Five-time champions Spain took a commanding 2-0 lead on the opening day of their Fed Cup semi-final clash with two straight-sets victories over China yesterday.
Despite noisy home support, 76th-ranked Nuria Llagostera Vives beat Zheng Jie 6-3, 6-4 in 1 hour, 43 minutes to leave the Spanish needing to win just one of the three matches today to reach the final.
Earlier, Carla Suarez Navarro beat Peng Shuai 6-3, 7-6 (7-4).
PHOTO: AFP
A fired-up Llagostera dominated from the baseline early in the match, sending Zheng, ranked 206, scurrying into the corners chasing crunching forehands and backhands.
In the decisive second set, Llagostera broke early to lead 2-0 and battled through a grueling fifth game to take a 4-1 lead.
But Llagostera, rattled by a number of line calls and some gritty tennis from Zheng, saw her lead disappear as Zheng grew in confidence, firing winners past her opponent to the delight of the crowd.
The Spaniard regained her composure to hold serve for a 5-4 lead and, under huge pressure, Zheng lost her service game, giving Llagostera the win.
In the first set, Llagostera broke Zheng in the fifth game to take a 3-2 lead, breaking again to seal the set 6-3.
Earlier, the 132nd-ranked Suarez, who won the first set 6-3, missed a chance to serve out for the match when leading 5-4 in the second set, but took the tie-break 7-4.
With both players trading heavy ground strokes from the back of the court, Suarez was first to settle into the match, dictating play and impressing with her one-handed backhand.
The 68th-ranked Peng saved a set point on her own serve in the eighth game of the opening set and two more in the next game, but Suarez held her nerve to take the set 6-3.
The tie will be decided today in the reverse singles matches and a doubles clash.
FRANCE 2, JAPAN 0
AFP, TOKYO
Former world No. 1 Amelie Mauresmo led France to a flying start as they took a 2-0 lead over Japan in the Fed Cup play-off tie for the World Group yesterday.
The 2006 Wimbledon and Australian Open champion needed only 58 minutes to beat up-and-coming Ayumi Morita 6-0, 6-2, and then Virginie Razzano made it two up by beating former world doubles No. 1 Ai Sugiyama 6-1, 7-5.
Mauresmo took the first nine games in a row and when Morita finally got into her rhythm, it was already too late to come back into the match as Mauresmo stood firm in her service games.
In the second match, Razzano, who shocked Wimbledon champion Venus Williams to win the Japan Open in October, had to calm herself down after taking the first set and a 4-1 lead in the second.
The Frenchwoman’s opponent Sugiyama reeled off four straight games to take a 5-4 lead. But after saving one set point in the 10th game, Razzano won that game and took two more before finally beating Sugiyama.
French team captain Georges Goven said: “The end of the match was very close, but Virginie was able to take her chance.”
Taiwanese runner Lo Wei-ming (羅維銘) broke the record for his age bracket and finished third in this year’s Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race on Monday evening in New York (local time). Running the multi-day footrace for his fourth consecutive year, Asian record holder Lo broke the “age 60 record” by finishing in 45 days, 12 hours, 37 minutes and 55 seconds, according to the organizers. The previous age 60 record of 50 days, 15 hours, 6 minutes and four seconds had been held by British runner William Sichel since 2014. Now in its 28th year, the Sri Chinmoy Self- Transcendence 3100 Mile
Shin Oebori coaches the Fukagawa Hawks youth baseball team in Tokyo, and he is very aware how Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani touches his players. “With Ohtani, the kids think everything is possible,” Oebori said, wrapping up practice yesterday on an all-dirt field set alongside a local Buddhist temple, below an elevated highway, and in the shadow of tall apartment blocks in central Tokyo. “Nothing is impossible with him. A dream is not a dream,” Oebori said, stepping out of the fenced practice field that keeps balls from landing on the temple grounds. None of the players hitting sponge-soft baseball has reached
CRICKET Azhar’s 59 leads Stallions Aashir Azhar’s blazing half-century guided the Taipei Stallions to victory over Taipei Super 11 in the Taiwan Premier League’s Group A at the Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei yesterday. The Stallions were 102-3 and into the 12th over of 20 when Azhar came to the crease. He hit seven sixes and two fours in the 25 deliveries he faced to push his side to 171-5. Gokul Kumar was the star with the ball for Super 11, taking 3-17. In the reply, Deepak Vishnu outscored Azhar with 77 from 50 balls, but nobody else got past 20 as
‘GLOBAL PRESSURE’: LA’s Dave Roberts said that it was difficult to appreciate the ‘pressure on a global scale’ his starter was under ‘pitching for his country’ The Los Angeles Dodgers shelled out US$1 billion for Japanese talent in the off-season and it is paying off in the MLB playoffs. Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Friday outdueled Yu Darvish in a historic post-season matchup of Japanese-born starters, while the Dodgers got home runs from Kike Hernandez and Teoscar Hernandez to beat the San Diego Padres 2-0 and advance to the National League Championship Series. “It’s pretty sweet,” a smiling Freddie Freeman said. Yamamoto allowed two hits over five innings for the win, getting pulled after 63 pitches in a decisive Game 5 between heated NL West rivals who were meeting in a