Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was made to fight for a place in the second round of the St Petersburg Ladies Trophy on Tuesday, beating veteran Klara Koukalova of the Czech Republic in three sets.
World No. 26 Pavlyuchenkova, who is seeded fifth in St Petersburg, needed 2 hours, 14 minutes to beat qualifier Koukalova 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. Her reward was a second-round meeting with Germany’s Carina Witthoeft, who defeated Austria’s Tamira Paszek 6-3, 6-3.
Monica Niculescu of Romania, the world No. 37, moved into the second round earlier in the day with a 6-0, 6-3 win over Russia’s Natalia Vikhlyantseva.
Niculescu, seeded ninth, broke the world No. 265 teenager in the eighth game of the second set to go up 5-3, then held serve for the win at the Sibur Arena.
Niculescu’s opponent in the second round of the singles is Hungary’s Timea Babos.
Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic was playing in her first tournament since a strong run at the Australian Open saw her beat Garbine Muguruza, but was out of sorts, falling 6-3, 6-4 in the first round against Ukrainian qualifier Kateryna Kozlova.
Top seed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland had a bye in the first round as did the next three seeded players — Roberta Vinci of Italy, Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark and Ana Ivanovic of Serbia.
SSC Napoli’s Italian Serie A title hopes suffered a late setback on Sunday when they were held to a 2-2 draw at home against Genoa, setting up a thrilling season finale with closest rivals Inter just one point behind. The hosts remain top with 78 points, holding a slim lead over Inter, who won 2-0 at Torino earlier on Sunday, with two rounds remaining. To make matters worse for Napoli, midfielder Stanislav Lobotka, struggling with an ankle injury, was forced off just minutes after the match began. Scott McTominay delivered a perfect pass into the box where Romelu Lukaku got
Harry Kane opened the scoring ahead of lifting his first career silverware as Bayern Munich beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-0, with veteran Thomas Mueller playing his last home game for the club. Bayern officially won the title on May 4 when defending champions Bayer Leverkusen were held to a 2-2 draw at Freiburg, but were presented with the Bundesliga shield in front of their home fans at full-time. Dripping wet after being showered with beer by teammates, Kane said the title win was “an incredible feeling,” and hoped it would be “the first of many.” “It’s been lot of hard work, a lot of
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Taiwanese e-sports veteran Lin “ET” Chia-hung yesterday successfully defended his King of Fighters XV title at this year’s Evolution Championship Series: Japan (EVO Japan), securing his second consecutive championship. Lin claimed victory with a 3-1 win over Japanese pro gamer “mok” in the grand final, repeating his earlier 3-1 win against the same opponent in the winners’ final. The 40-year-old earned a ￥1 million (US$6,897) cash prize at the two-day tournament, which drew 294 competitors. Mok, Lin’s toughest rival in the bracket, took home ￥400,000 as runner-up. Lin remains undefeated in match sets against mok in King of Fighters XV, holding a 10-0 record,
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