Russian qualifier Arina Rodionova upset top-seeded Kaia Kanepi 6-4, 6-2 in the second round of the Aegon Classic on Tuesday.
The Estonian, who had a first-round bye, was broken once in the first set and twice in the second in her first match on grass for almost a year.
Rodionova, who had two matches in qualifying, advanced to the round-of-16 against 2009 champion Magdalena Rybarikova after the 14th seed beat Coco Vandeweghe of South Africa 6-2, 6-1.
Photo: AFP
“I remember last year when I played in [qualifying] here, it was much easier for me in the main draw,” Kanepi said. “I think I didn’t have any rhythm at all and she played very well.”
Mirjana Lucic defeated the only other seeded player to lose, saving a match point to win 6-7 (2/7), 7-6 (7/4), 7-5 against No. 5 Roberta Vinci of Italy.
Lucic made the Wimbledon semi-finals in 1999 as a promising 17-year-old, but was absent from the WTA tour for much of the last decade because of personal problems. She will next play either Ayumi Morita of Japan or Andrea Hlavackova of the Czech Republic.
SONY ERICSSON OPEN
AP, COPENHAGEN
Top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki eased into the second round of the Sony Ericsson Open on Tuesday with a 6-2, 6-3 win over unseeded Irina Falconi of the US.
The 20-year-old Dane will play Angelique Kerber of Germany, who beat Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-2 at the WTA indoor hard-court tournament.
Earlier, Simona Halep of Romania beat sixth-seeded Latvian Anastasija Sevastova 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (7/4), 6-0, while qualifier Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan earned a 6-3, 6-1 victory against seventh-seeded Jelena Dokic of Australia.
Fifth-seeded Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic won 6-2, 6-1 against Sweden’s Sofia Arvidsson. Another Czech, fourth-seeded Lucie Safarova, knocked out Australian qualifier Johanna Konta 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.
Ademola Lookman on Thursday scored on his Atletico Madrid debut in a 5-0 rout of Real Betis Balompie that sent Diego Simeone’s team to the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey. David Hancko, Giuliano Simeone, Antoine Griezmann and Thiago Almada also scored for Atletico as they advanced to the last four for the third straight season. Atletico are trying to reach their first Copa final since winning the competition in 2012-2013. Hancko opened the scoring for the visitors in the 12th minute and Giuliano Simeone added to the lead in the 30th, before Lookman got his first goal for Atletico on a fast
France head coach Fabien Galthie on Thursday lauded his team’s attacking performance after their dazzling 36-14 victory over Ireland in their Six Nations opener. A brace of tries from Louis Bielley-Biarrey and one from mercurial flyhalf Matthieu Jalibert helped France storm into a 29-0 lead before taking their foot off the gas and allowing Ireland back into the match, before winger Theo Attissogbe put some gloss on the victory late on. “In an attacking sense, with the ball, the team played with great accuracy,” Galthie said. “It was one of the most accurate attacking performances in a long time, despite the weather
SUPERSTAR DELIVERS: Victor Wembanyama scored 29 points and pulled down 11 rebounds to propel the Spurs to a 135-123 victory over the Dallas Mavericks The Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday shook off the early exit of injured star Luka Doncic, rallying without him in the second half for a 119-115 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. Austin Reaves, again coming off the bench in his second game back from a 19-game injury absence, scored 13 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter, drilling a pair of back-to-back three-pointers to give the Lakers their first lead of the game early in the final frame. “Losing Luka, you know nothing’s going to be easy after that because he does so much for us, but we bonded together,” said
Italy are finally heading to the World Cup — just not in the sport most people might expect. Amid dark times for the country’s storied, but ailing soccer team, some salvation comes in the form of the Azzurri’s unheralded cricketers after their first-ever qualification for a global tournament. Add Italy to cricketing superpowers like India, Australia, England and South Africa competing at the T20 World Cup starting tomorrow. “Just to be there and playing is the end of 45 years of hard work,” Italian Cricket Federation CEO Luca Bruno Malaspina said. That is a reference to the formation of the sport’s national federation in
RSS