World No. 1 Simona Halep on Saturday tumbled out of the Miami Open, falling 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 to Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska, as Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan and Chan Hao-ching are to advance to the round of 16 and Hsieh Su-wei fell to Karolina Pliskova 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (7/4).
Halep’s third-round defeat comes a week after she was toppled in the semi-finals at Indian Wells by Japan’s Naomi Osaka, who went on to win the title.
Radwanska, the 2012 Miami champion, had not posted back-to-back match victories since January.
Photo: AP
She next faces former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka, who rallied for a 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory over 20th-seeded Latvian Anastasija Sevastova.
Azarenka is unseeded this year as she tries to get her career back on track after taking time off to have a baby.
Despite the loss, Halep is assured of retaining the No. 1 spot when the rankings are updated at the end of the tournament.
However, her exit leaves the women’s field in the elite hardcourt tournament without its top two seeds after second-seeded Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki lost to Monica Puig on Friday night.
In other third-round action, reigning Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza crushed American Christina McHale 6-2, 6-1 and US Open winner Sloane Stephens was handed a victory when opponent Monica Niculescu retired in the third set with an injury.
In the men’s, Roger Federer lost his second consecutive match and the No. 1 ranking.
Big-serving Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis, a qualifier ranked 175th, rallied to upset Federer 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/4). The 36-year-old Federer had been the oldest No. 1 man ever, but he will lose that spot to Rafael Nadal when the new rankings come out on Monday next week.
“I deserve it after this match,” Federer said. “That’s how I feel.”
Kokkinakis became the lowest-ranked man to beat a No. 1 player since No. 178 Francisco Clavet upset Lleyton Hewitt in 2003, also at Key Biscayne.
“Pretty crazy,” Kokkinakis said. “I’m pretty happy about it.”
Federer has now lost back-to-back matches for the first time since 2014, a dip that comes after a career-best 17-0 start to the year.
Kokkinakis has long been regarded as a promising talent thanks to a thunderous serve and forehand, but has been plagued by injuries. The match was his first against Federer, although they have practiced together.
“I’ve always liked his game,” Federer said. “I’m happy for him that on the big stage he was able to show it. It’s a big result for him in his career and I hope it’s going to launch him.”
Federer will not be playing to reclaim the No. 1 spot anytime soon. He said he will skip the upcoming clay season for the second year in a row, including the French Open.
During a stadium ceremony before the night session, tour professionals joined members of the boys’ and girls’ tennis teams at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to promote a fundraising campaign for victims of last month’s mass shooting there.
In the doubles, Taiwan’s second-seeded Chan sisters defeated Jelena Ostapenko and Anastasija Sevastova from Latvia 6-1, 6-4 to book a spot in the round of 16 facing Croatian Aleksandra Krunic and Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko yesterday.
Additional reporting by staff writer
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
RSS