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.
Well off the pace in La Liga, the Copa del Rey represents Atletico Madrid’s best chance of silverware this season Atletico Madrid on Thursday hammered Copa del Rey holders Barcelona 4-0 in the first leg of their semi-final.After an Eric Garcia own-goal sent Diego Simeone’s side ahead early on, Antoine Griezmann, Ademola Lookman and Julian Alvarez struck to give Atletico a landslide lead by halftime.Barca defender Garcia was sent off in the final stages, with Atletico maintaining their significant advantage on the record 32-time winners, which they take into the second leg at the Camp Nou on March 3.Both sides missed good chances in the second half, with Barca’s Pau Cubarsi having a goal disallowed before Garcia was sent off
Dasun Shanaka hammered the fastest half-century by a Sri Lankan in T20Is as the cohosts thrashed Oman by 105 runs at the World Cup yesterday in Pallekele, Sri Lanka, for their second win in Group B.The 2014 champions piled up 225-5, the highest total of the tournament, before restricting an outclassed Oman to 120-9.The 43-year-old Mohammad Nadeem waged a lone battle for Oman, compiling an unbeaten 53 to become the oldest player to score a 50 in T20 World Cups.Having promoted himself up the order and under pressure to deliver, Sri Lanka skipper Shanaka smashed a 19-ball half-century.It has been
Stade Rennais, four days after firing coach Habib Beye, stunned Paris Saint-Germain 3-1 on Friday, snapping the defending champions’ seven-match winning run in French Ligue 1. Second-placed RC Lens could leapfrog the champions and retake top spot last night after press time if they beat Paris FC in the capital. PSG started brightly, with Ousmane Dembele and Desire Doue carving openings to no avail. Rennes fired Beye on Monday and promoted his assistant Sebastien Tambouret, and the same players who had lost four games on the bounce seemed transformed. Jordanian forward Mousa al-Tamari bagged the opener, unleashing a fierce strike
Manchester City FC halved Arsenal FC’s lead at the top of the Premier League with a 3-0 home defeat of Fulham FC, and Aston Villa FC stayed in the frame with a late 1-0 victory at home to Brighton and Hove Albion FC on Wednesday.Nottingham Forest FC squandered a chance to put some distance between themselves and the bottom three as they drew 0-0 at home to bottom club Wolverhampton Wanderers FC. Second-from-bottom Burnley FC pulled off a remarkable 3-2 comeback win over Crystal Palace FC to boost their slender survival hopes.City have little margin for error in their pursuit
RSS