Leading seeds Andy Murray and Marcos Baghdatis won in straight sets while defending champion Gilles Simon lost in the Open 13 quarter-finals on Friday.
Fourth-seeded Murray edged Nicolas Mahut of France 7-5, 7-6 (5), and was due to take on Paul-Henri Mathieu who overpowered Simon 6-3, 6-4 in an all-French match.
Sixth-seeded Baghdatis beat third-seeded Mikhail Youzhny 7-6 (2), 6-3 for a semi-final with Mario Ancic of Croatia, who outlasted Robin Soderling of Sweden 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-2.
PHOTO: AFP
Mahut double-faulted at 6-5, 30-30 and conceded the first set to Murray on a long backhand volley.
The Frenchman's mistakes also ended the match. Mahut hit an easy forehand volley out at 5-5 in the tiebreaker to hand Murray his third match point, and the Scot took it on another unforced error.
"In the tiebreaker, I had an easy volley but I missed it. I'm very disappointed," Mahut told Sport Plus television.
Simon upset Australian Open winner Novak Djokovic in the previous round but he fell to 0-3 against Mathieu, who finished off Simon with his eighth ace.
"I played well on the most important points," Mathieu told Sport Plus. "I was a bit tense because I was facing a Frenchman."
Cypriot Baghdatis led Youzhny 4-1 in the tiebreaker and cruised. In the second set the 22 year-old from Limassol broke for 3-2 and served out, beating the Russian in the Marseille quarter-finals for a second straight year.
Ancic cracked 25 aces, including on match point, to oust 2004 runner-up Soderling.
After falling out of the top l0 last year while fighting a seasonlong battle with mononucleosis and a shoulder injury, Ancic is into his first semi-finals since he won at St Petersburg, Russia in October 2006.
This is his first tournament of the year after a stomach illness.
Marloon Herrera was crying — happy tears. With Cuba trailing in the fifth inning of its Little League World Series (LLWS) opener on Thursday, Herrera lined a two-run double to give his team the lead. When the Czech Republic, representing Europe-Africa, made a pitching change, he ran over to give his third base coach a hug. Cuba went on to win 4-1. It was the first game at this year’s tournament for both sides, but it was also the beginning of Cuba’s second appearance in the series ever — and it was emotional. “You breathe baseball in Cuba,” manager Everaldo Machado said on
Taiwan on Friday beat Australia 11-0 at the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Taiwan are represented at the tournament by Taoyuan’s Gueishan Elementary School, who won the Asia-Pacific regional tournament to earn the trip to the US. Australia are represented by the Hills Red team from Sydney. Taiwan advanced to a game tomorrow against Santa Clara, representing Cuba, who won 4-1 against the Czech Republic’s Brno, the Europe-Africa regional qualifiers. Australian starter Sayre Howick had a tough time controlling his pitches at Volunteer Stadium, one of which allowed Taiwan to open their account. They scored six in the inning and
World Boxing, an international amateur boxing organization formed last year after a breakdown in relations between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Boxing Association (IBA), has announced the admission of Taiwan, along with four other nations, into its growing list of members. In a statement released on its Web site on Friday, the Swiss- based organization said that in addition to Taiwan, admitted as Chinese Taipei, Bhutan, Ecuador, Fiji and Pakistan have also become members. The new members all have well-rounded national and international boxing programs as well as transparency in the leadership and management of their national boxing programs,
COOLED DOWN: Du Plessis apologized after the fight for comments about his Nigerian-born opponent, after Adesanya said he planned to take the belt back to Africa South African Dricus du Plessis yesterday took a flurry of body hits across four rounds before defeating Israel Adesanya by submission to retain his middleweight championship at UFC 305. After scoring some early takedowns, Du Plessis (22-2) had to withstand a flurry of body strikes from Adesanya through the middle rounds, which appeared to be taking a toll on the 30-year-old South African as the fight progressed. However, a left hook followed by three rights helped bring Adesanya down, giving Du Plessis the opening he wanted as he swiftly got the choke hold that forced the Nigerian-born New Zealander to tap out