Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and partner Veronika Kudermetova of Russia on Thursday booked a place in the doubles semi-finals at the WTA Finals in Riyadh, with their match against Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and the US’ Taylor Townsend to begin after press time last night.
Chan and Kudermetova defeated Italian duo Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini 3-6, 7-6 (7/3), 11-9 in their last group match at King Saud University.
They needed to win to earn their 2-1 record in the White Group, which was topped by Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe after they beat US pair Desirae Krawczyk and Caroline Dolehide 4-6, 6-3, 10-6. Dabrowski and Routliffe were to play Green Group runners-up Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez in the other semi-final.
Photo: AFP
In the singles, Barbora Krejcikova grabbed the last semi-final spot with a 7-5, 6-4 win over Coco Gauff, a result that eliminated second-ranked Iga Swiatek from the season-ending tournament.
Krejcikova completed a last-four lineup that already included top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka, Zheng Qinwen and Gauff.
“Well, I was definitely super excited to be here, to come here, to qualify to play against the best ones,” Krejcikova said. “I don’t really know where everything started to come together.”
“Before the tournament, I had a couple of days where we hit lightly and already during those hits, I felt quite good. And I think definitely for me, it’s a big thing that it’s the last tournament of the season,” she added.
Krejcikova won the Orange Group and was to play Zheng in yesterday’s semi-finals, while Gauff was to play Purple Group winner Sabalenka.
Swiatek earlier routed alternate Daria Kasatkina 6-1, 6-0 in less than an hour, but she needed Krejcikova to lose to third-ranked Gauff to advance from the Orange Group.
Krejcikova, Gauff and Swiatek all finished at 2-1, with Swiatek eliminated because she had a worse percentage of sets won in the group stage.
Taiwan kept its hopes of advancing to the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) alive with a 9-1 victory over South Africa in a qualifier at the Taipei Dome last night, backed by solid pitching. Bouncing back from Friday’s struggles on the mound, when Taiwanese pitchers surrendered 15 runs to Spain, Team Taiwan kept the visiting team in check, allowing just one run in the bottom of the fourth inning. The win was crucial for Taiwan, as a loss would have eliminated the team from contention for the next WBC. Starting pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸) struck out one and allowed no hits, except for
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