Taiwan’s tennis stars set up an all-Taiwanese final in the Asian Games women’s doubles yesterday in Guangzhou.
Both matches were close affairs, each of them going to a super tiebreak to decide who would battle it out for the gold medal this morning.
Chang Kai-chen and Hsieh Su-wei rallied from a set down to defeat Peng Shuai and Yan Zi of China 5-7, 6-0, 1-0 in the first semi-final.
PHOTO: AFP
Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan and Chuang Chia-jung followed up their success, beating Kim So-jung and Lee Jin-a of South Korea 6-1, 3-6, 1-0.
There was good news in the mixed doubles as well, with Chan Yung-jan and Yang Tsung-hua beating Hiroki Kondo and Yurika Sema of Japan 6-3, 6-3 in their semi-final.
They will face India’s Sania Mirza and Vishnu Vardhan in this afternoon’s final after they overcame Tamarine Tanasugarn and Sanchai Ratiwatana of Thailand 3-6, 7-6 (7/3), 1-0 in another match that required a super tiebreak.
In the men’s doubles, Taiwan’s Yi Chu-huan and Lee Hsin-han picked up a bronze medal when they lost their semi-final 6-4, 7-6 to China’s Gong Maoxin and Li Zhe.
In the women’s singles, China’s Peng shattered 40-year-old Kimiko Date Krumm’s dream of a second Asian Games title to keep her gold medal bid on course.
Peng clinched a 7-6 (8/6), 3-6, 6-2 win over the veteran Japanese, who won her first singles gold at the Hiroshima Asian Games in 1994, and she now faces Uzbekistan’s Akgul Amanmuradova, who put out India’s golden girl Mirza.
Defending men’s champion Danai Udomchoke was knocked out in the quarter-finals, losing to Japan’s Tatsuma Ito 6-4, 6-1.
Ito next faces India’s Somdev Devverman, who defeated China’s Zhang Ze 6-4, 6-4.
Top seed Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan reached the semi-finals after a 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 win over Karan Rastogi, with the vanquished Indian praising his opponent’s sportsmanship.
Istomin would have won if he had accepted the chair umpire’s judgment that a Rastogi forehand was out on match-point, but the Uzbek called the ball good.
“Not many people on the tour would do that,” said Rastogi, the world No. 332. “I have known him for a while and for him to call the ball good on match-point showed that he’s an incredible champion.”
US national team star Folarin Balogun was among the scorers as AS Monaco on Friday won 3-1 at Paris Saint-Germain, dealing a blow to the side from the French capital before they face Chelsea in a crunch UEFA Champions League round-of-16 tie. Maghnes Akliouche gave Monaco a first-half lead at the Parc des Princes, and Aleksandr Golovin doubled their advantage early in the second half of the French Ligue 1 clash. Bradley Barcola pulled one back for the reigning European champions, but Balogun struck shortly after with a fifth goal in his last five games as Monaco claimed a precious
West Ham United on Monday advanced to the FA Cup quarter-finals with a 5-3 penalty shoot-out win against Brentford, who paid the price for Dango Ouattara’s spot-kick blunder. Nuno Espirito Santo’s side twice blew the lead as Jarrod Bowen’s double was canceled out by an Igor Thiago brace to force extra-time in the 2-2 draw at the London Stadium, but in the shoot-out, Brentford winger Ouattara attempted a chipped Panenka penalty, but his woeful effort was straight at West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola. It was an awful mistake by the Burkina Faso international and West Ham took full advantage. Bowen, Valentin Castellanos, Callum
Teenage star Lamine Yamal’s superbly-taken goal on Saturday earned Barcelona a 1-0 win at Athletic Bilbao in Spanish La Liga. The champions restored their four-point lead over second-placed Real Madrid, who had on Friday temporarily closed the gap by beating Celta Vigo. Atletico Madrid tightened their grip on third with an entertaining 3-2 win over Real Sociedad. Yamal, 18, curled into the top corner after 68 minutes to split the sides at Athletic’s San Mames stadium. “We’re already seeing what Lamine can do — he puts it right in the top corner, and there’s nothing the keeper can do,” Barca
Thanks to Italy beating Mexico on Wednesday, the US get another chance in the World Baseball Classic (WBC). What looked like a potentially disastrous early exit for US manager Mark DeRosa and his team turned out to be nothing more than substantial worry and significant embarrassment for about 24 hours. It remains to be seen whether the US really want to win badly enough for the reprieve to matter, as if it is just a switch they can flick, but there is little reason for their fans to be optimistic. The team’s attitude and behavior have been all over the place when
RSS