Taiwan’s Hsieh Cheng-peng on Sunday lost his bid to claim his first ATP Tour doubles title at the Sofia Open, while Daniil Medvedev gifted himself an early birthday present in the singles final.
Hsieh and his Indonesian partner, Christopher Rungkat, fell to a 6-2, 4-6, 10-2 defeat to Nikola Mektic and Jurgen Melzer in 67 minutes.
The Croatian-Austrian duo saved five of six break points and converted two of eight to claim what was their first ATP Tour title as a pairing.
Photo: AFP
“I am very happy to win the title,” Mektic told the ATP Web site.
“Last May was my last final, so it is very good to be in a final and win again... It is going to be good motivation for the rest of the season,” he said. “We have had some tough battles. We saved [three] match points in [the quarter-final], but we came out strong in the end and I have to thank Jurgen again for playing with me. It was a great week.”
In the singles, big-hitting Russian Medvedev brushed aside Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics 6-4, 6-3 to win the title.
Third seed Medvedev, who turned 23 yesterday, was at his devastating best as he gave the hapless Hungarian a brutal lesson to claim his fourth career title.
Attacking the lines with machine-like precision, Medvedev was in complete control and broke the unseeded Hungarian, who won his maiden title in Geneva, Switzerland, last year, four times.
The world No. 16 converted his first championship point after breaking Fucsovics’s serve to love.
“I’m happy to win the title — this is what I came here for,” Medvedev said. “I was the better player today and I deserved to win. This title gives me a lot of confidence.”
OPEN SUD DE FRANCE
Reuters, PARIS
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Sunday beat fellow Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-4, 6-2 to win the Open Sud de France in Montpellier and claim his first ATP Tour title since 2017.
Herbert, the seventh seed, was looking to snatch his maiden singles title, but Tsonga, whose previous season was hampered by injuries, only dropped four points on his serve.
The 33-year-old, in Montpellier courtesy of a wild card, had not won a trophy since he prevailed in Antwerp, Belgium, in October 2017.
Taiwan’s men’s A team last night defeated their counterpart B team 82-77 in their first showdown in the William Jones Cup at New Taipei City’s Sinjhuang Gymnasium. With four wins under their belt, Taiwan’s A squad — also known as the blue team, consisting of the national team’s main roster — lead the tournament, while Malaysia and the Philippines Strong Group-Pilipinas, who were not scheduled to play last night, are both undefeated with three wins each. Taiwanese-American teenager Robert Hinton, playing in his first William Jones Cup, led the scoring early in the first quarter, putting up nine points for the A
A chance encounter during a drunken night out was the unlikely catalyst for breaker Sunny Choi’s journey to the Paris Olympic Games. The 35-year-old American is to showcase her skills before a global audience in Paris when breaking makes its debut on the Olympic stage. Choi is the beneficiary of efforts to attract younger fans to the Olympics, a move that led to breaking’s inclusion for the first time. However, as Choi says, the Olympics was the last thing on her mind when she took up the sport. A freshman student at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, Choi stumbled into breaking
Teenage gymnast Shoko Miyata has been pulled from Japan’s team for the Paris Olympics after being caught smoking and drinking, officials said yesterday. The 19-year-old, a world bronze medalist and captain of Japan’s women’s gymnastics team for the Games, was sent home from their training camp in Monaco and admitted she had violated the squad’s code of conduct. “With her confirmation and after discussions on all sides, it has been decided that she will withdraw from the Olympics,” Japan Gymnastics Association (JGA) secretary-general Kenji Nishimura told reporters in Tokyo. Nishimura said the association had been told that Miyata was seen smoking in a
Former NFL receiver Jacoby Jones, whose 108-yard kickoff return in 2013 remains the longest touchdown in Super Bowl history, has died at the age of 40. The Houston Texans, Jones’ team for the first five seasons of his career, announced his death on Sunday. In a statement released by the NFL Players Association, his family said he died at his home in New Orleans. A cause of death was not given. Jones played from 2007 to 2015 for the Texans, Baltimore Ravens, San Diego Chargers and Pittsburgh Steelers, and he made several huge plays for the Ravens during their most recent Super