Wei feng, Mohd Arif advance into last eight

KUALA LUMPUR: Men’s singles Chong Wei Feng and Mohamad Arif Abdul Latif are through to the quarter-fi nal of 2016 Vietnam International Challenge ( VIC).

Wei Feng was stretched to three sets before beating Sourabh Varma of India, 11-21, 21-18, 21-18 in a match at Cau Ciay Stadium in Hanoi yesterday.

Mohamad Arif had a much easier match as overcame Ryotaro Maruo of Japan, 22-20, 21-15.

Wei Feng will face Hashiru Shimono of Japan while Mohamad Arif will face Subhankar Dey of India in the last eight.

Liew Daren was shown the exit by second seed Wang Tzu Wei of Taiwan, 17-21, 21-16, 19-21.

Malaysia’s women’s singles and mixed doubles were eliminated in the second round and the quarterfi nal. — Bernama

“Even when I was 5- 0 down in the third I was thinking that I can come back.”

- Yulia Putintseva remained optimistic as her quarter-final hopes against Serena Williams slipped away.

“Sometimes when I really don’t know the player maybe I could go to YouTube and watch it and see what she does, but usually I’m just going in and trying to play my game.”

- Putintseva on her casual approach to pre-match preparations.

“It’s a circus, one big circus.”

- Tomas Berdych furious that his match against Djokovic was halted for 10 minutes in the third set when he claimed it had been raining since the start.

“Djoker just stretching the lead so quickly on Birdman umpire needs to issue standing 8 count right now.”

- Former player Brad Gilbert on Twitter.

Sidelines London, here I come... again

- Djokovic made sure of his place at the season- ending ATP World Tour Finals in London by reaching the Roland Garros semi-finals. He will be attempting to win a record-tying sixth title at the finals.

Fritz wins love game

- American teenager Taylor Fritz was a first round loser at the French Open but was a winner off court when he proposed to girlfriend Raquel Padraza in front of the Eiffel Tower.

“She said yes !!! @

RaquelPedraza98# engaged sometimes when you know, you just know!,” tweeted Fritz.

Young one

- Thiem at 22 is the youngest semi-finalist at Roland Garros since 2009

Rookies rock

- Lukas Kubot and Alexander Peya are a first-time doubles team at the French Open. Their opponents in the semi-finals are the Bryan brothers who have a winloss playing record of 981/ 299 in 405 tourlevel tournaments.

Numbers up 14 -

the temperature when Novak Djokovic and Tomas Berdych started their quarterfinal on Philippe Chatrier court.

24 -

wins by Djokovic in 26 meetings with Berdych.

114 -

losses suffered by Berdych against top 10 players, equalling the record held by Stefan Edberg.