Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova yesterday withdrew from the Adelaide International, citing a right hip injury, five days before the Australian Open is to start in Melbourne.
The No. 7-ranked Vondrousova pulled out of the tournament hours before her scheduled first-round match against Russian qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich.
Taylor Townsend of the US took her place in the draw and won 6-3, 7-6 (7/4).
Photo: AP
In other games, sixth seed Jelena Ostapenko was broken while serving for the match at 5-2 in the third set and missed two match points in the next game before finally fending off Sorana Cirstea 2-6, 6-2, 6-4.
The 2017 French Open champion next faces Caroline Garcia, who beat local wild-card entry Taylah Preston 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.
“I feel like I was sleeping in the first set,” Ostapenko said. “I’m not a morning person; I needed time to get into the match. When I start to take time and be a bit more calm, I play better.”
Czech qualifier Katerina Siniakova upset former No. 1-ranked Karolina Pliskova 6-2, 6-1, winning 10 consecutive games after dropping serve early.
HOBART INTERNATIONAL
Sloane Stephens was broken while serving for the match and then lost 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7/5) to No. 73-ranked Chinese qualifier Yuan Yue.
Stephens was coming off a second-round exit last week at the Brisbane International, her first tournament since September.
Sixth seed Sofia Kenin opened with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Greet Minnen, while No. 9 seed Tatjana Maria was leading 6-1, 4-3 when Nadia Podoroska retired.
In the women’s doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and partner Giuliana Olmos of Mexico advanced to the quarter-finals with a 6-1, 6-3 win over US pair Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sophie Chang.
On Monday, Wu Fang-hsien of Taiwan and Russia’s Yana Sizikova exited the tournament, beaten 7-5, 1-6, 10-6 by Argentina’s Nadia Podoroska and Mayar Sherif of Egypt.
Additional reporting by staff writer
‘SOURCE OF PRIDE’: Newspapers rushed out special editions and the government sent their congratulations as Shohei Ohtani became the first player to enter the 50-50 club Japan reacted with incredulity and pride yesterday after Shohei Ohtani became the first player in Major League Baseball to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season. The Los Angeles Dodgers star from Japan made history with a seventh-inning homer in a 20-4 victory over the Marlins in Miami. “We would like to congratulate him from the bottom of our heart,” top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo. “We sincerely hope Mr Ohtani, who has already accomplished feat after feat and carved out a new era, will thrive further,” he added. The landmark achievement dominated Japanese morning news
When Wang Tao ran away from home aged 17 to become a professional wrestler, he knew it would be a hard slog to succeed in China’s passionate but underdeveloped scene. Years later, he has endured family disapproval, countless side gigs and thousands of hours of brutal training to become China’s “Belt and Road Champion” — but the struggle is far from over. Despite a promising potential domestic market, the Chinese pro wrestling community has been battling for recognition and financial stability for decades. “I have done all kinds of jobs [on the side]... Because in the end, it is very
No team in the CPBL can surpass the Taipei Dome attendance record set by the CTBC Brothers, except when the Brothers team up with Taiwanese rock band Mayday. A record-high 40,000 fans turned out at the indoor baseball venue on Saturday for Brothers veteran Chou Szu-chi’s first farewell game, which was followed by a mini post-game concert featuring Mayday. This broke the previous CPBL record of 34,506 set by the Brothers in early last month, when K-pop singer Hyuna performed after the game, and the dome’s overall record of 37,890 set in early March, which featured the Brothers and the
Olympic bronze medalist Lee Meng-yuan has become the first Taiwanese athlete to top the International Shooting Sport Federation’s (ISSF) men’s skeet world rankings, while top Taiwanese shooters won golds in each of yesterday’s finals in Taoyuan. Lee’s 6,610 points put him ahead of fellow men’s skeet medalists from the Paris Olympics Americans Vincent Hancock and Conner Prince. Lee on Monday said that he was surprised by the result, although he had expected his ranking to rise after the Games, which was also the first time a Taiwanese athlete had competed in men’s skeet. Despite topping the rankings, Lee said he believed Hancock, who