Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Tuesday advanced to the quarter-finals of the doubles at the Nature Valley Classic in Birmingham, England, while world No. 1 Naomi Osaka needed three sets to get past her first-round opponent in the singles.
Second seeds Hsieh and Barbora Strycova rallied from a set down against Darija Jurak of Croatia and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia to complete a 4-6, 6-1, 10-8 victory in 68 minutes on the grass courts at Edgbaston Priory Club.
The Taiwanese-Czech duo saved four of six break points and converted three of six to set up a quarter-final against Raquel Atawo and Lyudmyla Kichenok after the American-Ukrainian pairing defeated Mihaela Buzarnescu of Romania and Heather Watson of Britain 6-4, 6-3, also in 68 minutes.
Hsieh and Strycova were due to put their partnership on hold yesterday when they were set to meet in the second round of the singles.
In the singles, Osaka lost the second set to Maria Sakkari of Greece before recovering to win 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 for only her 11th WTA Tour-level victory on grass.
“I was kind of screaming on the inside during that entire match,” Osaka said in her on-court interview. “I got lucky a little bit, I guess.”
Osaka has yet to make it past the third round at Wimbledon, which starts on July 1.
“I felt better than the two practice days and I feel every day that I play on grass, of course, I’m going to learn how to play better, but for now I’m just really happy I was able to win that match,” Osaka said.
Osaka needs to reach the final in Birmingham to guarantee holding on to the world No. l ranking heading into Wimbledon.
“During my entire clay season, it kind of mattered and I think it showed because I was kind of stressed out the entire time,” she said. “So, now, I’m just having fun. I’m enjoying it and I know that if I play well, then I’ll be No. 1.”
Osaka next faces Yulia Putintseva, who defeated Britain’s Harriet Dart 6-1, 6-4.
Rain washed out much of the schedule on Tuesday, with second seed Ashleigh Barty — the newly crowned French Open champion — among those who would have to try again yesterday.
Julia Goerges recovered to defeat Dayana Yastremska 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, while former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko eased past Wimbledon junior champion Iga Swiatek 6-0, 6-2 and next faces Johanna Konta.
Kristyna Pliskova of the Czech Republic set up a first WTA Tour-level meeting with her twin sister, Karolina, by defeating Viktoriya Tomova 6-3, 6-4.
Former world No. 2 Paula Badosa has withdrawn from this week’s Wuhan Open, organizers said on Tuesday, amid a racism row over an online photograph. Tournament organizers said the Spaniard had pulled out of the WTA 1000 tournament, citing a gastrointestinal illness, hours before her first-round match against Australian Ajla Tomljanovic. News outlets including Britain’s the Telegraph earlier reported that Badosa had posted a photo on Instagram in which she appeared to imitate a Chinese face by placing chopsticks on the corners of her eyes. The photo was taken last week in a restaurant in Beijing, where she reached the semi-finals of the
Shin Oebori coaches the Fukagawa Hawks youth baseball team in Tokyo, and he is very aware how Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani touches his players. “With Ohtani, the kids think everything is possible,” Oebori said, wrapping up practice yesterday on an all-dirt field set alongside a local Buddhist temple, below an elevated highway, and in the shadow of tall apartment blocks in central Tokyo. “Nothing is impossible with him. A dream is not a dream,” Oebori said, stepping out of the fenced practice field that keeps balls from landing on the temple grounds. None of the players hitting sponge-soft baseball has reached
CRICKET Azhar’s 59 leads Stallions Aashir Azhar’s blazing half-century guided the Taipei Stallions to victory over Taipei Super 11 in the Taiwan Premier League’s Group A at the Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei yesterday. The Stallions were 102-3 and into the 12th over of 20 when Azhar came to the crease. He hit seven sixes and two fours in the 25 deliveries he faced to push his side to 171-5. Gokul Kumar was the star with the ball for Super 11, taking 3-17. In the reply, Deepak Vishnu outscored Azhar with 77 from 50 balls, but nobody else got past 20 as
‘GLOBAL PRESSURE’: LA’s Dave Roberts said that it was difficult to appreciate the ‘pressure on a global scale’ his starter was under ‘pitching for his country’ The Los Angeles Dodgers shelled out US$1 billion for Japanese talent in the off-season and it is paying off in the MLB playoffs. Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Friday outdueled Yu Darvish in a historic post-season matchup of Japanese-born starters, while the Dodgers got home runs from Kike Hernandez and Teoscar Hernandez to beat the San Diego Padres 2-0 and advance to the National League Championship Series. “It’s pretty sweet,” a smiling Freddie Freeman said. Yamamoto allowed two hits over five innings for the win, getting pulled after 63 pitches in a decisive Game 5 between heated NL West rivals who were meeting in a
RSS