Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan and Martina Hingis of Switzerland advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Roger Federer put on quite a show on Stadium Court as he advanced to the fourth round of the men’s singles.
Fifth seeds Chan and Hingis took just 62 minutes to see off Australian duo Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua 6-2, 6-3.
“Today we put pressure on our opponents and maintained a high degree of focus, and although we faced a problem at one point in the second set, at the crucial moment we took the initiative to come through,” Chan said on Facebook.
Photo: screen grab from Facebook
The Taiwanese-Swiss pairing saved five of seven break points and converted five of seven, winning 58 of the 99 points contested to advance to a quarter-final against Andreja Kelpac and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, who ousted top seeds Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova on Sunday.
In the men’s singles, Federer took a look around as he entered Stadium Court and immediately felt the energy of the crowd.
He gave them quite a show.
Federer advanced to the fourth round by beating Juan Martin del Potro 6-3, 6-4.
Federer, who was facing Del Potro for the first time since 2013, never lost serve and improved to 15-1 this year.
He broke Del Potro twice, once in each set, and that was all he needed.
“I feel like I earned it more,” said Federer, the 2005 and 2006 champion. “I was more the aggressor. It was more my racket and I like it that way.”
“I did my best,” 29th seed Del Potro said. “He played well in the break-point moments and I think that was the only difference in the match.”
It had the feel of a final, not a third-round clash. Stadium Court, largely empty for the first two matches of the day, was filled — with huge roars greeting both players as they entered for the warmup, many fans wearing hats or shirts with Federer’s “RF” logo, many others either donning Argentina soccer shirts or carrying the nation’s flag in support of Del Potro.
“It was really a great, nice atmosphere,” Federer said. “It was a lot of pleasure playing in nice weather, great opponent, great crowd. What else do you need?”
Federer was next due to play 14th seed Roberto Bautista Agut, who needed three sets to top Sam Querrey of the US.
Other third-round winners included top seed Stan Wawrinka, eighth seed David Goffin, 10th seed Tomas Berdych, 12th seed Nick Kyrgios, 16th seed Alexander Zverev and Adrian Mannarino.
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying on Saturday crashed out of the BWF All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham, with South Korea’s Se Young-an denying the world No. 3 Tai a chance at a fourth All England title. In a replay of their semi-final showdown last year, the world No. 2 Se again beat Tai, saving four match points in a thrilling deciding game to prevail 17-21, 21-19, 24-22. Tai won the women’s singles title in Birmingham in 2017, 2018 and 2020. In the three times the two superstars faced each other prior to Saturday, Tai, 22, had only come out on top once, when
California-born Lars Nootbaar had never played for Japan before the World Baseball Classic, but he has become so popular in his adopted country that sales of pepper mills have shot up in tribute to his trademark celebration. The 25-year-old outfielder — the first player born outside Japan to represent the country at the tournament — mimics twisting a pepper mill after each hit to show he wants to “grind out” a win for his team. The celebration has become a smash hit during Japan’s games in Tokyo, with Nootbaar’s teammates jumping on the bandwagon and fans bringing pepper grinders to the stadium. Nootbaar
LAST ONE STANDING: The world No. 3 was the only Taiwanese left in the tournament, while there were upsets in the men’s singles and the women’s doubles Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying on Thursday defeated Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan 21-19, 21-12 to reach the quarter-finals of the BWF All England Open in Birmingham. Tai, the world No. 3, needed only 40 minutes to close out the round-of-16 matchup at the Utilita Arena. In the opening game, the Taiwanese shuttler established an early 10-5 cushion, before an aggressive Ongbamrungphan fought her way back into the tie, winning nine straight points to take a 10-14 lead. The pair traded the lead to bring the scores to 18-19, but Tai held her nerve to close out the first game. After a 2-2 tie early in
When Taiwan lost to Cuba 7-1 at the World Baseball Classic (WBC) on Sunday, it was an opportunity missed. A win would have sent the team to the quarter-finals in Tokyo. Instead, the loss gave Taiwan a 2-2 record, the same as the other four teams in Pool A, but they finished last because of tiebreakers. So, was the team’s performance a success or a failure? The 2-2 record would suggest somewhere in between, but two baseball experts, National Taiwan Sport University (NTSU) associate professor Kung Jung-tang and veteran commentator Tseng Wen-cheng, gave Taiwan’s WBC performance a resounding thumbs-up. “The team’s offensive showing was
RSS