Maria Sharapova survived a scare on Thursday as she outlasted a gallant challenge by Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain 7-6 (7/3), 5-7, 7-6 (7/1) to reach the quarter-finals of the WTA Amelia Island claycourt event.
Sharapova improved to 20-1 on the season but the Spaniard made her work for it.
She next faces 10th seeded Alona Bondarenko, who surprised Russian sixth seed Dinara Safina 7-6 (7/5), 0-6, 7-5 earlier in the day.
PHOTO: AP
The top seeded Russian is participating in her first tournament since losing to compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova in the Indian Wells semi-finals.
Lindsay Davenport also advanced on Thursday by beating Croatian qualifier Karolina Sprem, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.
The 16th-seeded American converted 27-of-39 first-serve points to defeat Sprem in one hour, 49 minutes.
While Davenport was able to pull out a three-set victory, the same could not be said for second-seeded Anna Chakvetadze.
The 21-year-old Russian, who was seeking her second title of the year after claiming her seventh career championship at the Paris indoors event in February, fell to Dominika Cibulkova in Thursday’s evening match.
The Slovakian won, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, in a match that lasted 1 hour, 35 minutes.
Despite managing just one ace, Cibulkova emerged victorious due in part to her opponent’s erratic serving. Chakvetadze recorded 11 double faults in falling to 4-5 this year.
Former champ Amelie Mauresmo of France reached the quarter-finals by beating Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (8/6) on Thursday.
The 28-year-old Frenchwoman, who won here in 2001, had been 0-4 against top 30 players this year prior to beating the 16th-ranked Pole.
“It was definitely a tough one; she has been playing well this year and she is one of the young guns,” Mauresmo said of winning the two-hour, 34-minute match.
“When I got up, 5-2, in the third, I think I got a little tight and she wasn’t making any errors, but I’m glad I was still able to come in and go for it in the tie-break — and I think that’s what made the difference at the end. I ended the match on a positive note,” she said.
Marloon Herrera was crying — happy tears. With Cuba trailing in the fifth inning of its Little League World Series (LLWS) opener on Thursday, Herrera lined a two-run double to give his team the lead. When the Czech Republic, representing Europe-Africa, made a pitching change, he ran over to give his third base coach a hug. Cuba went on to win 4-1. It was the first game at this year’s tournament for both sides, but it was also the beginning of Cuba’s second appearance in the series ever — and it was emotional. “You breathe baseball in Cuba,” manager Everaldo Machado said on
Taiwan on Friday beat Australia 11-0 at the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Taiwan are represented at the tournament by Taoyuan’s Gueishan Elementary School, who won the Asia-Pacific regional tournament to earn the trip to the US. Australia are represented by the Hills Red team from Sydney. Taiwan advanced to a game tomorrow against Santa Clara, representing Cuba, who won 4-1 against the Czech Republic’s Brno, the Europe-Africa regional qualifiers. Australian starter Sayre Howick had a tough time controlling his pitches at Volunteer Stadium, one of which allowed Taiwan to open their account. They scored six in the inning and
World Boxing, an international amateur boxing organization formed last year after a breakdown in relations between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Boxing Association (IBA), has announced the admission of Taiwan, along with four other nations, into its growing list of members. In a statement released on its Web site on Friday, the Swiss- based organization said that in addition to Taiwan, admitted as Chinese Taipei, Bhutan, Ecuador, Fiji and Pakistan have also become members. The new members all have well-rounded national and international boxing programs as well as transparency in the leadership and management of their national boxing programs,
COOLED DOWN: Du Plessis apologized after the fight for comments about his Nigerian-born opponent, after Adesanya said he planned to take the belt back to Africa South African Dricus du Plessis yesterday took a flurry of body hits across four rounds before defeating Israel Adesanya by submission to retain his middleweight championship at UFC 305. After scoring some early takedowns, Du Plessis (22-2) had to withstand a flurry of body strikes from Adesanya through the middle rounds, which appeared to be taking a toll on the 30-year-old South African as the fight progressed. However, a left hook followed by three rights helped bring Adesanya down, giving Du Plessis the opening he wanted as he swiftly got the choke hold that forced the Nigerian-born New Zealander to tap out