Reigning Guangzhou Open champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan failed to make the quarter-finals at this year’s event, crashing out yesterday to her unseeded opponent.
Sixth-seeded Hsieh lost her second-round match against China’s Zhang Shuai 6-2, 6-2 in little over 1 hour, 15 minutes.
Hsieh’s disappointing exit follows a golden year for the world No. 42, who was crowned women’s doubles Wimbledon champion earlier this year.
She remains in the doubles competition in Guangzhou, where she is the top seed with her partner, China’s Peng Shuai.
Meanwhile, France’s Alize Cornet beat Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic in her second-round match after an early scare.
The number two seed was taken to a tie-break in the first set, but won it 7/4 before dominating the second set and taking it to love.
Cornet will play Yvonne Meusburger next following the Austrian’s 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Serbia’s Vesna Dolonc.
Also through to the quarter-finals are China’s Zheng Jie, who claimed victory over Hungary’s Timea Babos 7-5, 7-6 (7/1), and Vania King of the US, who won her clash with Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski 6-4, 0-6, 6-4.
Eighth seed Monica Puig overcame Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-2.
British No. 1 Laura Robson and her compatriot Johanna Konta were in action in the evening session last night.
Both were to face Chinese opposition, with Robson meeting Zheng Saisai and Konta playing Peng Shuai for a place in the quarter-finals.
KOREA OPEN
AP, SEOUL, South Korea
Already a two-time winner this year, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia reached the Korea Open quarter-finals by beating wild-card Lee Ye-ra of South Korea 6-4, 6-1 yesterday.
Pavlyuchenkova, who won her fourth and fifth career titles in April in Monterrey and Estoril, will line up against Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania, who defeated sixth-seeded Julia Goerges of Germany 6-4, 6-0.
The eighth-seeded Annika Beck of Germany also fell, to Vera Dushevina of Russia 6-3, 7-5.
Also through were Lara Arruabarrena of Spain, into her first quarter-finals since February, and Francesca Schiavone of Italy, who last made the last eight on Birmingham grass in June.
Taiwan’s top male badminton player, Chou Tien-chen, on Saturday bowed out in the men’s singles semi-finals at the Thailand Open after losing in straight games to Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn. The world No. 6 Chou, seeded fourth at the Super 500 tournament, lost to the world No. 2 Thai 21-7, 21-19 in 53 minutes. The victory improved Vitidsarn’s head-to-head record against Chou to 3-5. Chou, 36, trailed throughout the opening game after the score was tied 2-2. His relatively passive approach allowed the 25-year-old Thai to capitalize on Chou’s defensive clears with powerful smashes while committing few unforced errors. The Taiwanese
FRUSTRATION: Gauff smacked herself on the head with her racket before storming down the tunnel, emerging afterward to have a heated discussion with her coach Elina Svitolina on Saturday won the Italian Open after beating Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 6-2 to claim her third Rome title, while Jannik Sinner set a date with Casper Ruud in the men’s final. Ukraine’s Svitolina had not claimed a WTA 1000 title since her last victory at the Foro Italico eight years ago, but prevailed over the ever-erratic Gauff to claim her 20th tournament triumph. Saturday’s win over Gauff was her third in a row against a player in the top four of the world rankings — including Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina — ahead of the French
West Ham United’s 3-1 defeat at Newcastle United on Sunday left Tottenham Hotspur realistically only needing one more point to win the battle for English Premier League survival, while Bruno Fernandes made history in Manchester United’s 3-2 win over Nottingham Forest. Spurs can avoid dropping out of the English top flight for the first time in nearly 50 years with victory at Chelsea today, but a draw would also likely suffice thanks to their much superior goal-difference over West Ham. “Overall bad performance. Too many things [went wrong], I think we gifted them the goals,” West Ham head caoch Nuno Espirito Santo
Jannik Sinner has his eyes on a first Roland Garros title after winning the Italian Open on Sunday to claim a record-extending sixth consecutive Masters 1000 tournament victory. World No. 1 Sinner beat Casper Ruud 6-4, 6-4 to complete the “Golden Masters” by winning all of the ATP’s top-ranked events, in the process becoming the first Italian men’s champion in Rome since Adriano Panatta 50 years ago. Only Novak Djokovic had previously won all nine Masters 1000 events before Sunday, but there was little doubt about Sinner triumphing over the past 10 days. Sinner heads to Roland Garros, which starts at the weekend,
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