Zhou Mi, the world No. 2 who had been hoping to gain revenge on All-England champion Tine Rasmussen for a loss in Malaysia two months ago, won’t get the chance after a startling defeat on Thursday.
The Hong Kong player led 19-15 in the final game against Wang Yihan, a rising 21-year-old from China, and even held a match point at 21-20 before going down 21-19, 18-21, 23-21 in a controversially dramatic finish in the second round of the All-England championships.
Zhou looked as if she might have reached her second match point when she struck a shot which landed so close to the baseline that the line judge began to indicate as though the shuttle had been in, before apparently changing his mind and swinging his arms wide.
PHOTO: AFP
Zhou drew the umpire’s attention to this, but the “out” decision stood, and Wang capitalized by clinching the match in the next rally.
Wang will next play Xie Xingfang, the sixth seed, who beat Adrianti Firdasari of Indonesia.
Later, Rasmussen carried the defense of her title into the quarter-finals with a 21-12, 21-13 win over Larisa Griga of the Ukraine, but elsewhere there were three other seeding upsets.
Nanna Brosolat, a qualifier who recently broke into the top 50 for the first time, scored the finest win of her career by beating Pi Hongyan, the world No. 4.
Xu Huaiwen — the eighth seed from Germany — playing her last All-England before retirement lost to Malaysia’s Wong Pei Xian, while Hong Kong’s Yip Pui-yin overcame Wang Lin, the seventh seed from China, by 21-15, 24-26, 21-19.
The only surprise in the men’s singles was the departure of Indonesian fifth seed Sony Dwi Kuncoro, who injured his back while practising and withdrew.
This allowed Ville Lang of Finland a walk-over into a quarter-final with Lee Chong Wei, the top-seeded Malaysian, who beat Marc Zwiebler of Germany 21-18, 21-16.
In the women’s doubles, No. 1 seeds Cheng Wen-hsing and Chien Yu-chin from Taiwan beat Japan’s Mizuki Fujii and Reika Kakiiwa 21-18, 21-16.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
Doping fears prevented former US Open champion Emma Raducanu from treating insect bites on the eve of the Australian Open, she said, with players increasingly wary about ingesting contaminated substances. The British player was speaking in the wake of high-profile doping cases involving Iga Swiatak and Jannik Sinner. “I would say all of us are probably quite sensitive to what we take on board, what we use,” the 22-year-old said, recalling an incident on Friday. “I got really badly bitten by, I don’t know what, like ants, mosquitoes, something. I’m allergic, I guess,” she added. The bites “flared up and swelled up really a
The NHL postponed the Los Angeles Kings’ home game against the Calgary Flames on Wednesday with several massive wildfires burning across the greater Los Angeles area. The Kings and Flames were scheduled to play on Wednesday night at the Kings’ downtown arena. The NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers were scheduled to host the Charlotte Hornets in the same arena last night. “Our hearts are with our entire Los Angeles community,” the Kings said in a statement. “We appreciate the hard working first responders who are diligently working to contain the fire and protect our community. We appreciate the league’s support in keeping our
TWO IN A WEEK: Despite an undefeated start to the year playing alongside Jiang Xinyu of China, Wu Fang-hsien is to play the Australian Open with a Russian partner Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien yesterday triumphed at the Hobart International, winning the women’s doubles title at the US$275,094 outdoor hard-court tournament, while McCartney Kessler lifted the trophy in the women’s singles. Fourth-ranked Wu and partner Jiang Xinyu of China took 1 hour, 15 minutes to defeat Romania’s Monica Niculescu and Fanny Stollar of Hungary, 6-1, 7-6 (8/6) at the Hobart International Tennis Centre, their second title in a week. Wu and Jiang on Sunday won the women’s doubles title at the ASB Classic in Auckland, beating Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic and Sabrina Santamaria of the US. Their winning ways continued in Australia as they stretched
SS Lazio on Monday fired the far-right sympathizer who handles their eagle mascot after he posted online a series of videos and pictures of his erect penis. Falconer Juan Bernabe, who has been present at Lazio home matches with Olimpia the eagle since the 2010-2011 season, posted the footage on social media after having surgery on Saturday to implant a penile prosthesis to improve his sexual performance. Lazio said that they had “terminated, with immediate effect” their relationship with Bernabe “due to the seriousness of his conduct,” adding that they were “shocked” by the images. The Serie A club added that Bernabe’s dismissal
RSS