Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan and Zheng Jie of China ousted the third seeds in the doubles at the Aegon International in Eastbourne, England, yesterday to claim a spot in the quarter-finals of the final warm-up tournament before Wimbledon.
Chan and Zheng, the runners-up at the Australian Open in January, warmed up for the third Grand Slam of the year by downing third seeds Timea Babos of Hungary and Kristina Mladenovic of France in the first round on the grass courts at Devonshire Park in a match delayed a day by rain on the south coast of England.
The cross-strait duo edged a tight first set 7-6(7/5), converting their second set point in a tiebreak after 46 minutes, before completing the victory by taking the second set 6-3 31 minutes later.
Photo: AFP
Chan and Zheng saved three of four break-point opportunities and converted two of five, winning 69 of the 131 points contested to advance to a quarter-final clash against either Spanish pairing Anabel Medina Garrigues and Arantxa Parra Santonja, or Julia Goerges of Germany and Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic.
Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova begins her title defense next week without any official grass-court matches following her withdrawal at Eastbourne.
“I didn’t feel well when I came here last Thursday,” Kvitova said. “I have a sore throat. I have to stay in bed, and drink tea and rest. I had to make this decision. I hope to be fine for Wimbledon. I’ll stay here in Eastbourne and then slowly move to London. Of course, I wanted to play here, but it doesn’t make sense to play and then not be ready for Wimbledon, I’m not the only one not to play before Wimbledon.”
Kvitova, who claimed the title at the All England Club in 2011 and last year was the top seed in the singles.
Kvitova has not played since losing in the fourth round of the French Open at Roland Garros.
With rain delaying the start of play for several hours at Devonshire Park, the program was reduced.
Svetlana Kuznetsova, the champion in 2004 and playing in Eastbourne for the seventh time, reached the second round with a 7-6(7/5), 6-4 defeat of Magdelana Rybarikova.
Kuznetsova improved to a 36-8 career record on grass.
While all 16 seeds had byes into the second round, second seed Caroline Wozniacki was eagerly preparing for her pre-Wimbledon start after an early exit on the Paris clay last month.
The Danish world No. 5 said that making the clay-grass switch is one of the easiest parts of her season.
“I think automatically I just switch, it’s a very easy switch for me to go from clay to grass,” the former world No. 1 said. “It’s worse for me to go from hard court to clay, because you have to get the sliding in and stuff. Here, it just comes naturally to me. It’s easy and I’m like a little kid at a candy store whenever I step on grass for the first time. It’s never been an issue for me.”
Irina Falconi of the US defeated Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania 6-1, 6-1, former Australian Open finalist Dominika Cibulkova made a winning return after sitting out since February with a foot injury, beating Britain’s Harriet Dart 6-1, 6-3, while Polona Hercog beat Madison Brengle of the US 7-5, 6-4.
Champagne corks often pop and loud, boisterous cheers are usually heard around Constitution Dock when the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race line honors winner finishes in the Tasmanian state capital. There were no such celebrations this year when the defending champions on board LawConnect won the race in the early hours of yesterday morning, as it came about 24 hours after two sailors died on separate boats in sail boom accidents two hours apart on a storm-ravaged first night of the race. LawConnect, a 100-foot super maxi skippered by Australian tech millionaire Christian Beck, sailed up the River Derwent at just after 2:30am.
‘BOWLINE’ AND ‘ARCTOS’: Roy Quaden was hit on the head by a boom, while Nick Smith was struck by the main sheet and thrown across the boat amid rough seas Two sailors have been killed in separate incidents in the treacherous Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, officials said yesterday, as a string of yachts retired in powerful winds and high seas. One of the crew members, 55-year-old Roy Quaden on Flying Fish Arctos, was hit on the head by a boom as the fleet raced down the New South Wales coast, race organizers said. The other man, 65-year-old Nick Smith, was struck by the main sheet aboard Bowline and thrown across the boat, said David Jacobs, vice commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia. “Unfortunately, he hit his head on the winch, and
Liverpool on Thursday powered seven points clear at the top of the Premier League as the title favorites survived a scare in their 3-1 win against Leicester City, while Bruno Fernandes was sent off in Manchester United’s dismal 2-0 defeat against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Erling Haaland missed a penalty as crisis-torn Manchester City failed to end their dismal run with a 1-1 draw against Everton, but it was United’s travails and Liverpool’s remarkable run that took center-stage. Arne Slot’s side were shocked by Jordan Ayew’s early strike at Anfield, but the leaders recovered their composure to equalize just before the interval through Cody
Elena Rybakina’s Kazakhstan yesterday dumped defending champions Germany out of the United Cup with world No. 2 Alexander Zverev sidelined by an arm injury barely a week away from the Australian Open. The upset in Perth sent the Kazakhs into the semi-finals of the 18-nation tournament. In Sydney, women’s world No. 2 Iga Swiatek led Poland into the last eight by winning a rematch of her 2023 French Open final against Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic. Britain also progressed to the quarter-finals with Katie Boulter’s dominant 6-2, 6-1 victory over Australia’s Olivia Gadecki enough to guarantee they won their group. The US and
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