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BEIJING — Top seeds Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka both breezed into the next round of the China Open with routine victories on Sunday.

Alcaraz sealed a place in the men’s quarter-finals with a smooth 6-2, 6-2 victory over Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti in Beijing.

The World No.2 overpowered his opponent and seized the first set when Musetti whacked a baseline backhand into the net.

The Spaniard then broke serve twice in the second set and saw out a comfortable match with an unreturned serve.

He will next face Casper Ruud after the world number nine came back to beat Argentina’s Tomas Etcheverry 1-6, 7-5, 7-6 (9-7).

“I feel great, honestly. It was a good performance against a really tough opponent,” Alcaraz said at a post-match press briefing.

“[My level] didn’t [go] up and down. I stayed at a high level, high quality, during the whole match,” the 20-year-old said.

A sticking point in the tournament’s early rounds has been the match balls, which Alcaraz’s main challenger Daniil Medvedev described on Saturday as “like a grapefruit”.

Alcaraz said on Sunday he had also felt the distinct quality of the balls — allegedly quick to fluff up — “since day one”.

“It’s something tough, but tennis players have to get used to the balls in every tournament,” he said in response to a question from AFP.

“Here, in just one or two games, the balls become really different from [when they’re] new. It’s a kind of different [style of] play,” he said.

Also on Sunday, world number seven Jannik Sinner obliterated Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka 6-2, 6-0.

The Italian will play a quarter-final against either fourth-ranked Holger Rune or Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov, who play each other on Sunday evening.

Earlier, World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka sailed into the second round of the women’s draw with an imperious 6-1, 6-2 defeat of American Sofia Kenin.

The Belarusian pummelled Kenin with a succession of mighty serves and ground strokes and wrapped up the opening set with an ace after just 23 minutes.

The 25-year-old broke serve twice more in the second set as Kenin — playing with heavy strapping on her left thigh — failed to muster a response.

Sabalenka sealed the match with yet another unreturned serve to set up a tie against either Magdalena Frech or Katie Boulter in the next round.

“Honestly, I didn’t expect to play that good on my serve — in practice, it didn’t work very well,” Sabalenka said at a post-match briefing.

“But I was super hyped that I was able to bring that level on my serve today. I think it helped a lot,” she said.

“I think that was the key of today’s match.”

The China Open is taking place for the first time since 2019 after Beijing ended its isolationist zero-COVID policies.

All of the eight top-ranked men are taking part except tennis legend Novak Djokovic, while all of the women’s top eight are in action.

HANGZHOU, China23 — North Korea thrashed South Korea 4-1 in women’s football while India battle Pakistan in hockey later Saturday as fierce rivalries took centre stage at the Asian Games.

The men’s and women’s 100m sprint titles will also be contested on the athletics track in Hangzhou, where rain fell on and off throughout the day.

With the Games approaching their halfway point, hosts China have raked in 108 gold medals, far ahead of the rest, with Zhang Zhizhen doing his part on Saturday by winning the men’s tennis crown.

North Korea, back in major international competition for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, clinched a fourth gold of the Games when Ri Song Gum set a world record in the women’s weightlifting 49kg class.

She lifted a combined 216kg (92kg snatch, 124kg clean and jerk), 1 kilo greater than the previous mark, held by China’s world champion Jiang Huihua.

Ri jumped with joy and punched the air in celebration, then was emotional on the podium.

There were more beaming North Korean smiles soon after when they soundly beat the South in a feisty encounter in the women’s football quarter-finals.

South Korea, led by the English coach Colin Bell, included players who featured at the recent Women’s World Cup, where they went out in the group phase.

The neighbours, who are still technically at war, were locked at 1-1 when South Korea forward Son Hwa-yeon was sent off for a second yellow card close to half time.

North Korea made the most of their numerical advantage to score three times in the second period for an ultimately comfortable victory, their players celebrating wildly at the full-time whistle.

They play Uzbekistan in the semifinals.

Unfriendly neighbours 

In tennis, 60th-ranked Zhang made a slow start and fell 4-1 behind in the first set of his final against Japan’s Yosuke Watanuki.

But with the home crowd roaring him on, the 26-year-old from Shanghai battled back to win 6-4, 7-6 (9/7) and become the first Chinese men’s singles tennis champion at the Games since 1994.

“It’s been a very, very tough week, not just this match, but very tough for the whole week actually, from the first match onwards,” said Zhang.

“But I’m super-happy that from the beginning of the first match, step by step, I’ve played better and better tennis.”

Rising Chinese star Zheng Qinwen won the women’s singles title on Friday for a home double.

Another title winner in the tennis on Saturday was India’s Rohan Bopanna, the 43-year-old former Grand Slam mixed doubles champion.

He and Rutuja Bhosale roared back to defeat Taiwan’s Liang En-shuo and Huang Tsung-hao after a super-tiebreak, 2-6, 6-3, 10-4, for mixed doubles gold.

Asked how he would celebrate, Bopanna said: “I’m going to watch the India-Pakistan hockey match.

“I can’t think of a better moment to go support India.”

Arch-rivals Pakistan and India face off in a men’s hockey group match in what is sure to be a fierce encounter between more neighbours with fraught ties.

India already got one over Pakistan on Saturday, defeating them 2-1 in the final of the men’s team squash competition.

Other gold medals will be won on Saturday in sports including diving, shooting, table tennis and eSports.

Diving is expected to be dominated by the home nation’s world-class squad.

The drizzle could be a factor in the outdoor sports.

As well as the 100m titles, five other golds will be snapped up on the second day of track and field.

EJ Obiena of the Philippines, the world number two, will be hot favourite to clinch a first Asian Games gold of his career in the pole vault.

AMMAN — Jordan has so far secured three medals — all in taekwondo — as the 19th Asian Games currently under way in Hangzhou, Chinauntil October 8.

Saleh Sharabati (U80kg) and Zaid Mustafa (U68kg) secured silver, while Zaid Halawai (U63kg) won bronze earlier.

Sharabati, the Tokyo Olympics silver medalist, now ranked 3rd in the world is eyeing the  Paris Olympics 2024.

Athletes who were expected to play for medals were eliminated including Jordan’s 2018 Asian Games gold medalist taekwondo’s Juliana Al Sadiq, who won silver at the 2023 World Championship, and boxing’s Mohammad Abu Jajeh who won bronze at the 2023 IBA World Boxing Championships as well as Pan-Arab Games champ Ziyad Esheish , who was eliminated on Thursday.

Jordan’s Hanan Nassar won her first bout and became the first Jordanian woman to participate in boxing at the Asian Games which have brought together 12,000 athletes from 45 countries. The Kingdom’s  delegation includes 79 athletes competing in  15 sports: archery, athletics, badminton, basketball, boxing, fencing, golf, gymnastics, ju-jitsu, karate, shooting, taekwondo, weightlifting, triathlon and e-games.

Another athlete eliminated early was gymnastics star Ahmad Abu Saoud on the pommel horse. Back from injury, he made a name for himself and country when he won  silver at the 2022 World Artistic Gymnastics Championship in Liverpool, becoming the first Arab to win a medal in the event. He won the gold at the Asian Championship in 2019 and 2022 and silver in 2023. 

On the other hand, the men’s basketball team scored their second win beating Bahrain 84-60 after and earlier win over Thailand 97-63 in Group C. They will next play the Philippines on September 30 for a spot in the quarterfinals.

Jordan’s best finish at the Asian Games was 4th in 1986 and 2006.

In the continental championship - the FIBA Asia Cup (previously FIBA Asia Championship) – Jordan has qualified16 times, with the best showing runner-up in 2011, third in 2009 and fourth in 2022 after they reached the semis for the second time. 

The squad just played their third World Cup after previously reaching the world’s premier event in 2010, 2019 with basketballbeing the only Jordanian team to reach a World Cup in a team sport alongside the junior men’s team in 1995.

Since first competing in 1986, it is Jordan’s 9th time at the Asian Games where out of 45 medals won by Jordan (5 gold, 16 silver and 24 bronze), 38 have been secured through martial arts (24 in taekwondo, 9 in karate, 5 in ju-jitsu( in addition to 4 in boxing.

Jordan won its first gold at the 2006 Doha Games by taekwondo fighter Mohammed Al Bakhit andin 1998, Alaa Kotkot became the first Jordanian woman to win a medal- a silver  in taekwondo.

So far, Arab countries on the medals table are led by the UAE (6), Qatar (4), Kuwait and Jordan(3),  Oman, Iraq and Lebanon (1).

HANGZHOU, China — A rampant Nepal rewrote the T20 international cricket record books at the Asian Games on Wednesday while China's Zhang Yufei lay down another marker for the Paris Olympics in the swimming pool.

India, meanwhile, enjoyed more success in shooting, winning two golds on the fourth full day of competition in Hangzhou, with Sift Kaur Samra breaking the world record in the women's 50m rifle three positions.

Nepal smashed a series of records on the opening day of the men's cricket competition in a 273-run thumping of bewildered part-timers Mongolia.

Nepal bludgeoned 314-3 in their 20 overs, beating the previous highest T20 men's international innings of 278-3 by Afghanistan against Ireland in 2019.

Teenager Kushal Malla, batting number three, spearheaded the onslaught by crashing the fastest T20 international century off 34 balls.

Among the other records they racked up, Dipendra Singh Airee hit a scarcely believable eight sixes in an unbeaten 52 off 10 balls.

The powerful 23-year-old raced to his fifty off nine balls, another T20 world record and one that should stand in perpetuity because it is mathematically impossible to reach the landmark any quicker.

Nepal's 26 sixes in the innings was also the best ever.

Mongolia, whose women's team were bowled out for just 15 at the Asian Games last week, were dismissed for only 41 in 13.1 overs.

Much sterner tests await for Nepal, with India and Pakistan both in the draw.

Golds are on offer in 14 sports on Wednesday, among them artistic gymnastics, track cycling, eSports, fencing, judo, sailing and skateboarding.

Seven golds will be won later in the day in swimming, one of the most prestigious events at the Games and boasting some of the best swimmers in the world.

There is added intrigue with the 2024 Paris Olympics coming up fast, less than 10 months away.

The hosts have been particularly impressive, topping the podium in 15 of the 20 races at the halfway mark of the six-day swimming event.

Zhang roared into the 100m butterfly final on Wednesday morning with the year's third-fastest time — she also owns the fastest — bolstering her case as hot favourite at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The 25-year-old, who has already claimed the 200m fly title in Hangzhou to go with her Olympic gold, surged to the wall in a Games-record 56.20sec.

A 100m butterfly silver medallist at the Tokyo Olympics two years ago, behind Maggie Mac Neil, Zhang turned the tables at the world championships in July by edging the Canadian to win gold.

Rikako Ikee, the standout performer at the last Asian Games, where she won six golds, qualified in seventh.

The Japanese swimmer, who was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2019, skipped the 100m freestyle on Tuesday with a cold.

Ma Long bows out 

In other sports, table tennis legend Ma Long said he had almost certainly made his last Asian Games appearance after helping the hosts to men's team gold.

The five-time Olympic champion had the perfect finale as his straight-games victory over South Korea's Park Gang-hyeon clinched gold for China and the sixth Asian Games title of his storied career.

The 34-year-old said he would not be competing in the individual events in Hangzhou.

"I will continue to maintain a certain amount of training, but it is different than before and this could well be my last edition of the Asian Games," he said.

Asked about the prospect of defending his Olympic title, Ma said: "Paris is still too early to say for me."

China lead the overall medals table in Hangzhou with 63 golds, far ahead of South Korea (15) and Japan (nine).

HANGZHOU — Olympic and world silver medallist Siobhan Haughey breezed into the Asian Games 100m freestyle final on Tuesday as she looks to back up her dominant 200m swim, but Japan’s Rikako Ikee was a no-show.

Hong Kong’s Haughey was exceptional in beating the pack by nearly two seconds en route to 200m gold on Monday in Hangzhou, shattering an Asian Games record that had stood since 2010.

She topped the timesheets into Tuesday night’s final in 54.27secs, ahead of China’s Yang Junxuan and Kayla Sanchez of the Philippines.

Haughey will be looking to better her own Asian record of 52.27 in the final, set when she came second to Australian superstar Emma McKeon at the Tokyo Olympics.

She swam 52.49 at the worlds in July to finish runner-up to Australian Mollie O’Callaghan.

But Asian Games defending champion Ikee will not be challenging her.

The Japanese swimmer had been scheduled to race but the standout performer at the last Asian Games, where she won six golds, failed to start.

She was part of the Japan team that finished a distant second to China in the 4x100m freestyle relay on Sunday, but said afterwards she had a cough and runny nose.

“I feel like I have to be smart and manage what I have in the tank right now,” she told reporters then. “I don’t think it’s going to do me any good by forcing myself out there.”

Ikee is also scheduled to race the 50m freestyle and 50 and 100 butterfly.

She was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2019, soon after her Asian Games heroics.

She returned to take part at the pandemic-delayed 2021 Tokyo Olympics in the relays but has struggled in individual races since.

Like Haughey, China’s Wang Shun is aiming to bag a double after his stunning swim in the 200 medley.

The Olympic champion’s 1:54.62 not only shredded the Asian record but made him the third-fastest man in history behind only the legendary Michael Phelps and fellow American Ryan Lochte.

But he will have a fight on his hands in the 400 medley against three-time world champion Daiya Seto of Japan.

Asia defending champion Seto, who won the world title in 2013, 2015 and 2019, topped their heat in 4:19.69, but Wang was lurking a second behind.

Chinese world bronze medalist Peng Xuwei clocked 2:09.67 in the women’s 200m backstroke heats as she looks to better her third place-finish at the last Asiad. Defending champion Liu Yaxin was fourth fastest.

Li Bingjie, who has already bagged 1500m gold and 200m silver, posted 4:13.10 in the women’s 400m freestyle heats as she aims to claim a title she narrowly missed in 2018.

China have won 11 of the 14 swimming titles so far.

VANCOUVER — Team World won a second straight Laver Cup title on Sunday as Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe sealed a 13-2 victory over Team Europe with a 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/5) doubles win over Hubert Hurkacz and Andrey Rublev.

Team World captain John McEnroe, who had endured four straight defeats in the event that began in 2017 before seeing his side rally for victory in London last year, was thrilled to celebrate a dominant triumph that began with a four-match sweep on Friday.

"It felt unbelievable to kick their ass, baby!" McEnroe crowed. "They kicked ours many times, OK. It was a battle to the end when we won last year."

This time around, with a blend of youth and experience, McEnroe said he "felt it from the word go" against a Team Europe side that was without fourth-ranked Holger Rune of Denmark and world number five Stefano Tsitsipas of Greece, who both withdrew from captain Bjorn Borg's side with injuries.

That left sixth-ranked Rublev and Norway's ninth-ranked Casper Ruud as Europe's top players.

Ruud nabbed the visitors' only points of the three-day event with his victory over Tommy Paul on Saturday.

Europe was unable to build on that win, with Tiafoe downing Hurkacz in singles on Saturday night before Felix Auger-Aliassime and Shelton teamed up to beat Hurkacz and Gael Monfils in doubles and put Team World one win away from victory heading into the final day.

"We stepped up, and I thought all the guys played great," said McEnroe, who also had singles wins from Americans Shelton and Taylor Fritz, Canada's Auger-Aliassime and Argentina's Francisco Cerundolo.

Every World Team player contributed at least a point, with Paul gaining a win alongside Tiafoe in doubles on Friday.

"This was like a special year for us," McEnroe said. "I know they're going to come back strong, but I'll take two in a row any day. And I'm starting to think is it possible three in a row, Team World?"

Auger-Aliassime, who had two key wins on the final day as Team World rallied for victory last year, was thrilled to lift the trophy in front of his home fans in Canada.

"Amazing to win on home soil with the crowd behind us," he said.

Shelton, the 20-year-old whose stunning run to the US Open semifinals saw him rise to 19th in the world, relished the team tournament environment and the chance to soak up some wisdom from McEnroe.

"Team World really brought the energy this week," Shelton said. "It's easy for me to play when I'm amped up and hyped and the bench has done a great job of hyping me up all week."

He and Tiafoe triumphed in a high-octane doubles finale marked by exciting, lightning-quick rallies.

Shelton and Tiafoe won 40 of their 48 first-serve points, but trailed in both tiebreakers before pulling off a bravura finish in each.

They were down 5-4 in the second-set decider but won the last three points to spark wild celebrations on the Team World bench.

"Being a part of it last year and clinching it last year was so emotional, first time," Tiafoe said. "John [McEnroe] was super excited. Now, being able to do it again in doubles with Ben, was a lot of fun."

AMMAN — The national basketball team plays Thailand on Tuesday at the 19thAsian Games, which opened September 23 and will run until October 8 in Hangzhou, China.

Playing in Group C, Jordan will meet Bahrain on September 28 before facing the Philippines on September 30 in Round 1.  Jordan’s best finish at the Asian Games was 4th in 1986 and 2006.

Jordan just played their third World Cup after previously reaching the premier event in 2010, 2019 with the squad being the only Jordanian team to reach a World Cup in a team sport alongside the junior men’s team in 1995. 

Among the Kingdom’s regional achievement, Jordan has reached the FIBA Asia Cup (previously FIBA Asia Championship) 16 times, with the best showing runner-up in 2011, third in 2009 and fourth in 2022 after they reached the semis for the second time.  For the FIBA Asia Cup 2025, Jordan was drawn to play Group D qualifiers alongside Iraq, Palestine and Saudi Arabia.  

HRH Prince Faisali Bin Al Hussein attended the opening ceremony of the Games as Jordan joined 12,000 athletes from 45 countries at the Games which run until October 8. The Kingdom’s  delegation includes 79 athletes competing in  15 sports: archery, athletics, badminton, basketball, boxing, fencing, golf, gymnastics, ju-jitsu, karate, shooting, taekwondo, weightlifting, triathlon and e-games.

Athletes to watch are Jordan’s 2018 Asian Games gold medalist taekwondo’s Juliana Al Sadiq, who won silver at the 2023 World Championship, boxing’s Mohammad Abu Jajeh who won bronze at the 2023 IBA World Boxing Championships as well asTokyo Olympics silver medalist taekwondo’s Saleh Sharabati, now ranked 3rd in the world and close to advancing to the Paris Olympics 2024.

AMMAN — Jordan’s U-16 men’s basketball team returns home after finishing 8th at the 7th FIBA U16 Asian Championshipin Qatar after losing to the hosts 97-85.

The squad had an impressive run in the Round 1 beating Bahrain 85-44, losing to New Zealand 119-45 and overcoming South Korea 62-59. They finished second in Group C and moved to Round 2 where they beat Malaysia 70-64 to advance to the quarters against Australia.

That was a tough one for the Kingdom as they lost 117-50 and moved for classification 5-8th place matches where Jordan lost 72-58 to Japan and settled for the 7-8th spot play-off match which they lost to Qatar who finished 7th.

The top four teams qualifiedto the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup set for Turkey in 2024.

The semis saw Australia beat the Philippines while New Zealand beat China and moved to the final. Australia edged New Zealand 79-76 to win the title as China finished third and the Philippines fourth. Japan was fifth and Iran sixth.

This summer, the senior women’s squad finished fourth at the Women’s FIBA Asia Cup Division B. It was the third time for Jordan at the event, after they played in 1995 and 2021.

The Kingdom’s U-16 women’s basketball team finish 5th at the  FIBA U16 Women's Asian Championship as Jordan hosted Divisions A &B.  It was their third time at the event. Last year, Jordan settled for 8th place while in 2013 they finished 11th. 

In the FIBA U-18 Women's Asian Championship, Jordan settled for 6th place at the latest edition in 2022. Jordan finished 8th in 1996, hosted the event in 2014 finishing 11th.