Lu Yen-hsun’s early-season winning streak in the doubles came to an end yesterday at the Heineken Open in Auckland, New Zealand.
The Taiwanese No. 1, who had won his first five doubles matches of the season, including his third ATP Tour doubles title at the Chennai Open in India on Sunday, crashed out after a tight quarter-final.
Lu and Oliver Marach of Austria fell to a 4-6, 6-3, 10-6 loss to fourth seeds Raven Klaasen of South Africa and Leander Paes of India — the duo that Lu and England’s Jonathan Marray defeated in Sunday’s final — in 1 hour, 11 minutes on the Grandstand Court.
Photo: AFP
Both pairings were broken just once in the tight match, with Lu and Marach saving two of three break-point chances and converting one of the nine they created, but it was not enough as the South African-Indian duo advanced to a semi-final against second seeds Alexander Peya of Austria and Bruno Soares of Brazil, who defeated Spanish duo Pablo Carreno Busta and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-3, 6-4 in 54 minutes in their quarter-final.
In the singles, South Africa’s Kevin Anderson scored a gutsy win over American Steve Johnson to make the semi-finals.
Anderson downed Johnson 6-4, 7-6 (10/8) to give himself an excellent chance of claiming his third career ATP title in a severely weakened field, after several high-profile names withdrew from the tournament.
Photo: EPA
The world No. 16 is the only remaining player in the top 20 and the only one with an ATP title, with none of his rivals even making a final on the tour before.
The situation arose after five seeded players withdrew from the Australian Open warm-up event, four of them without even lifting a racket, and the remainder of the top-ranked competitors were eliminated by less-fancied rivals.
It leaves 28-year-old Anderson, seeded fourth coming into the tournament, as the most experienced player in the semi-finals, although his opponent today, Jiri Vesely, will be no pushover.
The Czech qualifier took Anderson to five sets at last year’s Australian Open, only succumbing after almost four hours.
The other semi-final is an all-French affair between Lucas Pouille and Adrian Mannarino, who have never met before.
SYDNEY INTERNATIONAL
Juan Martin del Potro’s winning comeback after 10 months out through injury was ended by qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin at the Sydney International yesterday.
The Argentine defending champion, who spent much of last year recovering from wrist surgery, was knocked out in two tiebreaker sets by the Kazakh qualifier, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/3) in just under two hours.
Del Potro, who beat Sergiy Stakhovsky and top seed Fabio Fognini to reach the quarter-finals after he was awarded a wild card into the tournament, fought to the end, but found Kukushkin too strong on the day.
Only a handful of tiebreak points separated the two, with neither player’s serve broken during the match.
The 2009 US Open winner ran out of steam against the world No. 66, who made it six straight wins in the tournament after three victories in qualifying.
Kukushkin will now play another Argentine, fifth seed Leonardo Mayer, who got past French fourth seed Julien Benneteau, 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) in Friday’s semi-finals.
“It was a tough match,” the former US Open champion said. “I think he deserved to win because he played better than me in the tiebreak.”
“The match was close. I served well, but my wrist hurts a little bit more than yesterday, and I couldn’t hit harder than my last match,” he added.
Del Potro was satisfied with his week’s work and some important match practice ahead of next week’s Australian Open in Melbourne.
“It’s a great week for me. I did more than what I expected before,” Del Potro said. “I played three matches in a row and I played against good players in this tournament, which means a good comeback for me. I’m happy just to be playing tennis again against these players.”
It was a significant win for Kukushkin, who looms as a potential roadblock for a seeded player at the Australian Open.
Kukushkin said he could see that Del Potro was below his full power and struggled on his backhand.
“He’s a top player, but I think everyone saw today that he cannot yet hit full power [on] his backhand,” he said. “He did a lot of slices. For sure this affected his game. Still, he serves good. His forehand was working OK today.”
In other results, Viktor Troicki beat Simone Bolelli 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, while Gilles Muller defeated local hope Bernard Tomic 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (15/13).
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
‘TOUGH TO BREATHE’: Tunisian three-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur suffered an asthma attack in her 7-5, 6-3 victory over Colombia’s Camila Osorio Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday cruised into the second round of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Iga Swiatek romped into a third-round women’s singles showdown with Emma Raducanu and Taylor Fritz was just as emphatic in his pursuit of a maiden Grand Slam title. Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, the third seeds, defeated Slovakia’s Tereza Mihalikova and Olivia Nicholls of Britain 7-5, 6-2 in 90 minutes in Melbourne. Ostapenko and Hsieh — who won the women’s doubles and mixed doubles at the Australian Open last year — hit 25 winners and converted five of nine break points to set
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Coco Gauff’s dreams of a first women’s singles title in Melbourne were crushed in the quarter-finals by Paula Badosa. World No. 2 Alexander Zverev was ruffled by a stray feather in his men’s singles quarter-final, but he refocused to beat 12th seed Tommy Paul and reach the semi-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 in 2 hours, 20 minutes to advance the semi-finals. Hsieh and Ostapenko converted eight of 14 break
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: After Coco Gauff dispatched Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok USA’ and drew a broken heart on a television camera lens Defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while compatriot Chan Hao-ching on Saturday dominated her opponents in the second round, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept into the quarter-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia toppled Hungary’s Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US 6-4, 6-3, hitting 24 winners and converting three of seven break points in 1 hour, 18 minutes at 1573 Arena. Although rivals at last year’s Australian Open — where Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens beat Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-1, 7-5
RSS