Ayumi Morita made a convincing start to the defense of her Taipei WTA Ladies Open title by breezing past Taiwanese qualifier Lee Hua-chen 6-2, 6-1 at the Taipei Arena yesterday.
The No. 3 seed showed why she is ranked 400 places above her 19-year-old opponent, needing less than an hour to book a second-round clash with Poland’s Paula Kania.
Morita is looking to continue an impressive run of form at the tournament having reached the last three finals. After losing to Chan Yung-jan in 2009 and Peng Shuai in 2010, she beat compatriot Kimiko Date-Krumm last year.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
The 22-year-old from Ota City is looking to claim her first title of the year after suffering shoulder and back problems since her success in Taipei last year.
In the first match of the day, Kania made short work of Taiwan’s Chan Chin-wei to earn a 6-4, 6-3 victory.
The 19-year-old from Sosnowiec played consistently rather than spectacularly to defeat world No. 270 Chan, holding her serve throughout and facing only one break point.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
The first set was evenly poised until Chan was broken to love in the seventh game after having only lost one point on her serve up to that point.
The 27-year-old from Kaohsiung was never really able to get back into the contest from then on and put a forehand into the net on the first match point she faced to end the 1 hour, 9 minute encounter.
Chan will be hoping for better luck in the doubles where she is teaming up with Date-Krumm.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Earlier, Thailand’s Varatchya Wongteanchai sprang a surprise on compatriot Noppawan Lertcheewakarn, beating an opponent almost 100 places higher in the world rankings.
Wongteanchai was only playing because Zhou Yi-miao of China pulled out.
Wongteanchai beat the former Wimbledon junior singles champion 7-6 (7/3), 6-2.
At press time, Taiwanese fifth seed Chang Kai-chen was a set up against Luksika Kumkhum of Thailand in the final match of the day.
Chang, who is the highest ranked Taiwanese at the Taipei Arena, narrowly missed out on her first WTA title when she lost to Britain’s Heather Watson in Osaka earlier this month.
Also yesterday, Nudnida Luangnam of Thailand beat Japan’s Erika Sema 6-4, 7-6 (10/8); Misaki Doi of Japan defeated China’s Qiang Wang 6-4, 7-5; Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-hsin edged Chan Hao-ching 5-7, 7-6 (7/2), 6-4; Kristina Mladenovic of France beat Israel’s Julia Glushko 6-2, 4-6, 6-3; and Olga Govortsova of Belarus defeated China’s Zheng Saisai 7-6 (7/3), 6-1.
Transgender athletes are to have an ally in the White House next week, as they seek to participate as their identified gender in high school and college sports — although state legislatures, the US Congress and the courts are all expected to have their say this year, too. Attorneys on both sides say they expect US president-elect Joe Biden’s Department of Education to switch sides in two key legal battles — one in Connecticut, the other in Idaho — that could go a long way in determining whether transgender athletes are treated by the sex on their birth certificates or by
Fickle winds produced farcical scenes yesterday on day two of the America’s Cup challenger series in Auckland, as the so-called “flying” yachts spent almost as much time in the water as above it. “I’m not sure today is a really accurate read because it’s so puffy, it’s shifty,” British sailing legend Ben Ainslie said after his Ineos Team UK maintained their perfect start to the Prada Cup series with a third straight win. The series would determine which of the 23m yachts — which fly above the water balanced on hi-tech foil arms — would challenge defending champion Team New Zealand for
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