Zverev overcomes bout of sickness to set up Halle Open semifinal with Medvedev

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Zverev overcomes bout of sickness to set up Halle Open semifinal with Medvedev

2025-06-21 04:55 Last Updated At：05:01

HALLE, Germany (AP) — Alexander Zverev recovered from feeling unwell in the first set to defeat Flavio Cobolli 6-4, 7-6 in the Halle Open tennis quarterfinals on Friday.

“I felt fine before the match and then out of nowhere I felt really, really bad and felt ill,” No.2 seed Zverev said. “I went to throw up and then 15 minutes later I felt okay again. So, I don’t know what it was. I’ve never experienced that before. Hopefully I will be fine the next couple of hours."

Zverev, who became the fifth player to reach five or more semifinals at the event after former champions Roger Federer, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Philipp Kohlschreiber and Tommy Haas, now faces one of his oldest rivals, Daniil Medvedev.

Medvedev knocked out Alex Michelsen 6-4, 6-3 to reach his third tour-level semifinal of the season.

“I think it’s the guy I've played the most in my career,” Zverev said. "Definitely he’s one of the toughest opponents in my career. It’s going to be a great match and I’m really looking forward to facing him.”

Alexander Bublik and Karen Khachanov will contest the other semi-final.

Bublik, who beat top-ranked Jannik Sinner in the second round, defeated Tomas Machac 7-6, 6-3 while Khachanov overcame Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-3, 6-2.

Hong Kong rings in 2026 without fireworks after deadliest blaze in decades

HONG KONG (AP) — Fireworks are typically a celebratory centerpiece of Hong Kong's New Year celebrations. Not this year.

The territory will ring in 2026 without spectacular and colorful explosions in the sky over its iconic Victoria Harbor after a massive fire in November that killed at least 161 people.

The city’s tourism board will instead host a music show Wednesday night featuring soft rock duo Air Supply and other singers in Central, a business district that also is home to the famous nightlife hub Lan Kwai Fong. The facades of eight landmarks will turn into giant countdown clocks presenting a three-minute light show at midnight.

Fireworks have long been part of the city’s celebrations for the New Year, Lunar New Year and National Day. The pyrotechnic displays against Hong Kong’s world-famous skyline of skyscrapers typically draw hundreds of thousands of people including many tourists to both sides of the promenade.

Rosanna Law, the territory's secretary for culture, sports and tourism, acknowledged Tuesday that having no fireworks would affect some hotel and restaurant businesses.

The financial hub’s worst blaze since 1948 broke out at Wang Fuk Court, in the northern suburban district of Tai Po, in late November. The apartment complex was undergoing a monthslong renovation project with buildings covered by bamboo scaffolding and green netting.

Authorities have pointed to the substandard netting and foam boards installed on windows as contributing factors in the fire’s rapid spread. Thousands of affected residents have moved to transitional homes, hotels and youth hostels, struggling to recover from the loss of lives and homes that took them years to buy. The casualties pained many residents across the city.

Past tragedies in Hong Kong have forced similar cancellations of fireworks. They include the 2013 National Day festivities following a vessel collision that killed 39 people on Oct. 1, 2012, and the 2018 Lunar New Year celebration after a bus crash that left 19 dead. During the 2019 anti-government protests and the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple displays also were scrapped.

The origin of fireworks is believed to date to China in the second century B.C., when someone discovered bamboo stalks exploded with loud bangs when thrown into fire, creating the first natural “firecrackers,” according to the American Pyrotechnics Association, a U.S. trade group.

The Guinness World Records organization says the first accurately documented firework, the Chinese firecracker, was created by Li Tian, a monk from China’s Tang dynasty dating to around 618 to 907 C.E. Li discovered that putting gunpowder in enclosed hollow bamboo stems created loud explosions and bound crackers together to create the traditional New Year firecrackers to drive out evil spirits, Guinness said.