Jelena Ostapenko was to play Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit in the final of the women’s singles at the Viking International Eastbourne after an impressive 6-4 6-1 win against Elena Rybakina on Friday, while Taiwan’s Latisha Chan and Chan Hao-ching were defeated in the women’s doubles.
Former French Open champion Ostapenko, now 43rd in the world rankings, struck 38 winners against Kazakhstan’s Rybakina, who appeared to be hindered late in the first set by a back problem.
World No. 21 Rybakina required medical treatment after holding serve to trail 5-4.
Photo: AFP
Ostapenka went on to dominate the second set.
Kontaveit, the world No. 27, progressed to her eighth career final after Italy’s Camila Giorgi was forced to retire due to a thigh injury when trailing 5-4 in the first set.
Giorgi ousted top seed Aryna Sabalenka in the quarter-finals on Thursday but paid for her exertions in that match as she lasted just 47 minutes before having to pull out.
Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego and Australia’s Alex de Minaur were to contest the men’s final, with all games to finish after press time last night.
In the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the Devonshire Park Lawn Tennis Club, Nicole Melichar of the US and Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands defeated the Chan sisters 7-6 (7-1), 4-6, 10-5.
In the final, they were to play Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara, who ousted Lyudmyla Kichenok of Ukraine and Japan’s Makoto Ninomiya 7-5, 6-1.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
Bayern Munich on Sunday were crowned German champions for the 34th time, giving striker Harry Kane his first major trophy, after second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen drew 2-2 at SC Freiburg. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at RB Leipzig on Saturday, when the Bavarians came from two goals down to take the lead before conceding a stoppage-time equalizer, meant defending Bundesliga champions Leverkusen needed to win at Freiburg to delay the title party. Leverkusen were two goals down before scoring twice in the final 10 minutes, but Xabi Alonso’s side could not find a third, as Bayern reclaimed the title at the first attempt after
Shuttler Lin Chun-yi yesterday kept Taiwan on the board as they faced their first major challenge of the group stage after marching into the last eight at the Sudirman Cup Finals in Xiamen, China. Taiwan were losing 3-1 to South Korea as of press time last night, with only the men’s doubles match remaining. Taiwan and four-time champions South Korea have already progressed to the quarter-finals, after Taiwan on Monday blanked the Czech Republic 5-0 without giving up a single game. Before last night’s tie, Taiwan were undefeated in Group B, with a 9-1 match record, ahead of South Korea, who, although also
A man fell from the 6.4m-high Clemente Wall in right field at PNC Park in Pittsburgh during Wednesday night’s game between the Pirates and the Chicago Cubs. Right after Andrew McCutchen hit a two-run double in the seventh inning to put the Pirates ahead 4-3, players began waving frantically for medical personnel and pointing to the man, who had fallen onto the warning track. The fan was tended to for approximately five minutes by members of both the Pirates and Cubs training staffs as well as PNC personnel before being removed from the field on a cart. The team issued a statement shortly