China's Peng piles on misery for Japan

LONDON (AFP) –

China’s Peng Shuai plays a shot during her second round women’s singles match against Japan’s Ayumi Morita on day three of the 2012 Wimbledon Championships tennis tournament at the All England Tennis Club in Wimbledon, southwest London. Peng won the match.

China’s Peng Shuai piled on the misery for Japan as she downed Ayumi Morita at Wimbledon on Wednesday as Tatsuma Ito and veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm also went crashing out.

Peng, the 30th seed, won 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 in the all-Asian second round clash, her better serving and fewer unforced errors making the difference after a tight first set.

Peng next faces Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands, who knocked out Australian fifth seed Sam Stosur, the reigning US Open champion, for a place in the last 16.

Date-Krumm, comfortably the oldest player at Wimbledon at 41, vowed to do everything in her power to return next year after losing in the first round.

The Japanese number one lost 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 to Ukraine’s world number 66 Kateryna Bondarenko on the 300-capacity Court 16, which was packed with Japanese fans.

The world number 82 gave away 21 break points in the match, which lasted just under two hours.

Japan’s Kimiko Date-Krumm serves during her first round women’s singles match against Ukraine’s Kateryna Bondarenko on day three of the 2012 Wimbledon Championships tennis tournament at the All England Tennis Club in Wimbledon, southwest London.

Date-Krumm reached the Wimbledon semi-finals in 1996 before taking 12 years out of the sport.

She said she was advised by her doctors not to play due to a left calf injury sustained at the French Open, but over-ruled them as Wimbledon holds special memories for her.

“Three days ago I was almost not playing here,” she told AFP.

“The doctor said don’t play. And the physio also said don’t play. It’s too much risk, especially my age.

“But Wimbledon is my favourite tournament. And then also I don’t know how many years I can play. I don’t know next year or two years later. Every year is almost the last year for me.

“I don’t want to give up, so I took the risk.”

The oldest player now left in the women’s draw is Italian 24th seed Francesca Schiavone at 32.

Ito was knocked out in the men’s first round by Poland’s Lukasz Kubot in a match that took just minutes to complete.

The pair were rained off Tuesday at 30-30 with Kubot 7-6 (8/6), 6-3, 5-3 up and the higher-ranked Pole quickly completed victory over the Japanese number three.

Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-Wei beat France’s Stephanie Foretz Gacon 6-4, 6-1 to set up a potential third round clash with women’s world number one Maria Sharapova.

The Russian top seed and French Open champion faces Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova, a 2010 Wimbledon semi-finalist.

The Taiwanese number one’s ability to win points on her first serve told and she despatched her opponent in an hour and a quarter.

In the men’s doubles first round, seventh-seeded Indian pairing Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna beat Marcel Felder of Uruguay and Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri 6-0, 7-6 (7/1), 6-2.

The Indian pair are at the centre of a bitter row embroiling Indian tennis over the doubles pairings for the London 2012 Olympics, at which the tennis tournament will be contested at Wimbledon.

They both refused to play with the higher-ranked Leander Paes for a range of personal and professional reasons, in a spat that has even drawn in India’s foreign and sports ministers.

“Things couldn’t have got uglier for us in Indian tennis the last week,” Bhupathi said.

“Everyone has their opinion. Everyone probably stands by it. But from our point of view, we worked hard. He (Paes), definitely being the number one player in India, deserves to go, but he needs to deserve to go with someone who wants to play with him.”

Elsewhere in the men’s doubles opening round, Treat Conrad Huey of the Philippines and his British partner Dominic Inglot were beaten 4-6, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (8/6), 9-7 by the Israeli duo Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram.