Bouchard fails to reach Taiwan Open semifinals

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Yafan Wang defeated Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard 6-4, 6-0 to advance to the semifinals of the Taiwan Open on Friday.

Wang took advantage of six double-faults by the 2014 Wimbledon finalist from Westmount, Que., and will next face fourth-seeded Timea Babos, who beat Magda Linette 6-1, 6-3.

Sabine Lisicki, in her first tournament since returning from off-season knee surgery, rallied from a set down to beat Monica Niculescu 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. Lisicki will next meet Kateryna Kozlova, who defeated fifthseeded Yulia Putintseva in the day’s first quarterfinal, 7-5, 6-3. that led to his six-year ban.

“As new facts have appeared it’s time to question the decision of the Fifa Ethics-Committee - my suspension of 6 years!” Blatter said Friday on his reactivated Twitter account.

Blatter is barred from soccer through October 2021 after the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld his ban for payments to one-time adviser Michel Platini.

The case cost Platini the UEFA presidency and stopped him from being a candidate to replace Blatter in the 2016 election.

The CAS judges said Blatter was “reckless” for paying Platini US$2 million in uncontracted salary more than eight years after the former France great stopped being employed by FIFA. Blatter also effectively added $1 million to Platini’s FIFA pension fund reserved for executive committee members by extending entitlement against the rules for the years he worked as an adviser.