Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien on Tuesday dumped compatriot and second seed Hsieh Su-wei out of the women’s doubles at the Qatar Open to set up another potential Taiwanese showdown, while world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka suffered a shock defeat in the second round.
Wu and partner Jiang Xinyu, who earlier this year won the ASB Classic in Auckland and the Hobart International, defeated Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-2, 6-7 (3/7), 10-5 in 1 hour, 29 minutes on Grandstand Court 3 at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex.
Wu and Jiang on Sunday advanced to the round-of-16 with a 7-6 (7/7), 3-6, 10-6 victory over Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and Japan’s Miyu Kato, while Hsieh and Ostapenko, last month’s Australian Open runners-up, advanced on a bye.
Photo: AFP
In the quarter-finals, Wu and Jiang are to face the winners of the round-of-16 match between Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Veronika Kudermetova of Russia against Luisa Stefani of Brazil and the US’ Peyton Stearns. They were to play after press time last night.
Chan and Kudermetova on Monday defeated Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania and Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk 6-3, 6-4.
In women’s singles, Belarus’ Sabalenka was thwarted by Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) in a tense encounter lasting more than two-and-a-half hours.
The 26th-ranked Alexandrova picked herself up after going one set down to level in the second — but not before an unscheduled appearance by an inquisitive four-legged feline spectator.
With the score at 2-2, 40-30 to Sabalenka, a cat nonchalantly took center stage, inspecting proceedings courtside before sauntering off through the player’s entrance.
Alexandrova shrugged off the interruption to level the match, then held her nerve to force the deciding set to a tiebreak which she took 7-5.
Alexandrova’s reward was a last-16 date with Belgian Elise Mertens.
Also dumped out was Coco Gauff who lost in straight sets to Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk, while former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina eased into the last 16, after seeing off Peyton Stearns 6-2, 6-4
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Spain are in danger of not getting out of EuroBasket Group C after losing 67-63 to Italy on Tuesday, but the defending champions still control their destiny. Marco Spissu put Italy in front for good at 64-63 with two free throws with 31 seconds left and made two more with 14 seconds remaining. Giampaolo Ricci converted one of two free throws with eight seconds on the clock. Spain, which in 2022 won their fourth title, are tied with Georgia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina at 2-2 each. Greece and Italy have clinched two of the group’s four spots in the round-of-16,
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