Youth — and a helpful line call — overcame experience yesterday as Taiwan moved to within one win of taking a preliminary round Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group I tie against Kazakhstan.
Taiwan’s 21-year-old Yi Chu-huan and 17-year-old Yang Tsung-hua, with a combined six Davis Cup matches between them, held off the stubborn challenge of veteran Alexey Kedryuk, who was playing in his 98th Davis Cup match, and 29-year-old Russian import Yuri Schukin, 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7/4), 6-4.
The rare doubles win, only Taiwan’s second in nine Davis Cup ties since 2005, gives the hosts a huge advantage ahead of today’s reverse singles, in which the team will only have to take one of the two matches to capture the best-of-five match tie.
PHOTO: AFP
On a fast surface that clearly favored the server, yesterday’s match was decided by a brilliant performance from Yi, who aside from losing two points on his serve in the first tie-break, delivered at the crucial moments.
“I focused hard on every single point,” said the normally easily distracted Yi, none more so than when Taiwan were down 2-5 in the second-set tie-break with the match seemingly sliding away.
After getting a huge gift when Schukin pushed out an easy forehand volley that would have given the Kazakhs four set points, Yi hit a service winner and then pulled his side even with a gorgeous top-spin lob that froze the Kazakhs at the net.
Kedryuk then gave the visitors a set point with an overhead, but two consecutive winners at the net by an aggressive Yi reversed the tide and Taiwan took the set when Schukin could not handle a Yi return of serve.
After Kazakhstan lost the third set tie-break, they seemed ready to reverse the momentum by putting pressure on Yang’s serve in the first game of the ensuing set.
Facing his second break-point in the game, Yang sent a backhand passing shot that hit just beyond the baseline, television replays showed, but the ball was called in, giving Taiwan’s duo new life.
An agitated Kedryuk immediately protested to the chair umpire that Yang’s shot was out by a foot (30cm), but the chair umpire did not overturn the call.
Still, the Kazakhs earned another break opportunity in the game, saved by Yang with a blistering serve that Schukin could not return.
It was not until the final game of the match that either team had their serve broken.
Kedryuk was broken at love when Schukin volleyed a return by Yi long.
■FED CUP
STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA
Taiwan’s women held on to their position in the Federation Cup’s Asia/Oceania Group I yesterday after defeating India 3-0 in a relegation battle.
Taiwan’s Hwang I-hsuan defeated Rushmi Chakravarthi 6-2, 7-5 in the day’s opening singles and Chan Chin-wei clinched the victory with a 7-5, 6-1 thumping of Ankita Bhambri.
In the inconsequential doubles match, Chan and Chuang Chia-jung easily toppled Ankita Bhambri and her sister Sanaa 6-4, 6-2 to complete the whitewash.
With the loss, India will be relegated to the Fed Cup’s Asia/Oceania Group II in next year’s competition, while Taiwan will remain in Group I.
In the group winners final, Australia beat New Zealand 3-0 to advance to the World Group II playoffs.
■SA TENNIS OPEN
AFP, JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
Top seeds Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France and David Ferrer of Spain continued their relentless advance on Friday toward the SA Tennis Open final.
Crowd favorite and No. 1 seed Tsonga took control in the second set en route to a 6-4, 6-1 victory over seventh seed Kristof Vliegen of Belgium.
Second seed Ferrer wore down Paris-based Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis to triumph 7-5, 6-2 in the other center-court duel watched by a capacity 3,000 crowd in Johannesburg.
The big guns were joined in the semi-finals by fifth seed Jeremy Chardy, who defeated Sebastien de Chaunac in an all-French clash, and Portuguese Frederico Gil, a 7-6 (8/6), 6-3 victor over fourth seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain.
■MOVISTAR OPEN
AP, VINA DEL MAR, CHILE
Three-time defending champion Fernando Gonzalez routed Juan Monaco 6-0, 6-2 in the Movistar Open quarter-finals on Friday in a match-up of last year’s finalists.
Gonzalez will meet unseeded Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay to try and reach his hometown final for the fifth time.
Second-seeded Tommy Robredo of Spain will face fourth-seeded Jose Acasuso of Argentina in the other semi-final.
Robredo overcame Argentine wild card Juan Ignacio Chela 0-6, 6-3, 6-4, while Acasuso won 6-4, 6-2 against countryman Sebastian Decoud.
■ZAGREB INDOORS
AP, ZAGREB
Defending champion Sergiy Stakhovsky was ousted, but hopes remained for a homegrown final as Marin Cilic and Mario Ancic reached the semi-finals at the Zagreb Indoors on Friday.
Stakhovsky was eliminated by Viktor Troicki of Serbia 6-3, 6-2 in the quarter-finals.
South Korean giants T1, led by “Faker,” won their fifth League of Legends (LoL) world championship crown in London on Saturday, beating China’s Bilibili Gaming (BLG) in a thrilling final. The teams were locked at 2-2 at a packed O2 arena, but T1 clinched game five to make it back-to-back titles after nearly four hours of tense action. China’s BLG started strongly, taking the first game before T1 struck back to level. The Chinese team pulled ahead again at 2-1 only for their opponents to hit back again and go on to take the decider. Faker, who won the Most
The Major League Baseball World Series trophy is headed to Los Angeles, but the party is extending all the way to Japan. People milled around local train stations yesterday morning in Tokyo as newspaper extras were ready to roll off the presses, proclaiming Japanese stars Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto as world champions along with their Dodgers teammates after a stirring Game 5 victory over the New York Yankees. The 30-year-old is a national hero in Japan whose face adorns billboards and TV adverts all over the country. Ohtani this year became the first player in history to hit 50 home runs and
Amber Glenn overcame a fall and her own doubts to win a maiden Grand Prix figure skating title on Saturday at the Grand Prix de France. The American skater had the lead from Friday’s short program. That and the support of the crowd got her through a tough free skate in which she fell on a triple flip and put a hand onto the ice to steady herself on two other jumps. “I didn’t feel that great out there today, but I really tried, and the audience really got me through that last half when I was doubting myself,” Glenn
WORLD SERIES: ‘The individuals that were involved in that last night was a very small segment of the east Los Angeles community,’ the Los Angeles county sheriff said Rowdy crowds took to the streets of Los Angeles after the LA Dodgers won the Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series, setting a city bus on fire, breaking into stores and lighting fireworks. A dozen arrests were reported by police on Thursday, but officials said that most fans celebrated peacefully. Video showed revelers throwing objects at police in downtown LA as sirens blared and officers told them to leave the area on Wednesday night after the Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees in Game 5 of the MLB World Series at Giants Stadium in New York. Another video showed someone standing atop
RSS