Last year’s mixed doubles champions Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan and Poland’s Jan Zielinski on Monday crashed out of the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, leaving the Taiwanese star focused on pursuing a fifth women’s doubles title in London, while a partner injury forced compatriot Chan Hao-ching to give up on her doubles campaign.
Hsieh and Zielinksi, who last year also won the Australia Open title, narrowly lost their opening set 7-6 (9/7), before Britain’s Joe Salisbury and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani stunned the former champions 6-3 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.
The Taiwanese-Polish duo had been dominant in the first two rounds, blasting past Argentine Maximo Gonzalez and Spaniard Cristina Bucsa 6-3, 6-4 on Saturday, before toppling fourth seeds Evan King and Taylor Townsend of the US 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 on Sunday.
Photo: Reuters
While Hsieh’s mixed doubles run is over, her women’s doubles campaign remains alive. She and Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko are today to play Sorana Cirstea of Romania and Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya in the women’s quarter-finals.
Fourth seeds Hsieh and Ostapenko on Sunday dominated 14th seeds Zhang Shuai of China and Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-0 in the third round.
Hsieh won the women’s doubles title at Wimbledon in 2023, 2021, 2019 and 2013.
Photo: Reuters
Compatriot Chan was forced to give up her Wimbledon campaign after her injury-plagued partner Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic pulled out following a tearful women’s singles defeat on Saturday.
After Chan and Krecikova on Wednesday last week defeated Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan and the US’ Peyton Stearns 7-6 (7/5), 6-2, the pair on Friday earned a massive boost in upsetting French Open champions and third seeds Jasmine Paolini and Sara Errani.
The 6-3, 6-2 victory in just 1 hour, 10 minutes was a touch of revenge over the Italian stars, who in October last year denied Chan and Russian Veronika Kudermetova the China Open title.
However, Chan and Krecikova’s momentum was cut short on Saturday, when last year’s women’s singles champion Krejcikova, who has been plagued by back problems, succumbed to illness during her 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 defeat to 10th seed American Emma Navarro. Krejcikova appeared unsteady and was sobbing at points in the match and needed treatment from a doctor.
As a result, it was unsurprising that she was unable to compete in Monday’s third-round match, ending Chan’s doubles ambitions and handing 16th seeds Caroline Dolehide and Sofia Kenin of the US a walkover to the quarter-finals.
Chan and mixed doubles partner Andre Goransson of Sweden exited in the first round on Saturday, with a 6-4, 6-1 defeat to second seeds Zhang and Marcelo Arevalo of Argentina.
Meanwhile, 12th seeds Wu Fang-hsien of Taiwan and Jiang Xinyu of China, who in January won the Auckland Open and the Hobart International, crashed out of the women’s doubles in the second round, with a 6-2, 6-1 loss to Desirae Krawczyk of the US and Olivia Gadecki of Australia.
On Friday, Wu and mixed doubles partner Sadio Doumbia of France crashed out of the opening round with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 loss to Krawczyk and Neal Skupski of the UK.
In men’s singles, world No. 1 Jannik Sinner on Monday advanced to the quarter-finals after a tearful Grigor Dimitrov pulled out injured while in total control of the match.
The Italian was staring at the exit door trailing 3-6, 5-7, 2-2 before the Bulgarian 19th seed pulled up holding his right pectoral muscle and was unable to continue.
Sinner rushed to his aid, but his 34-year-old opponent was barely able to wave to acknowledge the crowd’s warm ovation.
“Honestly I don’t know what to say,” Sinner said. “He is an incredible player, I think we all saw this today. He’s been so unlucky in the past couple of years. An incredible player, a good friend of mine also. We understand each other very well off the court too. Seeing him in this position, honestly, if there would be a chance that he could play the next round, he would deserve it.”
Novak Djokovic survived Australian 11th seed Alex de Minaur in a 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 scare to advance to set up a last-eight match against Italian 22nd seed Flavio Cobolli, who beat former Wimbledon runner-up Marin Cilic 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (7/3).
In the women’s draw, Iga Swiatek continued her serene progress with a 6-4, 6-1 rout of Danish 23rd seed Clara Tauson, while Russian seventh seed Mirra Andreeva, 18, reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the first time with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Navarro.
Additional reporting by AFP and Reuters
The pressure was already on Real Madrid coach Xabi Alonso before their 2-1 defeat to Manchester City on Wednesday in the UEFA Champions League raised further questions about his future. Arsenal remain perfect in this season’s competition and three points clear at the top of the standings after a 3-0 win against Club Brugge, while defending champions Paris Saint-Germain were held 0-0 at Athletic Bilbao. The clash between Madrid and City was the standout game of the round amid reports this week that Alonso had lost control of the locker room. Speculation over his position is likely to intensify after the latest
‘HIGH STANDARD’: The Thunder are on track for a Finals-Cup double after they scored 22 three-pointers in equaling the best 25-game start to a season in NBA history The Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday bagged a 16th straight victory, thrashing the Phoenix Suns 138-89 to romp into an NBA Cup semi-final clash with the San Antonio Spurs, who stunned the Los Angeles Lakers 132-119. NBA Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 28 points to lead the reigning NBA champions Thunder, who improved to 24-1 to equal the best 25-game start to a season in league history. They dominated from start to finish to book their place in the final four of the in-season tournament in Las Vegas, where they are tomorrow to take on the Spurs. The New York Knicks and
The Olympic flame for the Milan Cortina Winter Games landed in Rome on Thursday following a handover in Greece. The flame was carried in a small lantern aboard an ITA Airways flight between the Greek and Italian capitals. Tennis player Jasmine Paolini — an Olympic gold medalist — and local organizing committee president Giovanni Malago carried the flame off the plane. “I feel honored. It’s an incredible emotion,” Paolini said in brief remarks before the lantern was driven away toward the presidential palace. A 63-day torch relay covering 12,000km is to start in Rome today and wind its way through all 110 Italian provinces
The Kashima Antlers won a record-extending ninth Japanese title on the final day of the J. League season yesterday, holding their nerve to beat the Yokohama F. Marinos 2-1. Watched by Brazilian legend and former player Zico, the Antlers went into the game at their packed home stadium with a one-point lead over Kashiwa Reysol in the table. A goal in either half from Brazilian striker Leo Ceara put the Antlers in control, but Yokohama struck in the first of five minutes of second-half injury time to set up a nail-biting finale, with Reysol winning their game 1-0. The Antlers saw out the
RSS