Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium, the No. 2 seeds, yesterday beat third seeds Storm Hunter of Australia and Katerina Siniakova of Czech Republic to reach the final, meaning Hsieh is to play two finals in two days at the Australian Open.
Hsieh and Mertens won 7-5, 1-6, 6-3 to book their place in Sunday’s final. The other women’s doubles semi-final is to be played today, with New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe and Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada to play Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko and Lyudmyla Kichenok of Ukraine.
Hsieh on Wednesday reached the final of the mixed doubles with partner Jan Zielinski of Poland and are to play second seeds Desirae Krawczyk of the US and Neal Skupski of Britain in today’s final.
Photo: AP
In the women’s singles, defending champion Aryna Sabalenka avenged her US Open final loss to Coco Gauff and became the first since Serena Williams to reach back-to-back women’s singles finals at the Australian Open.
Sabalenka attacked Gauff’s serve throughout her 7-6 (8/2), 6-4 semi-final win.
She faces Zheng Qinwen of China in tomorrow’s championship decider after Zheng beat Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska 6-4, 6-4 in the second semi-final last night.
Photo: AFP
Sabalenka is on a 13-match roll at Melbourne Park, where she made her Grand Slam breakthrough last year. Williams reached consecutive finals there in 2016 and 2017.
In the men’s doubles, Indian player Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner, Matthew Ebden, advanced to their second consecutive Grand Slam final.
Bopanna, 43, and 36-year-old Ebden beat Zhang Zhizhen of China and Tomas Machac of the Czech Republic 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (9/7) in their semi-final on Rod Laver Arena.
Bopanna and Ebden, now ranked second in men’s doubles, lost to Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury in the US Open final in September last year.
Tournament officials yesterday said that Ebden and Bopanna, at combined ages of 79 years, would become the oldest No. 1 pairing in tennis history at the end of the tournament.
They were cruising at 4-1 up in the third set before Zhang and Machac forced a match tiebreaker.
“What an epic third set,” Ebden said. “I’ve just got to hand it to my partner. We’ve been fighting since round one; a lot of tough moments, fighting through one-by-one.”
In tomorrow’s final, Bopanna and Ebden are to play the Italian pair of Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori, who beat Yannick Hanfmann and Dominik Koepfer of Germany 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7/5) in the second semi-final.
The Taiwan Daredevils yesterday won one and lost one in the Taiwan Premier League, dispatching TCA with ease, but stumbling against Formosa. In the morning match at the Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山), the Daredevils’ Johan Koekemoer carried his side to 141-6 with 44 from 45 in their 20 overs. George Klopper’s right-arm spin dominated in the run chase. He claimed 4-5 from 3.3 overs as TCA slumped to 77 all out. The highlight of the innings was a stunning catch at cover as Jeff Black turned back the years to pull in a full-blooded drive on the dive
The Hsinchu Titans yesterday made a strong start in Group A of the Taiwan Premier League in Taipei, winning two games as the 10-team T20 competition began at the Yingfeng Cricket Ground. Chetan Sharma scored 57 from 30 deliveries in the morning match as the Titans made 178-7 against the Taipei Indians, who helped their opponents’ cause with 26 extras. Pramod Mandal took 3-11 as the Indians struggled to 126-8 in reply. The Taipei Stallions posed a greater hurdle to the Titans in the afternoon match, posting 163-7 after choosing to bat first. Hassaan Samad smashed 77 from 44 with seven fours and six
Alexander Zverev on Wednesday reached his 18th ATP Masters semi-final in Rome, but only after a worrying fall which sparked memories of the horror injury he had at the French Open two years ago. The world No. 5 from Germany defeated Taylor Fritz of the US 6-4, 6-3 in Italian Open to set up a last-four duel with Alejandro Tabilo, the Chilean journeyman who had stunned world No. 1 Novak Djokovic earlier in the tournament. Zverev’s moment of concern came in just the third game on center court at the Foro Italico when he fell on the clay and landed on his
Shohei Ohtani’s first walk-off hit for the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday was also his first game-ending hit in the majors in nearly four years. His still-new teammates and fans who celebrated with him at Chavez Ravine expect to see many more feats from a superstar who is somehow getting even better in Dodger blue. Ohtani pulled a low fastball to right with two outs in the 10th inning, scoring Jason Heyward and ending the Dodgers’ 3-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds. Two teammates doused Ohtani with water, while a crowd of 52,656 roared for the latest feat by the US$700 million slugger. “We