Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan was defeated by Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova 6-0, 6-2 in the second round of the women’s singles at the Australian Open yesterday.
Cibulkova, seeded 18, broke Chan’s serve immediately, after the latter had squandered five game points. The Slovakian then reeled off six straight games to take the first set in only 31 minutes.
With Cibulkova’s defeat of South Africa’s Chanelle Scheepers 6-0, 6-0 in the first round, she ended up winning 19 straight games at the tournament until Chan halted her run by winning the second game of yesterday’s second set.
However, Chan only managed to win one more game before the 19-year-old from Bratislava wrapped up her straight sets win.
Cibulkova served much better than her Taiwanese opponent, the former’s first-serve percentage was 76 percent, the latter’s only 56 percent.
In another second round clash, Serena Williams gave herself a “D-minus at best” for her 6-3, 7-5 win over Argentina’s Gisela Dulko, ranked 45th in the world.
Elena Dementieva improved her winning streak this year to 12 matches with 6-4, 6-1 win over Iveta Benesova.
Amelie Mauresmo rallied for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Britain’s Elena Baltacha. Mauresmo, a former No. 1-ranked player now seeded 20th, advanced when Baltacha double-faulted on match point.
In the men’s singles, Rafael Nadal got top marks for his second straight match, a 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 win over Croatia’s Roko Karanusic. The Spaniard has dropped only 11 games in six sets and next faces German veteran Tommy Haas, who beat Flavio Cipolla of Italy, 6-1, 6-2, 6-1.
Fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga showed flashes of brilliance and bravery as he survived a 195-minute marathon to down Ivan Ljubicic 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (10/8), 7-6 (8/7), 6-2.
In the men’s doubles, Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun returned to earth with a bump yesterday after his stunning victory over David Nalbandian in the men’s singles the previous day. Teaming up with Germany’s Rainer Schuettler the pair suffered a 6-2, 6-1 thrashing by Pole Lukasz Kubot and Austrian Oliver Marach.
Kubot and Marach wrapped up the first set in only 33 minutes and things were no better for the Taiwanese/German combo in the second as their opponents wrapped up the win in only 67 minutes.
One consolation for Lu is that his short workout yesterday should leave him reasonably fresh for today’s third round singles clash with Tommy Robredo.
Taiwan kept their hopes of advancing to next year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC) alive with a 9-1 victory over South Africa in a qualifier at the Taipei Dome on Saturday, backed by solid pitching. Taiwan last night played against Nicaragua. As of press time, Nicaragua was leading 6-0. Bouncing back from Friday’s struggles on the mound, when Taiwanese pitchers surrendered 15 runs to Spain, Team Taiwan on Saturday kept the visiting team in check, allowing just one run in the bottom of the fourth inning. Starting pitcher Sha Tzu-chen struck out one and allowed no hits, except for a hit-by-pitch over
Taiwan kept its hopes of advancing to the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) alive with a 9-1 victory over South Africa in a qualifier at the Taipei Dome last night, backed by solid pitching. Bouncing back from Friday’s struggles on the mound, when Taiwanese pitchers surrendered 15 runs to Spain, Team Taiwan kept the visiting team in check, allowing just one run in the bottom of the fourth inning. The win was crucial for Taiwan, as a loss would have eliminated the team from contention for the next WBC. Starting pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸) struck out one and allowed no hits, except for
Team Taiwan are set to face Spain in a win-or-go-home match tonight for the final berth at the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC), despite losing to Nicaragua 6-0 in the WBC qualifier at the Taipei Dome on Sunday. The home team’s loss on Sunday means Nicaragua finish first in the qualifier round in Taipei with a perfect 3-0 record and advances to next year’s finals. After crushing South Africa 9-1 earlier on Sunday, Spain took second place in the four-team qualifier with a 2-1 record. With a 1-2 record, Taiwan finished third while South Africa placed at the bottom with
The Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) is considering reducing its pitch clock by two seconds to help players better adjust to the rules applied at the World Baseball Classic (WBC). The proposal aims to shorten the pitch timer from 25 seconds to 23 seconds with the bases empty, and from 20 seconds to 18 seconds with runners on base. Currently, the WBC mandates that pitchers deliver a pitch every 18 seconds with the bases empty and 15 seconds with runners on base. The issue was raised during a pre-season CPBL managers’ meeting on Tuesday by Rakuten Monkeys bench and batting
RSS