Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium on Sunday claimed the Rothesay Classic doubles title in Birmingham, England, while Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva won her first senior grass-court women’s singles title.
Top seeds and reigning Australian Open champions Hsieh and Mertens defeated Zhang Shuai of China and Miyu Kato of Japan 6-1, 6-3 at the Edgbaston Priory Club in 59 minutes.
“I’ve already played two doubles finals here and I lost all of them, so I’m very happy to win this one,” Mertens told the Lawn Tennis Association Web site. “Birmingham is of course very important in the lead up to Wimbledon, and for us to get this title will give us confidence going into it. We’ve enjoyed our week here. We’ve had beautiful weather and a great atmosphere, so I just want to say thank you to the city of Birmingham.”
Photo: AFP
In the women’s singles final, Putintseva defeated Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic 6-1, 7-6 (10/8).
The 29-year-old’s previous two WTA Tour titles had come on clay courts, in Nurnberg in 2019 and Budapest in 2021, but on Sunday she prevailed in nearly 90 minutes on court after coming from 5-3 down — and saving two set points — in the second set.
The victory saw Putintseva become just the second unseeded Rothesay Classic champion in the past 10 years, following Beatriz Haddad Maia’s title run of 2022.
“I don’t know what I’m feeling because I wasn’t expecting this at all,” Putintseva said. “It’s great and it’s confusing because I’ve always been good on clay, but now all of a sudden, I’m good on grass. I’ll take that. It’s great.”
“It was a great game. I started so well, and then Ajla dialed up her level to the highest. She was playing really amazing, not giving me any time to think or to do something. The game was even in the end, and I was a bit more lucky,” she said.
It was a heartening week for the Australian, formerly No. 32 in the world rankings, after she missed most of last season following knee surgery and then had an operation to remove ovarian cysts.
In London, Tommy Paul added his name to a list of American tennis greats by winning the Queen’s Club men’s singles title after defeating Lorenzo Musetti 6-1, 7-6 (10/8).
Victory gave the fifth-seeded American his third ATP Tour title — and the biggest success of his career — after he won in straight sets after 88 minutes on court.
Paul became the first US player to win the prestigious Wimbledon warm-up tournament since Sam Querrey in 2010 as he joined a group of former American champions at Queen’s, including John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors and Pete Sampras — who all won Wimbledon as well.
“It means everything,” said Paul, who knocked out Britain’s Jack Draper in the quarter-finals. “Going through the hallways here in the locker room and the names on the wall, it’s unbelievable. It was my goal always to put my name next to them.”
The world No. 13 overtakes Taylor Fritz to become the new US No. 1.
Paul raced through the first set before Italian opponent Musetti worked his way back into the match.
The 27-year-old Paul failed to serve out the match at 5-4 up in the second set before coming back from 1-4 down in the tiebreak and saving a set point at 6-7.
Musetti saved two match points behind his own serve before Paul took the third to secure the title.
“This was definitely one of the nicest weeks of my career so far,” Musetti said. “Congratulations to Tommy, he deserved to win. I was struggling to get to his level. I saved face a bit at the end with the break. I was fighting really hard to get to the third set.”
The 22-year-old, who became a father in March, added: “I want to dedicate this week to my little boy Ludovico. I just want to go back and hug him.”
SSC Napoli’s Italian Serie A title hopes suffered a late setback on Sunday when they were held to a 2-2 draw at home against Genoa, setting up a thrilling season finale with closest rivals Inter just one point behind. The hosts remain top with 78 points, holding a slim lead over Inter, who won 2-0 at Torino earlier on Sunday, with two rounds remaining. To make matters worse for Napoli, midfielder Stanislav Lobotka, struggling with an ankle injury, was forced off just minutes after the match began. Scott McTominay delivered a perfect pass into the box where Romelu Lukaku got
Harry Kane opened the scoring ahead of lifting his first career silverware as Bayern Munich beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-0, with veteran Thomas Mueller playing his last home game for the club. Bayern officially won the title on May 4 when defending champions Bayer Leverkusen were held to a 2-2 draw at Freiburg, but were presented with the Bundesliga shield in front of their home fans at full-time. Dripping wet after being showered with beer by teammates, Kane said the title win was “an incredible feeling,” and hoped it would be “the first of many.” “It’s been lot of hard work, a lot of
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,
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
RSS