Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and partner Veronika Kudermetova of Russia on Thursday booked a place in the doubles semi-finals at the WTA Finals in Riyadh, with their match against Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and the US’ Taylor Townsend to begin after press time last night.
Chan and Kudermetova defeated Italian duo Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini 3-6, 7-6 (7/3), 11-9 in their last group match at King Saud University.
They needed to win to earn their 2-1 record in the White Group, which was topped by Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe after they beat US pair Desirae Krawczyk and Caroline Dolehide 4-6, 6-3, 10-6. Dabrowski and Routliffe were to play Green Group runners-up Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez in the other semi-final.
Photo: AFP
In the singles, Barbora Krejcikova grabbed the last semi-final spot with a 7-5, 6-4 win over Coco Gauff, a result that eliminated second-ranked Iga Swiatek from the season-ending tournament.
Krejcikova completed a last-four lineup that already included top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka, Zheng Qinwen and Gauff.
“Well, I was definitely super excited to be here, to come here, to qualify to play against the best ones,” Krejcikova said. “I don’t really know where everything started to come together.”
“Before the tournament, I had a couple of days where we hit lightly and already during those hits, I felt quite good. And I think definitely for me, it’s a big thing that it’s the last tournament of the season,” she added.
Krejcikova won the Orange Group and was to play Zheng in yesterday’s semi-finals, while Gauff was to play Purple Group winner Sabalenka.
Swiatek earlier routed alternate Daria Kasatkina 6-1, 6-0 in less than an hour, but she needed Krejcikova to lose to third-ranked Gauff to advance from the Orange Group.
Krejcikova, Gauff and Swiatek all finished at 2-1, with Swiatek eliminated because she had a worse percentage of sets won in the group stage.
By the time Cameron Menzies finally left the arena on Monday, the blood gushing from the gash on his right hand had trickled down his wrist, part of his forearm and — somehow — up to his face. Smeared in crimson and regret, and already mouthing sheepish apologies to the crowd, he disappeared down the steps, pursued by a stern-looking Matt Porter, the chief executive of Professional Darts Corp (PDC). The physical scars from Menzies’ encounter with the Alexandra Palace drinks table after his 3-2 defeat against Charlie Manby at the Darts World Championship would be gone within a few weeks.
Manchester United on Monday blew the lead three times to miss out on moving up to fifth in the Premier League as AFC Bournemouth would not be beaten in a thrilling 4-4 draw at Old Trafford. United have lost just once in their past 10 games, but Ruben Amorim would be frustrated as more points at home were frittered away despite arguably the best attacking display of his reign in charge. Amad Diallo and Casemiro gave the hosts a halftime lead either side of Antoine Semenyo’s equalizer. Two Bournemouth goals from Evanilson and Marcus Tavernier in seven minutes at the start of the
LOW-GOAL SHOOT-OUT: Of the nine penalties in the shoot-out, only three went in, with Flamengo’s Samuel Lino, and Vitinha and Nuno Mendes of PSG netting Matvei Safonov on Wednesday made four straight penalty saves in a penalty shoot-out to help Paris Saint-Germain beat Flamengo in the Intercontinental Cup final and win a sixth trophy of the year. The Russian goalkeeper was thrown in the air by his teammates after his exploits in the shoot-out, which was won 2-1 by PSG after a 1-1 draw after extra-time. It completed a trophy-laden 12 months for the French team, who had already won the Trophee des Champions, Ligue 1, the Coupe de France, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Super Cup — also on penalties against Tottenham Hotspur in
LACKLUSTER FIGHT: At one stage, the referee lost patience with the two fighters, warning them in the fourth round that ‘the fans did not pay to see this crap’ Former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua on Friday knocked out YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in their controversial Netflix-backed bout in Miami. The fight at the Kaseya Center, which saw both men reportedly splitting a mammoth purse of US$184 million, had triggered alarm across boxing due to the gulf in physical size and class between Britain’s two-time former world champion Joshua and Paul, an Internet personality who has forged a lucrative career through a handful of novelty boxing contests. However, in the event, Joshua made hard work of defeating his vastly less accomplished opponent, before his superior size and power eventually told
RSS