Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany.
The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament.
Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well.
Photo: AFP
They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3.
In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but the Taiwan-Russia duo upped their game, winning seven consecutive points to take the set 10-2 and secure the title.
This is only the second tournament Chan and Kudermetova have competed in together.
Photo: Reuters
Chan has now won two women’s doubles tournaments this season, after she and her sister, Chan Yung-jan, claimed the Hobart International women’s doubles title in Australia on Jan. 12.
In the women’s singles, world No. 4 Elena Rybakina had little trouble in seeing off Marta Kostyuk 6-2 6-2.
Rybakina said she was pleased with the consistency she has shown in recent months after winning her third title of the season.
“I’m really happy with all the matches I played here throughout the week, especially in the final. Was very solid from me,” Rybakina said. “I think just the consistency, of course, and how I’m managing to play all these tournaments till the end, because it’s really tough with the schedule which we have, with all the jet lag and changes of the surface.”
“It’s been a lot of matches, and I’m happy that, for now, I’m managing to fight through all these tough matches and be able to be in the finals,” she said.
Asked if her run of good results had given her belief in her ability to win next month’s French Open, Rybakina said: “I always believe in myself, of course, but it not only depends on me. There is a lot of great players, tough opponents.”
“But I know if I feel fresh, if I’m physically ready, healthy, I’m playing my game, of course I have all the chances to win a Grand Slam on any surface,” she said.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with