Tommy Haas of Germany rallied to beat defending champion Marcel Granollers of Spain 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 on Thursday in the second round of the US Men’s Clay Court Championships.
Granollers’ loss left the tournament without a seeded player in the quarter-finals, which hadn’t happened in the clay court tournament since pro tennis went to the open era in 1968.
Earlier, Evgeny Korolev of Russia fought through rough wind and a comeback try by Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain for a 6-3, 7-6 (4) victory in the second round.
PHOTO: AP
Bjorn Phau of Germany, who eliminated second-seeded Mardy Fish in the first round, also needed a tiebreaker to beat Scoville Jenkins of the US 6-4, 7-6 (2) in another second-round match.
Guillermo Canas of Argentina defeated American Taylor Dent 6-2, 6-2 to grab the final quarter-final spot in the last match of the evening.
■ANDALUCIA CHAMPIONSHIPS
REUTERS, MADRID
World No. 4 Jelena Jankovic eased into the quarter-finals of the Andalucia Tennis Championships with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Tunisia’s Selima Sfar on Thursday.
The Serbian second seed, by far the highest-ranked player left in the tournament after Wednesday’s shock exit of world No. 1 Serena Williams, converted five of her 11 break points on the clay in Marbella and was broken just once.
■MPS GROUP CHAMPIONSHIPS
AP, PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA
Second-seeded Caroline Wozniacki moved into the quarter-finals of The MPS Group Championships by beating France’s Virginie Razzano 6-3, 7-5 on Thursday.
Wozniacki’s sixth quarter-final in seven tournaments this year will be against Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova, who beat No. 8 Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the US 6-3, 7-5 in the late match.
Fifth-seeded Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada fought off Germany’s Sabine Lisicki to win 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4 and claim consecutive matches for the first time this year. Next up will be Austria’s Tamira Paszek, who reached her first tour quarter-finals since September with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over Varvara Lepchenko of the US, who replaced a fatigued Jelena Dokic in the draw.
The top-seeded doubles team of American Lisa Raymond and Kveta Peschke will meet Wozniacki and Strycova in the semis after beating American Carly Gullickson and Taiwan’s Chan Chin-wei 6-0, 7-5.
The second-seeds, China’s Peng Shuai and Yan Zi lost to American Angela Haynes and Liga Dekmeijere 7-6 (3), 6-4.
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Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju became the youngest chess world champion on Thursday after beating the defending champion Ding Liren of China in the final match of their series in Singapore. Dommaraju, 18, secured 7.5 points against 6.5 of his Chinese rival in the contest, surpassing the achievement of Russia’s Garry Kasparov, who won the title at the age of 22. The Indian teen prodigy has long been considered a rising star in the chess world after he became a chess grandmaster at 12. He had entered the match as the youngest-ever challenger to the world crown after winning the Candidates tournament earlier
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