run, and after the 81st-ranked Kudryavtseva fought back to 4-5, Keys won the set with an ace.
“The first two or three games I was nervous,” she said. “It was kind of just the first few games of just hitting the ball and feeling it and really getting into a rhythm that made me feel a lot better.”
OUTFIT
“I actually got into tennis because of Venus and Serena [Williams],” Keys said. “I was watching Wimbledon one year and Venus was playing and I really liked how she was playing but I also liked her outfit.”
“I told my dad I wanted a dress like Venus’ and he said, ‘Only if you play tennis.’ So, I went to Walgreen’s, got a racket and started playing.”
Other ranked players in the field include world no. 12 Caroline Wozniacki, no. 16 Dominka Cibulkova, who lost in last year’s final to Maria Sharapova, and 43rd-ranked Daniela Hantuchova.
In other matches on Monday, third-seeded Dominika
Cibulkova of Slovakia defeated Edina Gallovits 6-2, 6-2, and seventh-seeded
Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko beat India’s Sania Mirza 6-4, 6-3.
In the first round of the doubles Taiwan’s Chan Chin-wei and Carly Gullickson of the United States defeated Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan and Olga Savchuk of Ukraine, 6-7 (3), 6-2, 10-7.
DOWNSIZED
This year’s tournament, being played at Sawgrass Country Club, has been downsized to go with its new sponsor and a move to a new site.
The tournament, formerly sponsored by Bausch & Lomb, moved from its longtime home in Amelia Island to Ponte Vedra Beach. The total purse dropped from last year’s US$600,000 to US$220,000 with the winner receiving US$37,000.
Last year’s winner, Maria Sharapova, isn’t playing. Other former champions of the tournament include Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Steffi Graf, Lindsay Davenport, Monica Seles and Venus Williams.
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
‘TOUGH TO BREATHE’: Tunisian three-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur suffered an asthma attack in her 7-5, 6-3 victory over Colombia’s Camila Osorio Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday cruised into the second round of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Iga Swiatek romped into a third-round women’s singles showdown with Emma Raducanu and Taylor Fritz was just as emphatic in his pursuit of a maiden Grand Slam title. Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, the third seeds, defeated Slovakia’s Tereza Mihalikova and Olivia Nicholls of Britain 7-5, 6-2 in 90 minutes in Melbourne. Ostapenko and Hsieh — who won the women’s doubles and mixed doubles at the Australian Open last year — hit 25 winners and converted five of nine break points to set
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: After Coco Gauff dispatched Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok USA’ and drew a broken heart on a television camera lens Defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while compatriot Chan Hao-ching on Saturday dominated her opponents in the second round, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept into the quarter-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia toppled Hungary’s Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US 6-4, 6-3, hitting 24 winners and converting three of seven break points in 1 hour, 18 minutes at 1573 Arena. Although rivals at last year’s Australian Open — where Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens beat Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-1, 7-5
Dubbed a “motorway for cyclists” where avid amateurs can chase Tadej Pogacar up mountains teeming with the highest concentration of professional cyclists per square kilometer in the world, Spain’s Costa Blanca has forged a new reputation for itself in the past few years. Long known as the ideal summer destination for those in search of sun, sea and sand, the stretch of coast between Valencia and Alicante now has a winter vocation too. During the season break in December and January, the region experiences an invasion of cyclists. Star names such as three-time Tour de France winner Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel and Julian Alaphilippe
RSS