The sunshine finally appeared over Wimbledon and shone most brightly on Lorenzo Musetti on Wednesday as he continued a magnificent fortnight for Italian tennis by reaching his first Grand Slam semi-final with victory over Taylor Fritz.
However, the injury curse that has blighted this year’s tournament struck again as Alex De Minaur was forced to withdraw before his quarter-final against Novak Djokovic.
The Australian’s despair was also bad news for Centre Court ticket holders who were left with only 61 minutes of singles action to digest — the time it took women’s fourth seed Elena Rybakina to beat Elina Svitolina’s 6-3, 6-2.
Photo: AFP
Big-serving Rybakina, the 2022 champion and favorite to lift the trophy for the second time, was to face Barbora Krejcikova in yesterday’s semi-finals after she beat Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko 6-4, 7-6 (4) in a battle of former French Open champions.
The other women’s semi-final was between Italian seventh seed Jasmine Paolini and Croatian Donna Vekic.
The 22-year-old Musetti initially looked like being overpowered by US big-hitter Fritz, but produced a sublime display of silky all-court tennis to beat the 13th seed 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 and set up a clash with Djokovic.
Photo: Reuters
It is only the second time in history that an Italian man and woman have reached the semi-finals at a Grand Slam, the first coming last month when Paolini and Jannik Sinner reached the last four at the French Open.
“I don’t realize yet what I’ve done. First of all I want to thank all the Italian crowd who are here to support us,” the 25th seed Musetti said.
“We were joking about trying to play to the big stage at Wimbledon. I’ve never tried Court One and Centre Court. I played a fantastic match, because Taylor was in great shape,” he said.
While Musetti was making hay in the sunshine, seven-time champion Djokovic was left redundant after De Minaur was forced out with a hip injury he had late on his match against Frenchman Arthur Fils on Monday.
“I’m devastated to pull out due to a hip injury, a little tear of the fibre cartilage that is at the end of or connects to the adductor,” ninth seed De Minaur told reporters.
“I felt a loud crack during the last three points of my match against Fils and got a scan yesterday, and it confirmed this was the injury and with high risk of making it worse if I was to step on court,” he added.
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Belgium’s Elise Mertens qualified for women’s doubles semi-finals after beating the US’ Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula 6-2, 6-1. The duo are to play against the Czech Republic’s Katerina Siniakova and the US’ Taylor Townsend today.
Hsieh and Poland’s Jan Zielinski in mixed doubles beat Britain’s Heather Watson and Joe Salisbury 7-6 (4), 6-4 to reach quarter-finals. At press time last night, they were to face Townsend and Britain’s Jamie Murray.
Taiwan kept their hopes of advancing to next year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC) alive with a 9-1 victory over South Africa in a qualifier at the Taipei Dome on Saturday, backed by solid pitching. Taiwan last night played against Nicaragua. As of press time, Nicaragua was leading 6-0. Bouncing back from Friday’s struggles on the mound, when Taiwanese pitchers surrendered 15 runs to Spain, Team Taiwan on Saturday kept the visiting team in check, allowing just one run in the bottom of the fourth inning. Starting pitcher Sha Tzu-chen struck out one and allowed no hits, except for a hit-by-pitch over
Taiwan kept its hopes of advancing to the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) alive with a 9-1 victory over South Africa in a qualifier at the Taipei Dome last night, backed by solid pitching. Bouncing back from Friday’s struggles on the mound, when Taiwanese pitchers surrendered 15 runs to Spain, Team Taiwan kept the visiting team in check, allowing just one run in the bottom of the fourth inning. The win was crucial for Taiwan, as a loss would have eliminated the team from contention for the next WBC. Starting pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸) struck out one and allowed no hits, except for
Team Taiwan are set to face Spain in a win-or-go-home match tonight for the final berth at the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC), despite losing to Nicaragua 6-0 in the WBC qualifier at the Taipei Dome on Sunday. The home team’s loss on Sunday means Nicaragua finish first in the qualifier round in Taipei with a perfect 3-0 record and advances to next year’s finals. After crushing South Africa 9-1 earlier on Sunday, Spain took second place in the four-team qualifier with a 2-1 record. With a 1-2 record, Taiwan finished third while South Africa placed at the bottom with
Team Taiwan avoided missing the World Baseball Classic (WBC) for the first time by defeating Spain 6-3 in a do-or-die game in Taipei last night. After narrowly escaping a mercy-rule loss to Spain in the WBC Qualifiers opener on Friday last week, the home team — winner of last year's WBSC Premier12 title three months ago — got their revenge against the 2023 European champions at Taipei Dome. "It felt quite different from when we won the Premier12," Taiwan captain Chen Chieh-hsien (陳傑憲) said after the game, recalling the ups and downs the team has experienced over the past few days. Unlike in
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