Serbian third seed Jelena Jankovic was ousted in a shocking upset, while world No. 1s Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams advanced to the third round of the ATP and WTA Miami hardcourt tournament on Saturday.
Nadal dismissed No. 72 Teimuraz Gabshvili of Russia 6-2, 6-2 while Williams, a two-time defending champion seeking her sixth title in eight years here, beat fellow American Alexa Glatch 6-2, 6-3.
“I’m very happy,” Nadal said. “I think Gabashvili didn’t really play a bad game. He played hard and I think I played well.”
The biggest shocker so far at the event saw Argentina’s Gisela Dulko, ranked No. 35, eliminate Jankovic 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) to set up a third-round match against Czech Iveta Benesova.
Nadal seeks a third title this season after capturing the year’s Grand Slam start at the Australian Open at Indian Wells.
“I didn’t practice as well as I did in Indian Wells,” Nadal said. “More wind here. It’s more difficult to play but it’s important get the rhythm right with the match.”
Also advancing after first-round byes were reigning Wimbledon champion Venus Williams, the fifth seed, and British fourth seed Andy Murray.
Williams defeated Israel’s Shahar Peer 6-3, 6-3, to sustain hopes for an all-Williams semi-final while Murray, who reached last week’s final at Indian Wells, dispatched 59th-rated Juan Monaco of Argentina 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Nadal, who made just 10 unforced errors to 32 by Gabshvili, will next face Portugal’s Frederico Gil, who ousted Croatian Ivo Karlovic 6-4, 6-4. Nadal has found his form on hardcourts after his first Slam win on the surface in Melbourne.
“I play more on hard than other surfaces. It’s tougher on other surfaces,” he said. “I played a little bit behind the court and on this court it’s important to play a little bit more inside.”
Murray needed a comeback to pull through.
“I was finding it difficult,” Murray said. “I don’t tend to think the match is finished when you lose the first set but I knew it was going to be tricky. He was playing very well. I was struggling a little bit to get into a rhythm.”
The Scotsman will next face Chile’s Nicolas Massu, who battled back to defeat US 27th seed Mardy Fish 5-7, 7-6 (7/4), 6-2.
Serena Williams booked a third-round date against China’s Peng Shuai while Venus Williams will next face Germany’s Anna-Lena Gronenefeld, who defeated Italy’s 30th-seeded Sara Errani 6-4, 6-3.
Serena Williams won her 10th Grand Slam title in January at the Australian Open and has three other semi-final runs this season. Improving to 48-5 at the event for her career, she shook off first-match nerves to defeat Glatch, 19.
“I played OK,” she said. “I definitely think I could have played better. Just a little jitters going out there.”
Venus Williams trailed 0-3 before fighting back to win 12 of the final 15 games against Peer and stretch her win streak to 11 matches, including titles at Dubai and Acapulco.
Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun was defeated 7-6 (4), 6-3 by Igor Andreev of Russia.
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