World No. 1 Dinara Safina came from behind to win an epic contest with Venus Williams 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 on Friday and set up an all-Russian final at the Italian Open.
Safina rallied from a set and 2-0 down to earn the right to face her compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova, who barged past Belarussian Victoria Azarenka with a 6-2, 6-4 win.
The pair will meet in a final for the second week running after Kuznetsova beat Safina to capture the Stuttgart Grand Prix last Sunday and end a barren run stretching back to 2007.
PHOTO: AP
Despite the loss, the WTA said Williams would jump from fifth to third in world rankings next week, her highest position since 2003.
Kuznetsova initially found it easy to attack 19-year-old Azarenka’s serve and won the first set at a canter.
Azarenka began the second set by winning the first two games and was unlucky in the third, when Kuznetsova held a tough service game with the help of a bad call on the final point. She protested and the incident seemed to rattle her. Her seventh-seeded opponent took advantage to break back with a fine backhand cross court winner on the way to going 5-2 ahead.
The Belarussian threatened to come back, pulling up to 5-4 before the former US Open champion broke again to clinch the match.
■ESTORIL OPEN
AFP, ESTORIL, PORTUGAL
Surprising James Blake secured his best career showing in European red clay on Friday, riding a second-set surge for a 6-4, 6-1 quarter-final defeat of Florent Serra at the Estoril Open.
The 29-year-old American has never been past the quarters on the surface in Europe, losing twice at that stage in Rome (2002 and last year).
But new-found confidence on the surface propelled him into a showdown set for yesterday with 2003 champion Nikolay Davydenko, who defeated American Mardy Fish 6-4, 6-3.
French top-seeded wild card Gilles Simon was toppled in a marathon lasting a shade less than three hours, going down to Spanish No. 7 Alberto Montanes 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (7/4).
The Spaniard will play for a place in the final against South American Paul Capdeville, who put out Spain’s Oscar Hernandez 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. Simon is trying to rediscover the feeling of last year, which lifted him from No. 33 in the spring to a Top 10 finish at the end of last season. The No. 8 has yet to lift a title this year but hopes to continue gathering his forces for the French Open starting on May 24.
Women were set to contest a low-profile final yesterday as Russian Ekaterina Makarova faced Belgian Yanina Wickmayer.
Makarova beat German Anna-Lena Groenefeld 6-3, 6-1 while Wickmayer needed just 13 minutes as seventh-seed Shahar Peer quit with a foot injury.
■SERBIA OPEN
REUTERS, BELGRADE
World No. 3 Novak Djokovic beat compatriot Viktor Troicki 6-3, 6-2 on Friday to set up a semi-final against Italian Andreas Seppi at the inaugural Serbia Open.
Djokovic dominated the all-Serb clash, which started 40 minutes late because of a floodlight failure, to avenge defeat in his only previous meeting with Troicki in the Croatian resort of Umag in 2007.
“I am delighted a capacity 7,900 crowd turned up for our match and I hope they will come back for the remainder of the tournament,” Djokovic said in a courtside interview.
Fourth-seed Seppi progressed with a 6-4, 7-5 triumph over Marcos Daniel of Brazil.
“Lucky loser” Lukasz Kubot of Poland will meet Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic in the other semi.
Kubot, allowed into the tournament when Belgian Steve Darcis pulled out with a shoulder injury, beat Darcis’s compatriot Kristof Vliegen 7-6, 6-3.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
RSS