Chuang Chia-jung cruised into the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Aegon Open in Nottingham, England, on Tuesday, while fellow Taiwanese Chan Chin-wei had to battle through a super tiebreak to advance.
Chuang and Olga Savchuk defeated Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Alicja Rosolska of Poland 6-3, 6-1 in just 53 minutes at the Nottingham Tennis Centre.
The Taiwanese-Ukrainian duo saved three of four break-point chances and converted five of nine in winning 56 of the 92 points contested to set up a quarter-final against either second-seeded cross-strait pairing Chan Yung-jan and Zheng Jie or Casey Dellacqua of Australia and Darija Jurak of Croatia, who were due to play their first-round match late yesterday.
Photo: EPA
Cross-strait duo Chan Chin-wei and Xu Yifan had to battle to the quarter-finals, pulling off a 6-4, 3-6, 10-5 victory over Janette Husarova of Slovakia and Paula Kania of Poland in 1 hour, 9 minutes.
Chan Chin-wei and Xu saved 10 of 16 break-point opportunities and converted five of six in winning just 60 of the 124 points contested, but it was enough to set up a quarter-final against fourth seeds Cara Black of Zimbabwe and Lisa Raymond of the US, who defeated Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia and Ajla Tomljanovic of Croatia 6-2, 7-6 (7/2).
Chan Yung-jan’s younger sister, Chan Hao-ching, was also due to begin her campaign late yesterday when she and partner Alla Kudryavtseva, the third seeds, were due to take on Monica Niculescu of Romania and Arantxa Parra Santonja of Spain.
In the singles, top seed Agnieszka Radwanska dropped just three games in advancing to the second round, while two seeds were eliminated from the Wimbledon warm-up event.
The Polish world No. 13 beat Kudryavtseva 6-0, 6-3 in her first match since losing in the first round of the French Open.
Second seed Zarina Diyas also progressed, beating 2010 French Open champion Francesca Schiavone 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (8/6).
Third seed Varvara Lepchenko of the US was defeated 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 by Niculescu and seventh seed Magdalena Rybarikova lost 6-3, 6-3 to Britain’s Johanna Konta.
Govortsova, Monica Puig, Christina McHale, Sachia Vickery, Magda Linette and Dellacqua were other first-round winners.
TOPSHELF OPEN
By Dave Carroll
Staff reporter, with AP,
S-HERTOGENBOSCH, Netherlands
Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun crashed out of the first round of the men’s singles at the Topshelf Open in s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, on Tuesday.
The Taiwanese world No. 62 fell to a 6-4, 6-3 defeat to sixth seed Adrian Mannarino in 1 hour, 18 minutes at the grass-court tournament.
The French world No. 32 saved four of six break-point chances and converted four of five to set up a second-round clash with Swiss qualifier Marco Chiudinelli, who defeated another Frenchman, Benoit Paire, 7-6 (7/3), 2-6, 7-6 (7/4).
Lu was due to team up with Oliver Marach of Austria in the first round of the men’s doubles late yesterday to take on top seeds Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands and Horia Tecau of Romania.
Seventh seed Fernando Verdasco defeated Daniel Gimeno-Traver 7-6 (7/3), 6-7 (6/8), 6-2 in an all-Spanish first-round men’s singles match.
Verdasco is due to face local favorite Robin Haase for a place in the quarter-finals.
In the women’s singles, back on her favorite surface, top seed Eugenie Bouchard lost in the first round.
Bouchard, who last year became the first Canadian to reach a Grand Slam singles final at Wimbledon, was beaten by Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 6-4, 1-6, 6-4.
Bouchard reached three consecutive Grand Slam semi-finals last year, but is going through a difficult season, having lost nine of her past 10 matches, dropping out of the top 10. She also lost her opening match at the French Open.
MERCEDES CUP
AP, STUTTGART, Germany
Fifth seed Bernard Tomic advanced to the second round of the Mercedes Cup by beating Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) on Tuesday at the grass-court Wimbledon warm-up tournament.
Tomic, Australia’s highest-ranked player, has made good starts in most of his tournaments this year, but has advanced the quarter-final only once.
Eighth seed Viktor Troicki also advanced, beating Croatian teenager Borna Coric 6-2, 6-0. Coric won only one point on Troicki’s serve in the second set.
German qualifier Mischa Zverev defeated seventh seed Dominic Thiem of Austria 7-6 (7/4), 6-2, while other winners included Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus, Andreas Haider-Maurer of Austria and Sam Groth of Australia.
Tomic, who reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals in 2011, said he was happy to be playing in Stuttgart, where he was born before the family immigrated to Australia.
“I served and returned well in the first set. I think I lost a little bit of concentration in the second. It’s all about finding your movement on the grass in the first match and I felt like it was pretty solid,” Tomic said.
Tomic next faces Tommy Haas, the 37-year-old veteran who is making his comeback after a shoulder injury. Haas beat Mikhail Kukushkin 6-4, 7-5 in his first match in a year.
“I am still not where I want to be, I still can’t serve the way I want, but I have no pain and that’s important,” Haas said.
Baghdatis, who compensated for 11 double faults with 10 aces in a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Lukas Rosol, next plays top seed Rafael Nadal, who had a bye into the second round.
Troicki next meets wild-card Alexander Zverev, Mischa Zverev’s younger brother, who rallied to beat qualifier Mate Pavic 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Andreas Seppi cruised past Benjamin Becker 6-1, 6-2 and faces Mischa Zverev in the second round.
Tallon Griekspoor on Friday stunned top seed Alexander Zverev 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/4) in the second round at Indian Wells, avenging a devastating loss to the German at Roland Garros last year. Zverev, the world No. 2 who is heading the field of the prestigious ATP Masters event with No. 1 Jannik Sinner serving a three-month drugs ban, is the first Indian Wells men’s top seed to lose his opening match since Andy Murray in 2017. It was a cherished win for Griekspoor, who had lost five straight matches — including four last year — to the German. That included a five-setter
Five-time champion Novak Djokovic on Saturday tumbled out of the Indian Wells ATP Masters, falling in his first match to lucky loser Botic van de Zandschulp as two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz advanced. “No excuses for a poor performance,” 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic said after 37 unforced errors in a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 defeat. “It doesn’t feel great when you play this way on the court,” he said. “But congratulations to my opponent — just a bad day in the office, I guess, for me.” Djokovic is just the latest in Van de Zandschulp’s string of superstar victims. He
Manchester United on Thursday settled for a 1-1 draw with Real Sociedad in the first leg of their Europa League round-of-16 tie. United led on Joshua Zirkzee’s goal in the 58th minute, but the hosts equalized 12 minutes later after Bruno Fernandes’ hand ball and Mikel Oyarzabal sent Andre Onana the wrong way from the penalty spot. The Europa League could be a way for United to finish the season with a trophy after crashing out of the FA Cup on Sunday. A spot in the quarter-finals is to be on the line at Old Trafford in the second leg on Thursday next
Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday held their nerve to beat Liverpool 4-1 on penalties and reach the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals after their tie finished one-apiece on aggregate, while Bayern Munich saw off Bayer 04 Leverkusen to complete a 5-0 win over both legs. Lamine Yamal and Raphinha fired Barcelona into the next round as the Catalans bested SL Benfica 3-1, and Inter booked a last-eight meeting with Bayern by seeing off Feyenoord 2-1. At Anfield, Ousmane Dembele netted the only goal of the night as PSG bounced back from Liverpool’s late winner last week to force the tie to extra-time and penalties. Maligned
RSS