Taiwanese fifth seed Lee Kuan-yi conceded his quarter-final against Russia’s Roman Safiullin after debilitating leg cramps and heat exhaustion prevented him from continuing his Taipei Summer Universiade match in the third set with the score 3-6, 6-0, 5-5 at the Taipei Tennis Center yesterday.
The match began at noon and continued for nearly two hours as the temperature reached as high as 34°C.
Lee lost the first set, but stormed back in the second, winning to love, before retiring with the decider so close.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Lee’s coach called for an injury timeout after the second set, but despite a massage, Lee’s cramps came back with a vengeance in the latter half of the third set.
The cramps were so severe that Lee could not stand.
After he left the court on a wheelchair, Lee was taken to Tri-Service General Hospital and was diagnosed with heat exhaustion — a condition the athlete said was probably due to a combination of high temperatures and a failure to sufficiently rehydrate after experiencing mild diarrhea.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Lee’s body temperature was 37.6°C, the hospital said, adding that Lee was fine after he had some rest.
At 20, Lee is the youngest athlete in the Taiwan team.
He is No. 491 on the ATP rankings.
Many spectators were in tears after it was announced that Lee had conceded the match.
“Taiwan, thank you for your hard work,” the announcer said.
Meanwhile, netizens wrote messages of encouragement, wishing Lee well and hoping he would recover quickly.
Lee showed enough determination during the match to prove that “he is a gold-medal player,” one netizen wrote.
His elder sister, Lee Ya-hsuan, had an easier time on the court, defeating Japan’s Risa Ushijima 6-2, 6-2 in the women’s singles.
The other Taiwanese in action all won as well:
In the women’s doubles, sisters Chan Yung-jan and Chan Hao-ching won their quarter-final against Irina Ramialison and Lea Tholey of France 6-3, 6-2.
In the third round of the mixed doubles, Chan Yung-jan and Hsieh Cheng-peng had a 6-2, 7-5 win over Swiss pair Enzo Sommer and Gaelle Rey.
In the men’s doubles, Hsieh and partner Peng Hsien-yin defeated Jack Findel-Hawkins and Luke Johnson 6-4, 7-6 (7/1) to advance to the semi-finals.
TO FINAL FOUR: France had 22 chances and scored two goals, while Croatia could not manage a single shot on target in 120 minutes. Les Bleus won 5-4 on penalties France on Sunday overturned a two-goal deficit to qualify for the UEFA Nations League Final Four by eliminating Croatia 5-4 on penalties after a 2-0 victory in their quarter-final second leg at the Stade de France. Dayot Upamecano scored the winning spot kick in a nail-biting shootout in which France keeper Mike Maignan made two saves, sending Les Bleus into the semi-finals against Spain. Michael Olise opened the scoring and Ousmane Dembele doubled their lead 10 minutes from time to send the tie into extra time after their 2-0 loss in Split, Croatia, on Thursday. France had a total of
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
RSS