Taiwan’s Yani Tseng, world No. 1, won her second-round match at the LPGA’s Match Play Championship on Friday to advance to the next round.
Tseng, who is ranked No. 4 at the tournament, defeated Jenny Suh of the US 3-and-2 in 16 holes at the Hamilton Farm Golf Club in Gladstone, New Jersey.
The 22-year-old Tseng will face 62nd seed Julieta Granada of Paraguay in the next round.
Photo: Reuters
“I had lots of good chances to make birdie, but I shot even today. I held on and won in 16 holes … I feel like I had confidence today. Tomorrow, I’ll do the same thing and stay aggressive,” Tseng was quoted as saying on the LPGA’s Web site after the match.
Tseng’s compatriot, 45th-seed Amy Hung, failed to advance after falling 5-and-3 to Norway’s Suzann Pettersen, the fifth-ranked player in the tournament.
Meanwhile, Cristie Kerr, Paula Creamer, Michelle Wie and three other Americans advanced to the final 16 in a strong showing by the home players.
Angela Stanford, Stacy Lewis and Brittany Lang were the others Americans to advance and they will face a difficult task in a field where favorites are leading the way.
The prominent American performance came after a practice round early this week for the top 16 US players in preparation for the Solheim Cup.
“It’s awesome,” said Wie, who came from two holes down with five to play to beat Sweden’s Anna Nordqvist in 20 holes. “We had our ‘sweet 16’ practice session and we all played matches against each other, so it’s pretty interesting.”
Top-seeded Choi Na-yeon of South Korea and No. 6 seed Ai Miyazato of Japan also won as seven of the top 10 seeds earned spots in the round of 16.
Creamer will play Lang in the only all-American match. Kerr will face Kyeong Bae of South Korea, Wie will play Sophie Gustafson of Sweden, Lewis is paired with Pettersen, while Stanford will play Meena Lee, who knocked off No. 2 Shin Ji-yai in the first round.
Kerr was the most impressive player on Friday in a round that was played mostly in heavy rain and ended in brilliant sunshine.
The No. 3 seed won the third through eighth holes against Belen Mozo of Spain en route to a 7-and-6 rout, her second straight dominant performance.
While there were other one-sided matches, the afternoon had some great drama, particularly Creamer’s match with Hall of Famer Karrie Webb and Wie’s 20-hole win over Nordqvist, a past US Women’s Open champion.
Creamer posted a 1-up victory, making a downhill, five-foot birdie putt on the par-five 18th to put away the Australian she calls “Webbie.”
Taiwan’s men’s table tennis team won bronze on Saturday at this year’s International Table Tennis Federation World Team Table Tennis Championships in London, matching the country’s best-ever finish at the regular tournament. Consisting of Lin Yun-ju, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7, Feng Yi-hsin, Kuo Guan-hong, Hong Jing-kai and Hsu Hsien-chia, the team won bronze after losing 0-3 to Japan in the semifinals. In the opening match, 24-year-old Lin played the first game against world No. 3 Tomokazu Harimoto 11-5, but ultimately lost the next three closely contested games 9-11, 10-12 and 10-12. Feng then faced world No. 8 Sora Matsushima in
Lin Yun-ju on Thursday handed Taiwan two key victories as they advanced to the semi-finals of the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in London. The Taiwan men’s table tennis team beat Sweden 3-2 in five singles matches. The 24-year-old Lin, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7 and nicknamed the “Silent Assassin,” opened the tie by defeating world No. 2 Truls Moregard 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 13-11) before clinching the deciding fifth match with a 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-5) win over Anton Kallberg to hand his team the overall victory. Kuo Guan-hong put Taiwan up 2-0 with a 3-2 (4-11, 11-8, 8-11,
Taiwanese fire dancer Yang Li-wei advanced to the final of Britain’s Got Talent this weekend after receiving a Golden Buzzer during her live semi-final performance. Yang, a member of Taiwan’s Coming True Fire Group, awed judges and audiences with a high-intensity fire performance featuring flaming umbrellas, fire swallowing and spinning metal structures balanced with her legs. Judge Simon Cowell praised Yang as a star, while guest judge KSI reacted with amazement before pressing the Golden Buzzer, sending her to the finals. The dance group wrote on social media that the Golden Buzzer was “the highest honor” on the talent show, adding: “Twenty-three years
As Super Rugby fast approaches its playoff season it finds itself racing toward a reckoning with many issues that threaten the southern hemisphere tournament. A group of stakeholders met in the New Zealand city of Christchurch late last month to address problems that are making the future of the 31-year-old competition increasingly tenuous. The discussion was made more urgent by the decision by the owners of Moana Pasifika to fold the Auckland-based club for financial reasons. That followed the closure of the Melbourne Rebels at the end of the 2024 season, likewise because of financial difficulties. Problems addressed included player retention as more
RSS