Taiwan’s Chuang Chia-jung and Liang Chen of China advanced to the final of the Guangzhou International Women’s Open after a close battle with second seeds Andreja Klepac of Slovenia and Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor of Spain.
Chuang and Liang saved nine of 15 break-point chances and converted five of 11 to triumph 7-6 (7/2), 5-7, 12-10 in 2 hours, 10 minutes, despite serving eight double faults.
The cross-strait duo face France’s Alize Cornet and Magda Linette in today’s final after they defeated top seeds Misaki Doi of Japan and Xu Yi-fan of China 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/5) in yesterday’s other semi-final.
Photo: Reuters
In the singles semi-finals, Cornet moved a step closer to her second title of the season by defeating Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland 6-1, 7-6 (7/5).
World No. 22 Cornet, the No. 2 seed at the tournament, fought her way back from 4-1 down in the second set to beat Bacsinszky in just over two hours.
Romania’s Monica Niculescu finally ended wild-card Wang Yafan’s superb run in the tournament with a 6-0, 6-2 victory in the earlier semi-final.
Niculescu, who is yet to drop a set in the event, won six of her eight break-point chances to beat the Chinese player.
PAN PACIFIC OPEN
AFP, TOKYO
The top two seeds Angelique Kerber of Germany and Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki roared into the semi-finals of the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo yesterday.
Top seed Kerber outplayed sixth seed Dominika Cibulkova 6-3, 6-0, while Wozniacki, a former world No. 1, overcame Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro 6-3, 6-3 in the quarter-finals.
Kerber, 26, ranked eighth in the world, needed just 61 minutes to stop the 13th-ranked Slovakian.
Wozniacki, seeded second and reeling from her loss to top seed Serena Williams in the US Open final two weeks ago, outlasted the Spaniard in a bout of long rallies.
Kerber next meets third seed Ana Ivanovic in the semi-finals today after the Serbian world No. 10 beat Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-2 in their quarter-final.
Wozniacki’s semi-final opponent is another Spaniard, Garbine Muguruza, who outlasted Australia’s Casey Dellacqua 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3.
“Dominika is a good player and I knew I needed to be 100 percent. Everything went good and I’m happy to be in the semis again,” said Kerber, who finished runner-up to Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic last year in Tokyo.
“We had long rallies and at the end it was all about trying to play chess out there, really,” said the 24-year-old Wozniacki, the world No. 9, who reigned at the top of women’s tennis in 2010 and 2011. “We opened up the court and tried to go for winners when we could. We were just trying to outplay each other.”
The two players broke each other’s serve seven times in the first set.
After 2-2 in the second set, the Dane broke the 26-year-old Suarez Navarro in the fifth and seventh games, before the world No. 19 pulled one back.
In the ninth game, Wozniacki yielded no point as Suarez Navarro smashed wide from the net, double-faulted and hit a forehand long to end the match in nearly 100 minutes.
In the doubles semi-finals, top seeds Cara Black of Zimbabwe and India’s Sania Mirza defeated Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic and Arantxa Parra of Spain 6-3, 6-2.
Black and Mirza face Suarez Navarro and Muguruza in the final after the Spanish pairing defeated Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears 6-4, 6-3.
College basketballer Kaitlyn Chen has become the first female player of Taiwanese descent to be drafted by a WNBA team, after the Golden State Valkyries selected her in the third and final round of the league’s draft on Monday. Chen, a point guard who played her first three seasons in college for Princeton University, transferred to the University of Connecticut (UConn) for her final season, which culminated in a national championship earlier this month. While at Princeton, Chen was named the Ivy League tournament’s most outstanding player three times from 2022 to last year. Prior to the draft, ESPN described Chen as
College basketballer Kaitlyn Chen (陳凱玲) has become the first player of Taiwanese descent to be drafted by a WNBA team, after being selected by the Golden State Valkyries in the third and final round of the league's draft yesterday. Chen, a point guard who played her first three seasons in college for Princeton University, transferred to the University of Connecticut (UConn) for her final season, which culminated in a national championship on April 6. While at Princeton, Chen was named the Ivy League tournament's most outstanding player three times from 2022 to last year. Prior to the draft, ESPN described Chen as a
Robinson Cano spent 17 seasons playing in the MLB in front of all kinds of baseball fans, but he said there is something special about his stint with the Mexican Baseball League’s Diablos Rojos. He is not alone. The league last week opened its 100th season, aiming to keep an impressive growth in attendance that began after the national team’s surprise run at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, and is already surpassing some first-division soccer clubs. After finishing third in the 2023 tournament, many casual fans, some of them soccer enthusiasts disappointed after Mexico were eliminated in the first round in the 2022
In-form teenager Mirra Andreeva on Thursday crashed out of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany, after going down in straight sets to fellow Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova in the last 16. World No. 7 Andreeva, who already has two titles under her belt this season, lost 6-3, 6-2 against the 22nd-ranked Alexandrova in just over an hour. The 17-year-old Andreeva had defeated her elder sister Erika in the previous round on Wednesday, but Alexandrova quickly took control as she claimed her fourth win over a top-10 player this season. The 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva in February became the youngest winner of a WTA
RSS