Twelve days after winning her second Grand Slam title at the French Open, Coco Gauff fell at the first hurdle on grass in Berlin on Thursday as beaten Paris finalist Aryna Sabalenka advanced to the quarter-finals.
Recipient of a first round bye, American Gauff lost 6-3, 6-3 to Chinese qualifier Wang Xinyu as world number one Sabalenka beat Rebeka Masarova 6-2, 7-6 (8/6) in her second round tie.
Winner of 10 main tour titles, including the US Open in 2023 and the WTA Finals last year, Gauff has yet to lift a trophy in a grass-court tournament.
Photo: dpa via AP
“After I won the first set, I told myself, ‘OK, let’s take a minute and enjoy this. I’m playing the French Open champion and I won the first set,’” Wang said afterwards. “No matter how the second and third go, I was like, ‘Let’s enjoy it for one second.’”
Wang had lost her only previous match against Gauff in straight sets on the Berlin grass in 2022.
“It was a tough match, but I’m happy I hung in there on the tough moments,” Wang said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The 49th-ranked Chinese player trailed 3-1 in the second set before reeling off five straight games. She played Spain’s Paula Badosa, the 10th seed, in the quarter-finals last night, proceeding to the semi-finals after Badosa retired following the first set.
Earlier, Sabalenka completed her match, which was suspended on Wednesday after the first set.
The Belarusian had to work hard on the resumption as the 112th-ranked Swiss Masarova took her to a tiebreak.
The win takes Sabalenka into the quarter-finals as she looks to build up her grass court form ahead of Wimbledon. The 27-year-old has won 20 titles, but none on grass.
She was last night after press time to face 11th-ranked Kazakh Elena Rybakina, who beat Czech doubles specialist Katerina Siniakova 6-4, 7-6 (7/5).
Sabalenka is bidding to reach the last four in Berlin for the first time in her career.
In the first match of the day, 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova, ranked down at 164, needed 2 hours, 20 minutes to overcome Russian 12th seed Diana Shnaider 6-3, 6-7 (3/7), 6-3.
She went on to defeat the Tunisian Ons Jabeur — the woman she had previously beaten in the Wimbledon final two years ago — 6-4, 6-1 last night to head into the semi-finals.
Additional reporting by staff writer
“I don’t remember the moment, but ever since I was a kid, that’s the first thing I loved,” two-time NBA All-Star Isaiah Thomas said of his lifelong romance with basketball. However, that journey unfolded against the limitations of his size in a game where height often dictates opportunity — a reality he confronted throughout his career. At 175cm, Thomas is less than 2cm taller than the average Taiwanese adult male, while NBA players during his career stood at about 200cm on average. Compared with the NBA’s average career length of less than five years, Thomas’ 13-season career stands out as
Dakar and Rabat have longstanding ties, but relations have been strained since the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final, which Senegal won in mid-January before being stripped of the title, which was transferred to Morocco. Now, the AFCON trophy is something of a thorn in the two countries’ sides. On Rue Mohamed V, the street where Moroccan vendors are based in the Senegalese capital, a police van is parked. “The police have been on high alert since the Confederation of African Football [CAF] decided to award the title to Morocco, but there have been no incidents,” a local resident said.
Hans Niemann declares he would become a “stone cold killer” in a Netflix documentary released on Tuesday about his feud with five-time classical world champion Magnus Carlsen, a pledge that injects new edge into the lingering fallout from the cheating scandal that shook elite chess. “I’m gonna be a stone cold killer the rest of my life,” the US’ Niemann says in the film. “I’m going to become the best player in the world, and no one is going to believe that now, but this clip will play over and over again in 10 years — just wait.” “I just
Top seeded Jessica Pegula on Friday once again fought back from a set down to reach the WTA Charleston Open semi-finals with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win against Russia’s Diana Shnaider. Defending champion Pegula has lost the first set in all three of her matches at the tournament so far, but again dug deep to maintain her hopes of retaining the title. The world No. 5 from the US took 2 hours, 10 minutes to defeat 19th-ranked Shnaider, relying on a formidable service game that included eight aces. Shnaider battled well in the first two sets and broke early for a 2-0 lead
RSS