with AFP, EASTBOURNE, England
Taiwanese veteran player Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday earned a walkover into the Eastbourne Open women’s doubles semi-finals in England, while her teenaged partner toppled another star this week, beating Emma Raducanu.
Four-time Wimbledon women’s doubles champion Hsieh and 19-year-old Maya Joint of Australia on Tuesday advanced to the quarter-finals after easing past Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Poland’s Katarzyna Piter 6-3, 6-3 in 58 minutes on the grass court, seen as a warm-up for the Wimbledon Championships.
Photo: Reuters
They were next to play Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic and Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, but they gave their opponents a walkover, after former French Open singles champion Ostapenko sustained an injury.
In her women’s singles round-of-16 match against 20-year-old Filipina qualifier Alexandra Eala, Ostapenko pulled out due to a foot injury with Eala up 0-6, 6-2, 3-2.
The injury comes as the Latvian is next week to join Hsieh as fourth seeds in women’s doubles at Wimbledon. The pair in January fought through to the finals at the Australian Open.
Photo: AFP
Wimbledon women’s singles champion Krejcikova advanced to the women’s quarter-finals, but yesterday dropped out due to a thigh injury.
Hsieh and Joint are today to face Mexico’s Giuliana Olmos and Renata Zarazua, who advanced with a 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 victory over Magali Kempen of Belgium and Tang Qinghui of China.
Another Taiwanese aiming for Wimbledon is British-Taiwanese player Joanna Garland, who on Wednesday defeated Slovak Renata Jamrichova 7-5, 6-1 in the second round of women’s singles qualifying for Wimbledon.
World No. 144 Garland, who made a notable run through qualifying to the main draw of the French Open last month, was yesterday after press time to play world No. 114 Nina Stojanovic.
Meanwhile, Hsieh’s Australian partner recorded a major upset in the women’s singles at Eastbourne, ousting British favorite and seventh seed Raducanu.
While Raducanu had hoped for a morale-boosting run on grass at Eastbourne ahead of Wimbldeon, Joint repeated her giant-toppling skills, beating the No. 38 Briton 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7/4).
Joint on Monday knocked out two-time Wimbledon runner-up Ons Jabeur in the first round, and added Raducanu, who won the US Open in 2021, as her second high-profile victim.
Joint faces world No. 69 Anna Blinkova in the quarter-finals.
“Today was really tough; there were a lot of ups and downs and momentum switches. I was really glad I could tough it out in the end. The atmosphere was amazing,” the world No. 51 Joint said after the second grass-court singles win of her career.
‘SU-PENKO’: Hsieh and Ostapenko face a rematch against their Australian Open final opponents, the same duo Hsieh played in last year’s Wimbledon semi-finals Taiwanese women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei and Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko on Wednesday survived a near upset to the unseeded duo of Sorana Cirstea of Romania and Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya, setting up a semi-final showdown against last year’s winners. Despite losing a hard-fought opening set 7-6 (7/4) on a tiebreak, the fourth seeds turned up the heat, losing just five games in the final two sets to handily put down Cirstea and Kalinskaya 6-3, 6-2. Nicknamed “Su-Penko,” the pair are next to face top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in a reversal of last
Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) and her Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko finished runners-up in the Wimbledon women's doubles final yesterday, losing 6-3, 2-6, 4-6. The three-set match against Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens of Belgium lasted two hours and 23 minutes. The loss denied 39-year-old Hsieh a chance to claim her 10th Grand Slam title. Although the Taiwanese-Latvian duo trailed 1-3 in the opening set, they rallied with two service breaks to take it 6-3. In the second set, Mertens and Kudermetova raced to a 5-1 lead and wrapped it up 6-2 to even the match. In the final set, Hsieh and
Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei and her Latvian partner, Jelena Ostapenko, advanced to the Wimbledon women’s doubles final on Friday, defeating top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in straight sets. The fourth-seeded duo bounced back quickly after losing their opening service game, capitalizing on frequent unforced errors by their opponents to take the first set 7-5. Maintaining their momentum in the second set, Hsieh and Ostapenko broke serve early and held their lead to close out the match 6-4. They are set to face the eighth-seeded pair of Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens
Outside Anfield, the red sea of tributes to Diogo Jota and his brother, Andre Silva, has continued to grow this week, along with questions over whether Liverpool could play at Preston today, their first game since the brothers’ tragic loss. Inside Anfield, and specifically a grieving Liverpool dressing room, there was no major debate over the pre-season friendly. The English Premier League champions intend to honor their teammate in the best way they know how. It would be only 10 days since the deaths of Jota and Silva when Liverpool appear at Deepdale Stadium for what is certain to be a hugely
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