Crowd favorite Maria Sharapova overcame a second-set loss of form to beat Agnieszka Radwanska yesterday and set up a final against Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic in the Pan Pacific Open tennis tournament.
The Russian held her composure to storm back from 0-2 down in the final set to complete a 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 victory over the Pole.
Earlier in the day Jankovic overcame an injury scare to beat Li Na of China 6-4, 6-3.
“It’s going to be difficult,” Sharapova said of her meeting with Jankovic in the final.
Sharapova, ranked 25th in the world after her shoulder injury lay-off, suffered a mid-match slump as she overhit her power-packed strokes and lost all of her service games in the second set.
After Radwanska squared the match at one-set all, the Russian then found herself 0-2 down in the final set but persisted in attacking Radwanska’s second serve to earn return winners on a break point in the fourth and eighth games.
Despite dropping two match points in the ninth, Sharapova finished off the match with another return winner on her fifth match point.
Jankovic needed treatment on her right arm at the beginning of the fourth game at 1-2 down.
But the Serbian showed no ill-effects to hit two consecutive winners from the baseline and break back on a Li backhand error which went wide at 15-40 to tie the score 2-2.
Jankovic added another break in the eighth game and, although she needed to save one break point in the following game, calmly served out for the match watching Li’s backhand service return go long.
■MALAYSIAN OPEN
AFP, KUALA LUMPUR
Nikolay Davydenko brushed aside a challenge from Gael Monfils yesterday to reach the semi-finals of the Malaysian Open, setting up a clash with French Open finalist Robin Soderling.
Davydenko, the top seed beat the Frenchman 6-3, 6-3, with Monfils dropping his serve four times during the match.
Third seed Soderling continued his easy passage with a third consecutive victory in straight sets as he crushed Czech sixth seed Tomas Berdych 6-2, 6-2.
In the other quarter-finals Fernando Gonzalez beat Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 6-4 while Fernando Verdasco beat Richard Gasquet 7-5, 6-4.
■THAILAND OPEN
REUTERS, BANGKOK
Second seed Gilles Simon booked his place in the semi-finals of the Thailand Open after a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over hard-hitting Russian Evgeny Korolev yesterday.
Simon will meet Austrian Juergen Melzer in the semis after he overpowered Andreas Beck in a comfortable 6-4, 6-2 win.
Champagne corks often pop and loud, boisterous cheers are usually heard around Constitution Dock when the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race line honors winner finishes in the Tasmanian state capital. There were no such celebrations this year when the defending champions on board LawConnect won the race in the early hours of yesterday morning, as it came about 24 hours after two sailors died on separate boats in sail boom accidents two hours apart on a storm-ravaged first night of the race. LawConnect, a 100-foot super maxi skippered by Australian tech millionaire Christian Beck, sailed up the River Derwent at just after 2:30am.
Elena Rybakina’s Kazakhstan yesterday dumped defending champions Germany out of the United Cup with world No. 2 Alexander Zverev sidelined by an arm injury barely a week away from the Australian Open. The upset in Perth sent the Kazakhs into the semi-finals of the 18-nation tournament. In Sydney, women’s world No. 2 Iga Swiatek led Poland into the last eight by winning a rematch of her 2023 French Open final against Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic. Britain also progressed to the quarter-finals with Katie Boulter’s dominant 6-2, 6-1 victory over Australia’s Olivia Gadecki enough to guarantee they won their group. The US and
HAT-TRICK PREP: World No. 1 Sabalenka clinched her first win of the season, as she aims to become the first woman in 20 years to win three Australian Opens in succession Coco Gauff, Jasmine Paolini and Taylor Fritz yesterday all clocked impressive wins as tennis powerhouses Italy and the US surged into the quarter-finals of the mixed-team United Cup. World No. 3 Gauff swept past Croatia’s Donna Vekic 6-4, 6-2 to avenge a loss at the Paris Olympics, while Fritz took care of Borna Coric 6-3, 6-2 in searing Perth heat. That was enough to put the Americans — last year’s winners — into a last-eight clash with China today, while Elena Rybakina’s Kazakhstan today are to meet defending champions Germany, led by Alexander Zverev, in the other Perth quarter-final. In Sydney, the in-form
Chess great Magnus Carlsen on Friday quit the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships in New York after governing body FIDE barred the Norwegian from participating in a round at the tournament for wearing jeans. FIDE said in a statement that its dress code regulations were designed to “ensure professionalism and fairness for all participants.” It issued Carlsen a US$200 fine and gave him an opportunity to change into the correct attire, which the world No. 1 rejected, it said. Carlsen said he had a lunch meeting before the round and had to change quickly. “I put on a shirt, jacket and honestly like
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