Taiwan’s Chuang Chia-jung, who has been unable to sustain her top 10 doubles ranking playing with a variety of partners after splitting with compatriot Chan Yung-jan, seems to have found a good fit with India’s Sania Mirza.
One week after the duo reached the semi-finals of women’s doubles at the Sony Ericsson Open, Chuang and Mirza reached the finals of the MPS Group Championships in Florida by defeating Liga Dekmeijere of Latvia and Angela Haynes of the US 6-4, 6-3 in Saturday’s semis.
In the final of the clay court event yesterday, Chuang and Mirza were to face top seeds Czech Kveta Peschke and American Lisa Raymond, the same duo that knocked them out at the Sony Ericsson Open in two tight sets.
PHOTO : AP
Chuang was ranked as high as No. 5 in the world in doubles during her nearly 20-month collaboration with Chan, which ended at last year’s US Open after a failed bid for an Olympic medal at the Beijing Summer Olympics last year.
Her ranking has fallen since the split, but Chuang is now back up to No. 17 in the world and could move up another two slots if she and Mirza capture the MPS Group Championships title.
In singles play, Fifth-seeded Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak upset top-seeded Russian Nadia Petrova 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 to reach the finals.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Wozniak advanced to a meeting with second-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, who beat Russia’s Elena Vesnina in the second semi-final 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/4).
■US MEN’S CLAY COURT
AP, HOUSTON
PHOTO : REUTER
Lleyton Hewitt of Australia reached his first clay court final in a decade with a 7-6 (4), 6-4 victory over Evgeny Korolev of Russia at the US Men’s Clay Court Championships on Saturday.
The former No. 1 player, who has won 26 titles, was to meet first-time finalist Wayne Odesnik of the US yesterday.
Odesnik beat Germany’s Bjorn Phau 6-4, 6-3 in their semi-final.
Hewitt won his 498th career match, moving him closer to joining Roger Federer and Carlos Moya as the only active players with 500 wins. A victory yesterday would give Hewitt his first title on clay since Delray Beach in 1999.
Odesnik will be trying to become the first American to win a clay court event since 2006 when Mardy Fish won in Houston.
■ANDALUCIA CHAMPIONSHIPS
AFP, MARBELLA, SPAIN
Spanish fifth seed Carla Suarez Navarro was set to stand in the way of Serbian favorite and second seed Jelena Jankovic in yesterday’s final of the US$500,000 WTA Andalucia Tennis Experience claycourt tournament after both showed their form with semi-final wins.
Jankovic was barely troubled as she ended the dreams of Spanish fourth seed Anabel Medina Garrigues 7-5, 6-2, while Suarez Navarro had to go the full distance before seeing off Romanian seventh seed Sorana Cirstea 6-2, 6-7 (5/7), 6-2.
Canary Islander Suarez Navarro, 20 and a quarter-finalist in the Australian and French Opens in the past year, won through in 2 hours, 42 minutes after quickly righting herself following a second set tiebreak loss.
■CASABLANCA
AFP, CASABLANCA, MOROCCO
Spain’s former world No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero reached his first final in 15 months on Saturday when he defeated top seeded Russian Igor Andreev 7-6 (11/9), 6-3 in the Casablanca ATP claycourt tournament semi-finals. Victory also took the unseeded Ferrero to within four wins of the 400-match win career mark.
In Sunday’s final, Ferrero, without a title in over five years, will tackle French fifth seed Florent Serra, who enjoyed a 6-4, 6-4 victory over third-seeded Spaniard Albert Montanes.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
RSS