Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun and Hsieh Su-wei each entered the third round of their respective doubles competitions at the US Open on Saturday, beating past Grand Slam winners.
Fourth seeds Hsieh and Peng Shuai of China beat the the non-seeded duo Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia and Australia’s Samantha Stosur 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 in a game that lasted 2 hours, 7 minutes.
Hsieh and Peng are the winners of this year’s Wimbledon women’s doubles title, while Kuznetsova and Stosur won the women’s singles titles at the US Open in 2004 and 2011 respectively, and have won Grand Slam doubles tournaments paired with different players.
Photo: CNA
After Saturday’s match, Hsieh, 27, said she felt as if she was actually playing a singles game because her competitors’ shots were coming so fast, but she said she is familiar with Kuznetsova’s style of play as they had teamed up in the doubles when they were in their teens.
Hsieh and Peng next meet the 15th seeds Jelena Jankovic of Serbia and Croatia’s Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in the third round.
Meanwhile, Lu, who teamed up with India’s Divij Sharan, advanced to the third round of the men’s doubles for the second time after beating the Israeli duo of Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (7-2).
It is the first time since 2009 that Lu, 30, has reached the third round of the tournament.
Lu said he and his 27-year-old partner stumbled a bit in the match against the men’s doubles winners of the 2008 Australian Open when they lost the second set, despite an initial 4-1 lead.
“Both of us were giving great performances in the second set before the score was 4-1,” he said.
Unseeded Lu and Sharan next face the fifth-seeded pair of Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands.
The other Taiwanese player still in the tournament — 19-year-old Chan Hao-ching, who is partnered with Germany’s Martin Emmrich in the mixed doubles — was scheduled to play against sixth seeds Lisa Raymond of the US and Rojer in a second-round match yesterday.
However, Chan’s sister, 24-year-old Chan Yung-jan, exited the tournament when she and Sweden’s Robert Lindstedt lost their second-round match to seventh seeds Andrea Hlavackova of the Czech Republic and Max Mirnyi of Belarus 6-3, 6-4 on Saturday.
“No matter how I do at this US Open, I’ll enjoy all of it,” said Chan Yung-jan, who has just returned to competition after taking six months off because of health issues.
IN-HOUSE BUSINESS: LA Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said that the reason for the team’s poor form was not due to Paul, but the player was not a good fit for them Chris Paul’s return stint with the Los Angeles Clippers has come to an abrupt and stunning end, with the franchise parting ways with one of its greatest players in a late-night meeting on Wednesday that adds another layer of drama to the team’s terrible start this season. The news was delivered in a meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, that ended at about 2am, Clippers basketball operations president Lawrence Frank said. Frank said he made the decision to sever ties with Paul on Sunday then told the franchise’s career assist leader that he needed to see him on Tuesday in Atlanta. Frank did not confirm
Kylian Mbappe on Wednesday scored twice and had an assist as Real Madrid beat Athletic Bilbao 3-0 to end a three-match winless streak in La Liga. Eduardo Camavinga also found the net for Madrid as they moved back within one point of Barcelona, who beat Atletico Madrid 3-1 on Tuesday. Both 19th-round matches were moved forward because Real Madrid, Barcelona, Athletic Club and Atletico Madrid are to play in the Supercopa de Espana semi-finals in Saudi Arabia next month. Real Madrid were coming off league draws against Girona, Elche and Rayo Vallecano. It was their second win in their past six matches in
SEESAW CONTEST: The Pistons remain top of the Eastern Conference after battling to a win over the Hawks in a game that saw the lead change 27 times The Phoenix Suns on Monday shrugged off an injury to Devin Booker to end the Los Angeles Lakers’ seven-game winning streak with an emphatic 125-108 victory on the road. Booker exited in the first quarter, but the loss of the star point guard did little to halt the flow of Phoenix points over the remainder of the game. Dillon Brooks led the Phoenix scoring with 33 points, while Collin Gillespie added 28 — including eight three-pointers — as the Suns romped to victory. The Lakers were left ruing a colossal 22 turnovers — at a cost of 32 Suns points — on a
PINA BRACE: Claudia Pina scored in the 61st and 74th minutes, while Vicky Lopez added one as Spain notched their third victory in a final in the past four tournaments Claudia Pina scored twice and Germany crumbled on Tuesday as Spain retained the UEFA Women’s Nations League title with a 3-0 victory in the final’s second leg. Vicky Lopez also scored after Pina finally broke the deadlock in the 61st minute with Germany stubbornly hanging on as Spain had done in the first leg, a 0-0 draw in Kaiserslautern on Friday. Spain were without three-time Ballon d’Or winner Aitana Bonmati, who broke her leg in training on Sunday. Lopez took Bonmati’s place and Spain dominated from the start. Esther Gonzalez swept the ball just past the post and Mariona Caldentey forced a save
RSS