Romania stunned top seeds Australia with an upset 2-1 win in their Group A tie at the mixed teams Hopman Cup at Perth’s Burswood Dome yesterday.
With the tie split after the respective singles matches, the Romanian pairing of Sorana Cirstea and Victor Hanescu shocked Australia’s Samantha Stosur and Lleyton Hewitt in the deciding mixed doubles.
With Cirstea continuing the good form she earlier showed in beating Stosur in the women’s singles and Hanescu overcoming the cramp that plagued him in his singles loss to Hewitt, the Romanians won the doubles in straight sets, 7-5, 6-1, to clinch a marathon tie.
The opening day of the tournament got off to a bad start for the Australians when the 45th-ranked Cirstea trumped the 13th-ranked Stosur in three sets, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, to give her side the early advantage.
Hewitt then kept the host nation in the tie with a gritty three-set win over Hanescu, coming from a set down to win, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-2).
Both Hewitt and Stosur boast grand slam doubles titles and the Australians were expected to be the most accomplished doubles team in the tournament, but the Romanians had all the answers, dominating the second set as Stosur’s form woes continued.
Cirstea was thrilled with her start to the year.
“For me today was a perfect day,” she said. “I started with a really good singles match and I beat Sam, who is No. 13 in the world and is playing great. Then coming out and playing mixed with Victor for the first time in my life and I cannot expect more than this.”
Having only been in Australia for three days after spending Christmas in much cooler climes in his home country, Hanescu was exhausted by the end of the doubles.
“I am very tired. It is very hot and humid here coming from Romania after a white Christmas and lots of food,” he said.
Earlier, the 22nd-ranked Hewitt had his hands full against the towering Hanescu in a marathon match that a couple of times looked to be heading the Romanian’s way.
However, Hanescu suffered from cramp in the dying minutes of a match that went to 150 minutes.
Hanescu was clearly struggling in the last few games of the match and tried to keep the rallies short by hitting winners and even attempted an underarm serve on match point in the tie-break.
The world No. 48 sought treatment at the end of the ninth and 11th games in the third set, but was not allowed an injury time out under new rules introduced this year that prevent players being treated for cramp during matches.
Hewitt himself appeared to be in a little discomfort from a right foot problem at times, but said he was in better shape when the match needed to be won.
“I was glad the match went three sets because I got better as the match went on,” he said. “I was doing a lot better than him. I can tell you that.”
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and partner Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia yesterday advanced to the women’s doubles final at the Australian Open after defeating New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe and Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 6-3 in their semi-final. Hsieh has won nine Grand Slam doubles titles and has a shot at a 10th tomorrow, when the Latvian-Taiwanese duo are to play Taylor Townsend of the US and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic in the championship match at the A$96.5 million (US$61 million) outdoor hard court tournament at Melbourne Park. Townsend and Siniakova eliminated Russian pair Diana Shnaider and Mirra Andreeva 6-7
Manchester City have reached do-or-die territory in the UEFA Champions League earlier than expected ahead of what Pep Guardiola has described as a “final” against Club Brugge today. City have disproved the suggestion a new format to Europe’s top club competition would remove any jeopardy for the top clubs as Guardiola stares down the barrel of failing to make the Champions League knockout stages for the first time in his career. The English champions have endured a torrid season both in their English Premier League title defense and on the continent. A run of one win in 13 games, which included Champions League
Things are somewhat out of control at the Australian Open this year, and that has only a little to do with the results on the courts. Yes, there were some upsets, including Madison Keys eliminating No. 2 Iga Swiatek in the women’s singles semi-finals on Thursday. It also was the first time since 1990 that three teenagers beat top-10 men’s seeds at a Grand Slam tennis tournament. The loser of one of those matches, Daniil Medvedev, got fined US$76,000 for behaving badly. Last year’s women’s singles runner-up exited in the first round. However, the real fuss is happening elsewhere. The rowdy fans, for one
The CTBC Brothers from Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) on Friday announced they reached an agreement with the team’s shortstop Chiang Kun-yu (江坤宇) to extend his contract by 10 years in a deal that could worth up to NT $147.88 million (US$4.5 million). Including a NT$10 million incentive bonus, the 24-year- old’s new contract stipulates that his monthly salary will be NT$660,000 starting this year, increasing to NT$1.2 million from the fifth year of the deal. Chiang’s new agreement also comes with a caveat in the form of a “player option” where he would have the choice to become a free
RSS