Taiwan’s Tseng Chun-hsin on Sunday won his second ATP Challenger title after defeating Borna Gojo of Croatia in a pulsating Bengaluru Open 1 men’s singles final in India.
The 20-year-old 2018 French Open and Wimbledon junior champion sailed past Gojo in straight sets 6-4, 7-5 in a matchup that lasted 1 hour, 14 minutes at the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association Stadium.
The victory is likely to catapult Tseng from his world No. 190 ranking up into the 150s, a new career-high for him.
Photo courtesy of Tseng Yu-te via CNA
Tseng had a shaky start before achieving an all-important break to lead 3-2 and eventually pocket the opening set.
The Taiwanese tennis champion grabbed the first two games in the second set, with a break in the first. Finding his form, Gojo rallied, tying the score 2-2 before finding break points of his own and eventually pushing to lead 5-2.
Tseng made a spectacular comeback from game eight, winning five games in a row to leave an error-prone Gojo no room for recovery.
“It was a little bit up and down. It was difficult to adjust initially and control the ball as it was getting dark and fast,” Tseng said. “I knew he had a good serve, but I had to keep making longer rallies. After 2-5 down, I told myself to relax and keep going.”
Tseng pocketed US$7,200 for his title win and 80 ATP ranking points, while Gojo earned US$4,240 and 50 ranking points.
Tseng enters the Bengaluru Open 2 ATP Challenger singles event seeded eighth. The tournament started yesterday and ends on Sunday.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
The Minnesota Timberwolves, with so many promising performances spoiled by late mistakes fresh in their memory bank, sure timed this strong finish well. Jaden McDaniels scored a career playoff-high 30 points and spearheaded Minnesota’s stifling defense on an ailing Luka Doncic, and the Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers 116-104 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday night. “Jaden never looks tired. He looks like he could play 48 minutes,” said teammate Anthony Edwards, who had 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Julius Randle added 22 points for the Wolves, who outscored
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa yesterday set a women’s only world record of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 50 seconds as she won the London Marathon, while Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe put a star-studded men’s field to the sword. For 28-year-old Assefa it was ample compensation for finishing runner-up in London and the Paris Olympics last year — especially as bitter Dutch rival, the Ethiopia-born Sifan Hassan, finished third. Assefa dropped Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei as the race, played out in blazing sunshine and with thousands lining the route, entered its business end. She came home almost three minutes clear of the Kenyan. Hassan, who beat her in
RSS