Mladenovic sends top seed Osaka packing from Dubai
DUBAI: World number one Naomi Osaka was beaten in her opening match at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday, losing to France’s Kristina Mladenovic 6-3 6-3 on her return to competitive action after winning last month’s Australian Open. Osaka, who parted ways with coach Sascha Bajin last week following her victory in Melbourne, struggled with her service game, winning 48 percent of her first serve points and making 25 unforced errors as she folded in just over an hour.
Simona Halep and Petra Kvitova both won their opening matches while Elina Svitolina made a strong start to her bid for a third straight title.
Kvitova, the 2013 winner, recovered from losing a first-set tiebreak to defeat Katerina Siniakova 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-4 and squeeze into the third round. Halep, Dubai champion in 2015, saw off 2014 Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard 7-6(4), 6-4.
NADAL OPENS TENNIS ACADEMY IN MEXICO
MEXICO CITY: Tennis superstar Rafael Nadal has opened a new academy in Mexico at the Caribbean seaside resort of Cancun.
The Costa Mujeres center is an extension of Nadal’s original academy based on his native Mallorca. “We’ve been coming here for many years and we know the area,” said the 11-time French Open winner. Local favourite Ons Jabeur was forced to retire with the Tunisian trailing Svitolina 7-6(4), 4-0.
SQUASH QUEEN NICOL DAVID SET TO RETIRE
KUALALUMPUR: Eight-time world champion Nicol David has announced she will retire at the end of the 2018-19 squash season, bringing down the curtain on the Malaysian’s illustrious career.
The 35-year-old is the most successful woman squash player of all time and spent an unprecedented nine years as world No 1 between 2006-2015.
David, the darling of Malaysian sports fans, has also won five British Open titles, two Commonwealth Games gold medals, five Asian Games gold medals and three World Games gold medals in a glittering career spanning two decades.
INDONESIA SUBMITS BID FOR 2032 OLYMPICS
JAKARTA: Indonesia has submitted a bid to host the 2032 Olympic Games, officials said on Tuesday, after the Southeast Asian nation’s widely lauded handling of the Asian Games last summer.
Muliaman Hadad, Indonesia’s ambassador to Switzerland, submitted a formal bid letter from President Joko Widodo to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne last week, the foreign ministry confirmed Tuesday.
India has also expressed an interest in hosting the 2032 games while North and South Korea have said they might enter a joint bid.
The IOC will announce the 2032 host by 2025. If successful, Indonesia would be the fourth Asian Olympics host after Japan, South Korea and China. The next Olympics will be in 2020 in Tokyo, while Paris will host it in 2024 and Los Angeles in 2028.
SUGGESTIONS SOUGHT FOR SPORTS IN ASIAD
MUMBAI: The Asian Games, a quadrennial multi-sport event organised by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), has launched a campaign titled #Nextatasiangames. Its aim is to encourage people to suggest a sport they wish to see included in future editions of the Games, a media release said Tuesday.
“People are invited to post their sport suggestions on their social media profiles on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter,” the statement said.