Albert Montanes upset top-seeded Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia 7-6 (5), 6-3 on Friday to reach the semi-finals at the Grand Prix Hassan II and stay on course for his first career title.
The Spaniard, who has lost in three career ATP finals, next plays compatriot Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo.
Ramirez Hidalgo outlasted France's Sebastien Grosjean 1-6, 7-5, 7-6 (3) and is now one win away from his first singles final.
Also, Paul-Henri Mathieu upset second-seeded Jose Acasuso 7-6 (5),6-4.
The eighth-seeded Frenchman broke Acasuso four times in the match. He won 61 percent of second-serve points compared to 42 percent for his Argentine opponent.
Mathieu will next play fifth-seeded Marc Gicquel of France, who rallied to beat No. 3 Julien Benneteau 3-6, 6-1, 6-1.
Dulko reaches semis
Sixth-seeded Gisela Dulko of Argentina defeated Olga Savchuk of Ukraine 6-3, 6-4 on Friday to advance to the semi-finals of the Gaz de France Budapest Grand Prix.
Dulko, the only seeded player remaining in the tournament, was due to face Agnes Szavay of Hungary yesterday.
Szavay advanced after fourth-seeded Emilie Loit of France withdrew from the quarter-final match with gastrointestinal problems.
Sorana Cirstea of Romania and Karin Knapp of Italy meet in the other semi-final.
Cirstea, who had to qualify for the main draw and is only ranked 10 in Romania and 325 in the world, upset fifth-seeded Eleni Daniilidou of Greece 2-6, 6-1, 6-4.
The Romanian took a 2-0 lead in the final set but Daniilidou fought back to 3-3, before another service break by Cirstea decided the match.
In the last match of the day, Knapp downed Luxembourg's top player, Anne Kremer, in straight sets, 6-2, 6-1.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with