Taiwanese badminton twins Lee Fang-jen and Lee Fang-chih on Friday created a stunning upset at the Madrid Spain Masters, defeating the world No. 1 pair to reach the men’s doubles semi-finals.
The world No. 53 Lee brothers beat Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto of Indonesia 15-21, 22-20, 21-19 in the quarter-finals at the Polideportivo Municipal Gallur stadium in Madrid.
The score was close in the third game after they shared the first two. With the score locked at 19-19, the Lee brothers scored the next two points to hold off the Indonesians.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Alfian and Ardianto won the men’s doubles titles at the Yonex All England Open Badminton Championships on March 19 and the Petronas Malaysia Open in January.
The Lee twins were to play compatriots Su Ching-heng and Ye Hong-wei in the semi-finals after press time last night.
Su and Ye advanced with a win over Japanese pair Shuntaro Mezaki and Haruya Nishida.
In the women’s singles, Carolina Marin of Spain beat Japan’s Nidaira Natsuki 21-16, 21-8 to book a semi-final against Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia, who eliminated Sweden’s Line Christophersen 21-10, 21-17. The other semi was to be played between Singapore’s Yeo Jia Min and P.V. Sindhu of India.
In the men’s singles, the semi-finalists were Kenta Nishimoto of Japan, Toma Junior Popov of France, Denmark’s Anders Antonsen and Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan.
For the first time in almost 36 years, a Parisian derby will be played in French soccer’s top flight when reigning champions Paris Saint-Germain FC take on the nouveau riche Paris Football Club (PFC) today. Not one of the players involved in today’s match — PFC’s 38-year-old third-choice goalkeeper Remy Riou is almost certainly not going to be involved — was born the last time there was a Parisian derby in Ligue 1. That was on Feb. 25, 1990, when Moroccan midfielder Aziz Bouderbala scored a brace as Racing Paris 1 beat PSG 2-1 at the Parc des Princes home that
BOUNCING BACK: Antetokounmpo had just returned from an eight-game injury absence last month, leading the Milwaukee Bucks to their third win in four games Giannis Antetokounmpo threw down the game-winning dunk with 4.7 seconds remaining to lift the Milwaukee Bucks to a 122-121 victory over the Charlotte Hornets and grab a slice of NBA history on Friday. The Bucks trailed by as many as 16 on their home floor, but Antetokounmpo scored 12 of his 30 points in the final quarter to help seal the win in a frantic finish that saw five lead changes in the final 45.7 seconds. The two-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) added 10 rebounds and five assists. It was his 158th regular-season game with at least 30 points, 10 rebounds and
Stan Wawrinka’s 40-year-old legs did not let him down over three-plus hours in his first singles match of a farewell tour yesterday. Three-time Grand Slam singles champion Wawrinka beat Arthur Rinderknech of France, who is ranked 29th to Wawrinka’s 157th, 5-7, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5). The match went 3 hours, 16 minutes. Wawrinka last month announced that this year would be his last on the ATP tour. “Today was a tough battle ... it’s amazing to come here for the first time, to have so much support,” Wawrinka said yesterday. “Twenty years on tour, you kind of always play in the same place
Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka yesterday got her season off to a winning start for Japan in the United Cup, after the UK’s Emma Raducanu pulled out of their singles clash with a fitness issue, while in Brisbane, Taiwan’s Latisha Chan and Wu Fang-hsien crashed out of the women’s doubles. In Perth, despite Osaka’s win, the UK took the match 2-1 with a deciding mixed doubles victory. Osaka was too strong for reserve and 276th-ranked Katie Swan, winning 7-6 (7/4), 6-1 as Raducanu watched from the sidelines. “I’m proud of how I fought,” Osaka said. “I’d never played here, it was tough.” Britain
RSS