Taiwan have a mountain to climb in their Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group I relegation playoff against China after Chen Ti and Yang Tsung-hua lost the opening two singles rubbers yesterday.
Chen made a great start to his match against Wu Di in Tianjin, China, dropping only one game in claiming the opening set. Wu then took complete control, losing only five games over the next three sets to earn a 1-6, 6-0, 6-1, 6-4 victory.
World No. 152 Zhang Ze then beat Yang 7-5, 6-1, 6-1 to leave Taiwan needing a win in today’s doubles to keep their hopes alive.
Photo: AFP
Huang Liang-chi and Chuang Ting-yu are due to face Chinese pair Gong Maoxin and Li Zhe, with the odds stacked in the hosts’ favor. Huang has lost both Davis Cup doubles matches he has played in and 19-year-old Chuang is taking part in the competition for the first time.
Taiwan’s cause has not been helped by the absence of Lu Yen-hsun and Jimmy Wang, the nation’s top-ranked singles players.
Taiwan lost 2-3 to China the last time the two met in the competition, almost exactly a year ago in Kaohsiung.
Meanwhile, Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin needed four sets before downing Marinko Matosevic to level their Asia-Oceania Group 1 second round tie with Australia in Namangan, Uzbekistan.
Istomin, ranked 46, subdued a spirited challenge from the 50th-ranked Matosevic to win the second singles rubber 6-4, 7-6 (7/1), 3-6, 6-4 on the indoor red clay surface.
Bernard Tomic, the highest-ranked player in the tie at 43, got Australia off to a winning start by beating Farrukh Dustov, 7-6 (8/6), 6-4, 6-4 in the opening match.
Davis Cup warhorse Lleyton Hewitt is due to team with Matt Ebden in a pivotal doubles rubber against Istomin and Dustov today.
Australian captain Pat Rafter surprised observers by giving the unproven Matosevic the nod over Hewitt for the opening day singles, despite the former world No. 1’s 52-16 Davis Cup record.
“We didn’t want to take it out of Lleyton today, he’s got a big match tomorrow and that match is really important,” he said.
Tatsuma Ito and Go Soeda both won to give Japan a 2-0 lead over South Korea in their Asia/Oceania zone Group I second round tie in Tokyo.
Ito coasted to a straightforward 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 win over Jeong Suk-young in the opening rubber, while Soeda had to come back from two sets down to beat Cho Min-hyeok 5-7, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.
Elsewhere, Jan Hajek and Lukas Rosol both won their opening singles matches to give the defending champions the Czech Republic a comfortable 2-0 lead over Kazakhstan in their Davis Cup quarter-final in Astana.
Hajek defeated Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 before Rosol rallied to beat Andrey Golubev 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, 7-6 (8/6) in the second singles.
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli yesterday vowed to “keep raising the bar” after winning the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest driver in Formula One history to lead the championship standings. The 19-year-old Italian took advantage of a mid-race safety car to jump into the lead after a dreadful start from pole position, crossing the line ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Antonelli’s Suzuka victory came two weeks after the first grand prix win of his career in China, and sent him top of the championship standings after three races, nine points ahead of team-mate George Russell. Mercedes are struggling to
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
Teng Kai-wei, the only Taiwanese player on an opening-day roster in this year’s Major League Baseball (MLB) season, took his first win of the year with the Houston Astros in his season debut. Teng entered in relief in the top of the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, with the Astros trailing 5-0. He pitched 2-1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts, as Houston scored 11 runs during his outing to snatch an 11-9 comeback victory. The win is the Astros’ first of the season and the third of Teng’s MLB career. “It’s my first time pitching for the Astros, so
RSS