Australian wildcard Sally Peers stunned seventh-seeded Russian Alisa Kleybanova with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 win in the opening match of the Brisbane International tennis tournament yesterday.
The 24-year-old Peers, ranked 154th in the world heading into the tournament, beat Kleybanova over an exhausting two hours, 18 minutes in stifling conditions at the Pat Rafter Arena.
FIRST SET
PHOTO: AFP
Kleybanova, 21, took the first set comfortably and looked on track to claim the second when she led 3-2 and was up 40-0 to take a 4-2 lead.
However, Peers fought back to break Kleybanova’s serve, took the second set 6-4 and then opened a 5-1 lead in the decider.
Kleybanova came back to make it 5-3, but Peers was not to be denied, holding on to ease her way into the second round.
CONFIDENCE
“That game that I came back from love-40 gave me a lot of confidence to know that I could stick with her and really fight it out,” Peers said. “I tried to stay out there as long as possible — maybe she’s not used to the warm conditions and I love playing up here, so I think I used that to my advantage.”
Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski brought the Brisbane crowd back down to earth when she beat the higher ranked Russian-born but naturalized Australian Anastasia Rodionova 2-6, 6-2, 6-3.
The Serbian No. 3 is ranked 80th to Rodionova’s 64th, but she finished too strongly for the Australian, wrapping up the match in two hours, nine minutes.
Fifth-seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova fought off a spirited challenge from fellow Russian Alla Kudryavtseva before winning 6-2, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, while Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic recorded a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 win over Uzbekistan’s Akgul Amanmuradova.
LAST MATCH
In the last match of the day, Australian Jarmila Groth delighted the home crowd when she beat Spain’s Arantxa Parra Santonja in straight sets 6-2, 7-5.
There was only one men’s first round match yesterday, sixth seeded Spaniard Feliciano Lopez downing German Philipp Petzschner 6-4, 7-6 (13/11).
Former world No. 2 Paula Badosa has withdrawn from this week’s Wuhan Open, organizers said on Tuesday, amid a racism row over an online photograph. Tournament organizers said the Spaniard had pulled out of the WTA 1000 tournament, citing a gastrointestinal illness, hours before her first-round match against Australian Ajla Tomljanovic. News outlets including Britain’s the Telegraph earlier reported that Badosa had posted a photo on Instagram in which she appeared to imitate a Chinese face by placing chopsticks on the corners of her eyes. The photo was taken last week in a restaurant in Beijing, where she reached the semi-finals of the
Shin Oebori coaches the Fukagawa Hawks youth baseball team in Tokyo, and he is very aware how Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani touches his players. “With Ohtani, the kids think everything is possible,” Oebori said, wrapping up practice yesterday on an all-dirt field set alongside a local Buddhist temple, below an elevated highway, and in the shadow of tall apartment blocks in central Tokyo. “Nothing is impossible with him. A dream is not a dream,” Oebori said, stepping out of the fenced practice field that keeps balls from landing on the temple grounds. None of the players hitting sponge-soft baseball has reached
CRICKET Azhar’s 59 leads Stallions Aashir Azhar’s blazing half-century guided the Taipei Stallions to victory over Taipei Super 11 in the Taiwan Premier League’s Group A at the Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei yesterday. The Stallions were 102-3 and into the 12th over of 20 when Azhar came to the crease. He hit seven sixes and two fours in the 25 deliveries he faced to push his side to 171-5. Gokul Kumar was the star with the ball for Super 11, taking 3-17. In the reply, Deepak Vishnu outscored Azhar with 77 from 50 balls, but nobody else got past 20 as
‘GLOBAL PRESSURE’: LA’s Dave Roberts said that it was difficult to appreciate the ‘pressure on a global scale’ his starter was under ‘pitching for his country’ The Los Angeles Dodgers shelled out US$1 billion for Japanese talent in the off-season and it is paying off in the MLB playoffs. Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Friday outdueled Yu Darvish in a historic post-season matchup of Japanese-born starters, while the Dodgers got home runs from Kike Hernandez and Teoscar Hernandez to beat the San Diego Padres 2-0 and advance to the National League Championship Series. “It’s pretty sweet,” a smiling Freddie Freeman said. Yamamoto allowed two hits over five innings for the win, getting pulled after 63 pitches in a decisive Game 5 between heated NL West rivals who were meeting in a
RSS