David Nalbandian of Argentina and home hero Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will contest yesterday’s Paris Masters final with the winner grabbing the final spot in the Masters Cup in Shanghai later this month. Nalbandian, the defending champion here, defeated Nikolay Davydenko of Russia 6-1, 5-7, 6-4 in a topsy-turvy contest. Tsonga had too much power and panache for American James Blake winning at a canter 6-4, 6-3.
That result ended Blake’s Masters Cup hopes, made sure of qualification for seventh-ranked Juan Martin del Potro and means that the winner of yesterday’s final between Nalbandian and Tsonga will complete the eight-man line-up in China. The six others already qualified before Saturday were Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Davydenko, and Andy Roddick. Nalbandian’s win confirmed the fine vein of form that the eighth seed has struck as he gets ready for his ultimate goal, leading Argentina to their first Davis Cup title against Spain in Mar del Plata later this month.
The muscular South American took up where he left off on Friday in his outstanding quarter-final win against Andy Murray by peppering Davydenko off both flanks.
■BELL CHALLENGE
AFP, QUEBEC CITY, CANADA
American Bethanie Mattek spoiled Aleksandra Wozniak’s bid to become the first Canadian to reach the final of the WTA’s Bell Challenge on Saturday and booked her own first WTA Tour final berth in the bargain. Mattek, the sixth seed, defeated the fifth-seeded Canadian 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to reach the final of the US$175,000 Tier Three event.
The American faced a tough task in yesterday’s final, taking on top-seeded Russian Nadia Petrova. Petrova, a former world No. 3 now ranked 11th in the world, encountered little resistance in a 6-1, 6-3 victory over US lucky loser Angela Haynes.
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
Taiwan’s top table tennis player Lin Yun-ju made his debut in the US professional table tennis scene by taking on a new role as a team’s co-owner. On Wednesday, Major League Table Tennis (MLTT), founded in September last year, announced on its official Web site that Lin had become part of the ownership group of the Princeton Revolution, one of the league’s eight teams. MLTT chief executive officer Flint Lane described Lin’s investment as “another great milestone for table tennis in America,” saying that the league’s “commitment to growth and innovation is drawing attention from the best in the sport, and we’re
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
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