British teenager Andy Murray battled into the semi-finals of the Qatar Open on Thursday with a 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Max Mirnyi of Belarus.
The fourth-seeded Murray looked at times as if he would not make it but came through to set up a meeting with top-seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko, who beat unseeded Belgian Olivier Rochus 6-4, 6-3.
The 19-year-old Murray, who had been suffering from a cold, was a set and a break of serve down against doubles specialist Mirnyi, before turning it dramatically round to secure the win.
Earlier, Ivan Ljubicic, the hard-serving Croatian who harbors ambitions of giving chase to Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal at the top of the world rankings, produced a wonderful escape to reach the final four.
Second seed Ljubicic was behind for most of the match and often on the defensive against Mikhail Youzhny, the fifth seed from Russia, yet somehow came away with a 2-6, 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/3) win.
The former world number three celebrated his success passionately, acutely aware that a further fall from his current ranking of five has become a worrying possibility.
"When I celebrated I was thinking about how hard I had to work to win," Ljubicic said, who next meets unseeded Swede Robin Soderling. "I think we played great tennis. He returned serve very well and was hitting a lot of balls back. I am really pleased because I won from the baseline."
Ljubicic will not play Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis as expected, but world number 25 Soderling, who won 6-3, 6-2.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later