Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open.
Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2.
Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16.
Photo: Reuters
Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian Wells victory, which followed her and Mertens winning the title at the Australian Open, where she also won the mixed doubles title with Poland’s Jan Zielinski.
Meanwhile, Chan Hao-ching of Taiwan and Veronika Kudermetova of Russia yesterday crashed out of the round of 16, losing 7-6 (7/6), 6-1 to eighth seeds Cristina Bucsa and Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain.
In men’s singles on Saturday, Rafael Nadal defeated Alex de Minaur from Barcelona 7-6 (8/6), 6-3 to extend his stay in Madrid on his final appearance at his home tournament, but said he still “needs time” to return to his competitive peak.
The 22-time Grand Slam champion advanced to a third-round meeting with Argentina’s Pedro Cachin.
In front of a capacity crowd that included the King of Spain, Felipe VI, French soccer icon Zinedine Zidane and Real Madrid winger Vinicius Junior, Nadal dug deep to dismiss the world No. 11, despite admitting ahead of the tournament he was still struggling with numerous physical issues.
It was an impressive performance from the 37-year-old, but he immediately dismissed the idea it was anywhere near his vintage form.
“No, not yet. It needs time,” Nadal said on court. “To play over two hours means a lot to me and the atmosphere here is just a joke. Just step by step and let’s see how I recover.”
Stefanos Tsitsipas suffered a surprise second-round exit at the hands of world No. 118 Thiago Monteiro, while top seed Jannik Sinner extended his unbeaten record against fellow Italians to 13-0 by defeating his Davis Cup teammate and good friend Lorenzo Sonego 6-0, 6-3 in just 69 minutes.
Last year’s women’s finalist Iga Swiatek eased past Romanian Sorana Cirstea 6-1, 6-1 to book a fourth-round meeting with home favorite Sara Sorribes Tormo, while Ons Jabeur, the 2022 champion, wiped a 0-3 deficit in the first set, and 0-2 and 2-4 deficits in the decider to overcome Canada’s Leylah Fernandez 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 and move into the last 16.
The qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to be held at the Taipei Dome between Feb. 21 and 25, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced today. Taiwan’s group also includes Spain, Nicaragua and South Africa, with two of the four teams advancing onto the 2026 WBC. Taiwan, currently ranked second in the world in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, are favorites to come out of the group, the MLB said in an article announcing the matchups. Last year, Taiwan finished in a five-way tie in their group with two wins and two losses, but finished last on tiebreakers after giving
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
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Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
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