Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei upset the eighth seed to advance to the second round of the singles at the Japan Open yesterday, while the Chan sisters and Chuang Chia-jung were also victorious in the doubles.
Hsieh got off to a flyer against Polona Hercog in Tokyo, converting three of six break points to claim the first set 6-1, but the Slovenian world No. 59 fought back to win a closely contested second.
However, the Taiwanese world No. 113 was not to be denied as she completed a 6-1, 5-7, 7-5 victory in 2 hours, 10 minutes.
Hsieh saved eight of 16 break points and converted 10 of 18, winning 115 of the 216 points contested to advance to a second-round clash with world No. 78 Kurumi Nara of Japan, who defeated Andreea Mitu of Romania 6-1, 6-4.
Also advancing in the singles were Kateryna Bondarenko, who ousted top seed Carla Suarez Navarro 6-4, 6-4, Jarmila Gajdosova, Johanna Larsson, Nao Hibino, Risa Ozaki, Irina Falconi, Zheng Saisai, Magda Linette and second seed Zarina Diyas.
In the doubles, top seeds Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan took just 56 minutes to dispatch Kimiko Date-Krumm of Japan and Australia’s Gajdosova 6-3, 6-2.
The Taiwanese sisters saved two of four break points and converted five of six, winning 54 of the 93 points contested to set up a quarter-final against Diyas of Kazakhstan and Nicole Melichar of the US, who defeated Japanese wild-cards Eri Hozumi and Miyu Kato 7-6 (7/4), 6-3.
Second seeded Chuang and Liang Chen of China cruised past Christina McHale of the US and Ajla Tomljanovic of Croatia 6-1, 6-2 in just 49 minutes.
The cross-strait duo saved one of three break points and converted six of nine, winning 51 of the 83 points contested to set up a quarter-final clash with Japanese pairing Shuko Aoyama and Makoto Ninomiya, who defeated Alexandra Panova of Russia and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-2.
Taiwan’s Chan Chin-wei and Darija Jurak of Croatia were edged 6-7 (6/8), 7-6 (7/3), 10-5 by third seeds Gabriela Dabrowski and Alicja Rosolska in 1 hour, 51 minutes.
The Canadian-Polish duo saved six of nine break points and converted three of 11 to advance to a quarter-final clash with Ukrainian pairing Bondarenko and Olga Savchuk, who crushed Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands and Larsson of Sweden 6-1, 6-3.
An 82-year-old man on Saturday set off from Kaohsiung’s Sizihwan Bay (西子灣) to circumnavigate Taiwan in a sailboat in 29 days. Chinese Taipei Sailing Association vice president Chan Cheng-feng said the trip had been a dream of his for the past 40 years. Chan, who also heads the Kaohsiung Municipal Athletics Federation’s sailing committee, has been working to promote the sport in Taiwan since leaving the Marine Corps in 1976. The biggest challenge has been ensuring that people learn how to deal with problems at sea and know how to avoid danger, Chan said. The octogenarian said it is exciting to “still be having
Tuesday night was another home run, another pitching win, another spot in the history books — just another night for Shohei Ohtani. The two-way sensation from Japan withstood another injury scare and pitched six scoreless innings to go with his team-leading 25th home run, reaching yet another monumental milestone as the Los Angeles Angels beat the Oakland Athletics 5-1. Ohtani joined Babe Ruth (1918) as the only players in major league history to have at least 10 home runs and 10 wins in the same season. The Angels said that two players from the Negro Leagues also did it: Bullet Rogan of the
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As David Popovici has accelerated past his older rivals in the pool this summer, it seemed inevitable that the skinny 17-year-old would threaten world records. The only surprise when he broke the 100m freestyle mark in Rome on Saturday was that he got so quick so fast. On Friday, the Romanian had become only the fourth man in history to swim under 47 seconds as he set a European record to win his semi-final at the European Aquatics Championships in Rome. That was more than half a second faster than his gold-medal time at the FINA World Championships in June. On Saturday,
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