World No. 1 Justine Henin brought Hsieh Su-wei's remarkable run at the Australian Open to an end yesterday with a 6-2, 6-2 fourth-round defeat of the 22-year-old from Taipei.
It was the first time a Taiwanese player had progressed so far at a Grand Slam tournament, a feat made all the more impressive by the fact that Hsieh had to win three matches in the qualifying tournament before even making the main draw.
Although things looked ominous when Henin, a seven-time Grand Slam winner, broke Hsieh's serve in the first game of the match, the Taiwanese immediately broke back and won her next service game to love.
PHOTO: AP
She then had a break point in the next game which would have put her 3-1 up but sent a forehand wide and Henin survived the scare.
After that the Belgian began to show the gulf in class that separates her from her 158-ranked opponent.
Henin broke Hsieh's serve in the fifth game and again in the seventh after the Taiwanese had already saved two other break points. Henin then served out the next game to take the set.
The pattern continued in the second set with Henin immediately breaking Hsieh's serve before racing to a 5-0 lead. The Taiwanese saved a match point in the sixth game before surprising everybody by going on to take the game.
She also won the next game to make the score respectable but it was only postponing the inevitable. Henin took her subsequent service game to wrap up the win in 74 minutes.
The Belgian now faces Russia's Maria Sharapova in the last eight.
Meanwhile, Chan Yung-jan and Chuang Jia-jung maintained a Taiwanese presence in Melbourne by beating Laura Granville of the US and Vladimira Uhlirova of the Czech Republic in straight sets in the second round of the women's doubles. Chan and Chuang, the No. 3 seeds, cruised past their opponents 6-1, 6-4 yesterday.
Chan also teamed up with Eric Butorac of the US in the first round of the mixed doubles to pull off an impressive victory over No. 4 seeds Jie Zheng of China and Daniel Nestor of Canada. They took the match 7-5, 7-6 in 69 minutes.
SIBLING RIVALRY: Marc Marquez was locked in a duel with his little brother, falling behind at one point before recovering for his first season-opening victory since 2014 Six-time world champion Marc Marquez yesterday won the MotoGP season-opening Thailand Grand Prix to complete a dominant debut weekend at his new Ducati Lenovo Team, having also romped to Saturday’s sprint. The Spanish great took the 26-lap grand prix by 1.732 seconds for his 63rd MotoGP victory from younger brother Alex Marquez, who is still seeking a first checkered flag, with Francesco Bagnaia third to complete an all-Ducati podium. It completed a perfect weekend for Marc Marquez, who took pole position, the sprint victory and the grand prix win for a maximum 37 points to open the 22-leg 2025 campaign. He led from
Team Taiwan avoided missing the World Baseball Classic (WBC) for the first time by defeating Spain 6-3 in a do-or-die game in Taipei last night. After narrowly escaping a mercy-rule loss to Spain in the WBC Qualifiers opener on Friday last week, the home team — winner of last year's WBSC Premier12 title three months ago — got their revenge against the 2023 European champions at Taipei Dome. "It felt quite different from when we won the Premier12," Taiwan captain Chen Chieh-hsien (陳傑憲) said after the game, recalling the ups and downs the team has experienced over the past few days. Unlike in
LONG TIME COMING: With the addition of Marcus Smart, the Washington Wizards finally held a team to under 100 points, the last team this season to do so The Detroit Pistons on Monday won their seventh straight game in the NBA with in-form Cade Cunningham making 32 points and grabbing nine rebounds in a 106-97 win over the Los Angeles Clippers. The Pistons, who are in the playoff position, moved to 32-26, their best record at this stage of a season for 17 years. It was an all-round effort from Detroit with Tobias Harris adding 20 points and Jalen Duren making 19 rebounds along with his 12 points. It was a tight contest until Detroit pulled away late in the third quarter to tie their longest winning streak since the 2014-2015
AC Milan’s slender hopes of reaching next season’s UEFA Champions League took another hit on Thursday with a 2-1 defeat at Bologna which left them eight points from Serie A’s top four. Sergio Conceicao’s team sit eighth, some way behind fourth-placed Juventus after losing an entertaining contest at the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara, a match which was rescheduled from October last year due to torrential rain and flooding. Swathes of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy, much of which is fertile agricultural land, had been left under water following a massive autumn downpour. Dan Ndoye prodded home the decisive goal in the 82nd minute
RSS