Second-seeded Alize Cornet of France defeated Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-1 on Tuesday in the first round of the Budapest Grand Prix.
Cornet, the defending champion, took a 4-2 lead in the first set and finished off the match by winning the last four games in the second.
Cornet will face Shahar Peer of Israel in the second round. Peer defeated Irina Begu of Romania 6-1, 4-6, 6-4.
Third-seeded Sybille Bammer of Austria also had an easy win, beating Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-3.
Bammer’s opponent in the second round will be Romania’s Edina Gallovits.
Fourth-seeded Agnes Szavay of Hungary defeated compatriot Katalin Marosi 6-1, 6-1 and will meet Tathiana Garbin of Italy for a place in the quarter-finals.
Two seeded players, Sara Errani of Italy and Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic, were eliminated in the first round.
Qualifier Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland defeated the seventh-seeded Errani 5-7, 6-4, 6-0, while No. 8 Safarova lost to Petra Martic of Croatia, 7-6 (5), 6-0.
Top-seeded Patty Schnyder of Switzerland was set to play her first-round match yesterday.
■SWEDISH OPEN
AP, BASTAD, SWEDEN
Top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark advanced to the second round of the Swedish Open on Tuesday after beating Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden 6-1, 6-3.
The ninth-ranked Wozniacki broke Arvidsson twice in the first set and once in the second to complete the win in 1 hour, 3 minutes.
Wozniacki, who reached the fourth round at Wimbledon last week, saved all three break points she faced on the clay.
Also on Tuesday, second-seeded Dominika Cibulkova beat Swedish wild card Sandra Roma 6-3, 2-6, 6-1, while No. 3 Flavia Pennetta beat fellow Italian Francesca Schiavone 6-2, 7-5.
However, fourth-seeded Kaia Kanepi of Estonia was eliminated after losing 6-1, 7-6 (1) to Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain.
■HALL OF FAME
AP, NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND
Heavy rain halted the only three matches that began at the Hall of Fame Championships on Tuesday, ending play before two-time defending champion Fabrice Santoro got onto the grass court.
The start of action was delayed for about two-and-a-half hours before three matches began.
After a second delay of approximately 90 minutes, play resumed for a little more than 20 minutes before thunderstorms halted play for the day.
Seventh-seeded Kevin Kim of the US lost the first set against Sebastien Grosjean of France 6-4, and play was stopped during the first game of the second set.
Santoro, the No. 2 seed, watched the action from the grandstands before retreating to the player’s lounge, where the Michael Jackson memorial service was on a TV set.
Philipp Petzschner of Germany led Horacio Zeballos of Argentina 6-4, 3-4; and Samuel Groth of Australia was ahead of Brazil’s Ricardo Mello, 7-5, 0-3.
A moment of silence was held before the first match for 24-year old French player Mathieu Montcourt, who was found dead in his Paris apartment on Tuesday.
Top-seeded Mardy Fish withdrew on Monday to take Andy Roddick’s place on the US Davis Cup team. Fish was selected for the team after Roddick withdrew from the Davis Cup, citing a right hip flexor injury.
Taiwanese gymnast Tang Chia-hung on Sunday topped the men’s horizontal bar event at the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) World Cup in Osijek, Croatia, scoring 15.233 to take his third title this season. Tang delivered an outstanding performance in the final, earning a difficulty score of 6.500 and an execution score of 8.633 with a 0.1 stick bonus. His closest competitor was Milad Karimi of Kazakhstan, who finished second with 14.933 points. It was Tang’s third gold medal in the FIG World Cup series this year, following his horizontal bar wins in Azerbaijan on March 8, and in Turkey on March
This year’s Taiwan Athletics Open, which offers Taiwanese athletes an opportunity to compete against their international peers, would be held under a new name after its organizers had earlier announced the event’s cancelation. In a statement issued yesterday, the Chinese Taipei Athletics Association said the competition would still take place on June 6-7 at Banciao Stadium, but under the name “New Taipei City Athletics Open 2026.” The event was given a new name to emphasize its local identity and conform with the international practice of naming World Athletics Tour events after cities, the association said. It said it would soon
Taiwan’s Lee Hao-yu on Friday went 0-for-3 in his MLB debut for the Detroit Tigers against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, becoming the 19th Taiwan-born player to reach the big leagues. The Tigers ultimately lost 1-0 in 10 innings, ending their six-game winning streak. The 23-year-old started at third base and batted eighth for Detroit. He was promoted from Triple-A Toledo ahead of the four-game series against the Red Sox at the latter’s home stadium, replacing injured utility player Zach McKinstry. “Being right-handed, and given our schedule, I think six of the next 12 games are going to
Denmark’s double Olympic badminton champion Viktor Axelsen, long a rival of Taiwan’s former world No. 2 Chou Tien-chen, yesterday announced his retirement at age 32, saying back problems meant he could no longer “compete and train at the highest level.” Axelsen, who won gold at the Tokyo Games in 2021 and again in Paris in 2024, had back surgery in April last year and said he had not overcome his physical issues. “Accepting this situation has been incredibly difficult,” he said in a statement. “But I have now reached a point where my body won’t allow me to continue.” Axelsen retires as one
RSS