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.
A stunning Lamine Yamal strike on Thursday helped crown Barcelona La Liga champions with a 2-0 win over local rivals RCD Espanyol, with victory ensuring Real Madrid cannot catch them at the top of the table. Yamal’s effort and Fermin Lopez’s goal took Hansi Flick’s side seven points clear of Los Blancos with two matches remaining, to clinch Barcelona’s 28th title and complete a superb domestic treble. Only the UEFA Champions League title escaped an exciting young Barca side this season, as they won the league for the second time in six years, at Espanyol’s ground again just as in 2022-2023. Back then,
SSC Napoli will have to wait one more week to seal the Serie A title after on Sunday being held to a goalless draw at Parma, while closest rivals Inter drew 2-2 in a dramatic game with SS Lazio. Antonio Conte’s team stayed one point ahead of Inter and were unfortunate not to win after twice striking the woodwork through Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa and Matteo Politano, while Scott McTominay also had a free-kick tipped onto the crossbar. The away side thought they would be handed a chance to take the points from the penalty spot in the 96th minute when David Neres
Jannik Sinner on Thursday marched into the semi-finals of the Italian Open after destroying Casper Ruud in straight sets 6-0, 6-1, while Coco Gauff won a marathon three-set battle with China’s Zheng Qinwen to advance to the women’s singles final. American Gauff is to face Italy’s Jasmine Paolini in today’s title match after pulling through 7-6 (7/3), 4-6, 7-6 (7/4) in a match that lasted over three-and-a-half hours. Ruud was supposed to be Sinner’s toughest test in Rome since he came back from his three-month doping ban, as the Norwegian came into the match in hot form on clay after winning in
Shohei Ohtani on Thursday delivered his first two-homer game of the season and had six RBIs as the Los Angeles Dodgers poured it on with five long balls in a 19-2 victory over the visiting Athletics. Max Muncy, Andy Pages and James Outman also hit home runs for the Dodgers, who left no doubt by taking a 13-2 lead following a seven-run third inning. Muncy and Kim Hye-seong each had three hits for Los Angeles. Dodgers right-hander Matt Sauer led off a bullpen game by allowing two runs in four innings. Left-hander Justin Wrobleski (1-1) finished with four scoreless innings after he
RSS