Defending champion Marin Cilic beat Jan Hajek of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-2 on Wednesday in the first round of the Zagreb Indoors.
The top-seeded Croat, who reached the Australian Open semi-finals last week, broke four times. He was to play Daniel Koellerer of Austria yesterday.
Ivan Ljubicic defeated Arnaud Clement of France 7-6 (4), 6-3. The second-seeded Croat will meet Lukas Lacko of Slovakia.
Ivo Karlovic also advanced to the second round after Antonio Veic retired at 5-4 because of an ankle injury in an all-Croatian match.
Third-seeded Jurgen Melzer of Austria and No. 4 Viktor Troicki of Serbia advanced to the quarter-finals after winning their second-round matches.
Melzer beat Olivier Rochus of Belgium 6-2, 6-3 and will play Illya Marchenko of Ukraine, who beat Croatia’s Ivan Dodig 6-4, 6-2. Troicki downed Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan 7-5, 7-5.
■SA TENNIS OPEN
AP, JOHANNESBURG, South Africa
Third-seeded Feliciano Lopez of Spain, No. 5 Rajeev Ram of the US and No. 8 Stephane Robert of France won straight-set matches on Wednesday to advance to the quarterfinals of the SA Tennis Open.
Lopez beat Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia 6-2, 7-6 (4), Ram defeated Bjorn Phau of Germany 7-6 (10), 7-6 (2) and Robert downed Izak van der Merwe of South Africa 7-6 (7), 6-1.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Taiwanese badminton superstar Lee Yang broke down in tears after publicly retiring from the sport on Sunday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist held a retirement ceremony at the Taipei Arena after the final matches of the Taipei Open. Accompanied by friends, family and former badminton partners, Lee burst into tears while watching a video celebrating key moments in his professional sporting career that also featured messages from international players such as Malaysia’s Teo Ee Yi, Hong Kong’s Tang Chun-man, and Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. “I hope that in the future when the world thinks about me, they will
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures