Moscow-born Vesna Dolonc of Serbia won a main-drawn match for the first time since Wimbledon when she beat eighth-seeded Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 7-6 (8/6), 7-5 in the first round of the Tashkent Open yesterday.
The defeat of Shvedova, who reached the third round of the US Open, ensured at least two unseeded players will reach the quarter-finals.
No. 7-seeded Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan became the sixth and last of the eight seeds to make the second round when she defeated Maryna Zanevska of Ukraine 6-3, 6-4.
Julia Glushko of Israel, Petra Cetkovska of the Czech Republic, Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor of Spain and Misaki Doi of Japan also reached the second round yesterday.
On Monday unseeded Nastassja Burnett of Italy advanced to the second round by beating second-seeded Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine 7-6 (7/4), 6-4.
Third-seed Yvonne Meusburger of Austria defeated Timea Babos of Hungary 2-6, 6-2, 6-1 on Monday, while top-seeded Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia, fifth-seeded Alexandra Cadantu of Romania, and sixth-seeded Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania also advanced.
Badminton world No. 3 Anders Antonsen clinched his first Indonesia Open title yesterday after beating Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen, while South Korea’s An Se-young won her second championship in Jakarta. The 28-year-old Dane sank world No. 7 Chou at the Indonesian capital’s Istora Senayan arena, winning 22-20, 21-14 in a 60-minute match to secure the prestigious Super 1000 event. Antonsen came out on top in a tightly contested first game before cruising to victory in the second. In a more closely fought women’s singles final, South Korean ace and world No. 1 An fought back from one game down to beat China’s
Spain starlets Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams dazzled on Thursday as La Roja beat France 5-4 in a thriller in Stuttgart, Germany, to set up a UEFA Nations League final with Portugal. Yamal bagged a brace, while Williams scored and provided an assist as the two wingers cut France’s makeshift defense to ribbons. Mikel Merino and Pedri were also on the score sheet for the UEFA Euro 2024 champions. Kylian Mbappe netted a second-half penalty, but Spain were 5-1 up and cruising, before Les Bleus suddenly woke up as their opponents took their foot off the pedal. France’s three late goals — a
Italy crashed to a 3-0 loss away to Norway, as the four-time FIFA World Cup champions made a disastrous start to their 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign on Friday, while Belgium had to settle for a draw in North Macedonia. Alexander Sorloth, Antonio Nusa and Erling Haaland all scored in the first half in pouring rain in Oslo as Norway made it a night to forget for Italy, who missed out on the past two World Cups. “I have no explanation. Our supporters don’t deserve this kind of match. We need to do some soul-searching. It’s unacceptable,” Italy captain and goalkeeper Gianluigi
The Crusaders yesterday produced a clinical performance in difficult conditions to beat the Queensland Reds 32-12 and claim home advantage in next week’s Super Rugby semi-finals. Lock Scott Barrett and prop Tamaiti Williams scored first-half tries to reward an outstanding performance from the Crusaders’ forwards in wet, slippery conditions and bitterly cold temperatures. Scrumhalf Noah Hotham defied the conditions in the second half to score a superb solo try and, after kicking a conversion and penalty to make the score 22-0 at the hour mark, flyhalf Rivez Reihana scored a try which took the game beyond the Reds. “Typical Christchurch weather, cold, wet
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