Romania’s seventh seed Irina-Camelia Begu battled back from a set down to beat Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova on her way to the second round of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow on Monday.
At the ATP and WTA combined event in the Russian capital, Begu, last year’s runner-up, won 1-6, 7-6 (7/2), 6-2 to level her head-to-head record with Pironkova at two-all.
Pironkova, 48th in the world, looked in command from the start earning a 5-0 lead before Begu chalked up her first game.
The 28-year-old Bulgarian served for the match twice, but Begu managed to resist on both occasions sending the match into a tiebreak, which she won.
In the deciding set, Begu moved up a gear to claim a 4-0 advantage, which she did not relinquish.
“It’s always difficult to play the first match,” Begu said. “I’m happy I could save the second set and had another chance in the third.”
In Monday’s early match, 2011 champion Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia ousted Russian wild-card Elena Vesnina in straight sets 7-5, 6-1.
Vesnina got off to a lively start to gain a 5-2 lead.
She served for the set, but Cibulkova, 34th in the WTA rankings, rallied to win nine consecutive games, taking the opening set and grabbing a commanding 4-0 lead in the second.
“I wouldn’t say I’ve been struggling at the beginning,” Cibulkova said. “It was my first match in Moscow and the surface here is a bit different. It was a kind of warming up and after I’d adjusted myself to the court, I started to play my normal tennis.”
In a clash for a place in the last eight, Cibulkova will face fifth seed Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain, who enjoyed an opening-round bye.
Meanwhile, Russia’s two-time Grand Slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova cruised comfortably into the second round with a 6-0, 6-3 victory over unheralded Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic.
In the ATP section, 30-year-old Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver produced the first upset of the event as he survived a war of attrition against seventh seed Joao Souza of Portugal to win the cliffhanger 7-6 (7/2), 4-6, 7-5.
“It was a very close match with a really tough battle in every set,” Gimeno-Traver said. “Some points at the very end just made the deciding difference.”
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Matvei Michkov did not score on Monday, but the Philadelphia rookie had a hand in both goals as hosts the Flyers earned a 2-1 victory over the Nashville Predators. Ryan Poehling and Jamie Drysdale got the goals for the Flyers (31-36-9, 71 points), who won their third straight. Michkov and Travis Konecny assisted on both. Ivan Fedotov stopped 28 shots to earn his first win since March 1, ending a personal six-game losing streak. Zachary L’Heureux got the lone goal for Nashville. Michael McCarron and Brady Skjei got the assists for the Predators (27-39-8, 62 points), who have just four goals in their
RSS