Taiwanese sisters Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan won yet another three-set marathon in the doubles in Charleston, South Carolina, on Thursday to make the semi-finals of the Family Circle Cup.
The quarter-final was settled in a super tiebreak, not a surprise considering that only two doubles matches have not gone the distance this week, as the sisters grabbed a 6-3, 4-6, 10-8 win over Romania’s Sorana Cirstea and Maria Kirilenko of Russia to set up a semi-final today against either Russia’s Alla Kudryavtseva and Anastasia Rodionova of Australia or fourth-seeded German duo Julia Goerges and Anna-Lena Groenefeld.
In the last remaining first-round match on Thursday, New Zealand’s Marina Erakovic and Arantxa Parra Santonja of Spain advanced when No. 1 seeds Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan and China’s Peng Shuai were forced to retire 5-4 down in the first set because of an abdominal strain suffered by Peng.
“It’s our first time playing together,” Parra Santonja told the WTA Web site. “We have to get to know each other a little bit more, but I think we were playing well today before the injury and I think we will keep improving.”
In Thursday’s other quarter-final, third-seeded American pairing Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears survived an epic super tiebreak to defeat Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic and Andrea Petkovic of Germany 6-4, 1-6, 16-14.
Kops-Jones and Spears had played 76 super tiebreaks as a duo and had never gone beyond 14-12, which happened twice and they won in Rome in 2011 and in Carlsbad in 2012.
Meanwhile, in the first round of the doubles at the Monterrey Open, American duo Maria Sanchez and Coco Vandeweghe defeated Taiwan’s Chuang Chia-jung and Eva Hrdinova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 10-5.
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
Bayern Munich on Sunday were crowned German champions for the 34th time, giving striker Harry Kane his first major trophy, after second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen drew 2-2 at SC Freiburg. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at RB Leipzig on Saturday, when the Bavarians came from two goals down to take the lead before conceding a stoppage-time equalizer, meant defending Bundesliga champions Leverkusen needed to win at Freiburg to delay the title party. Leverkusen were two goals down before scoring twice in the final 10 minutes, but Xabi Alonso’s side could not find a third, as Bayern reclaimed the title at the first attempt after
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PAINFUL VICTORY: Ruud said that felt pain in his rib during the warmup and was put on painkillers so that he could finish the match against Argentine Francisco Cerundolo With the help of painkillers, Casper Ruud overcame a rib ailment to defeat Francisco Cerundolo in straight sets and reach the Madrid Open final on Friday. Ruud is to face Jack Draper, who beat Lorenzo Musetti 6-3, 7-6 (4) in the other semi-final to make his third final of the year. Ruud received treatment on his rib three games into the match and went on to win 6-4, 7-5 on the Caja Magica center court. The 15th-ranked Norwegian saved 15 of the 18 break points he faced against the 21st-ranked Argentine. Ruud said he felt something in his rib during the warmup, just before
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