Nikolay Davydenko struggled for nearly three hours to finally subdue fellow Russian Igor Andreev, posting a 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 win into the semi-finals of the Monte Carlo Masters yesterday.
The first major event of the clay season has strictly followed the formbook, with the top six seeds through to the quarters for the first time at the Masters level since 1999 in Cincinnati.
Davydenko, seeded fourth and a finalist last weekend in Estoril against Roger Federer, becomes the first Russian to reach the Monte Carlo last eight since Marat Safin in 2004.
Davydenko didn’t make things easy on himself in the error-strewn struggle, committing 61 unforced errors.
The Russian produced 23 winners and converted on nine of his 19 break point chances against Andreev, playing the quarters in the principality for the first time.
Roger Federer got back into his old routine with a 6-3, 6-4 defeat of Gael Monfils to reach the quarter-finals on Thursday.
The Swiss top seed, who was two points from an embarrassing defeat against Spanish qualifier Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo on Wednesday, sealed a straightforward victory in 71 minutes.
Third seed Novak Djokovic ended Andy Murray’s hopes with a 6-0, 6-4 thrashing of the Briton while Sam Querrey beat Richard Gasquet 2-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Federer was happy with his performance, a day after feeling the heat against the world’s No. 137.
“I think it definitely was a good, tough match from my side. I think Gael is a good player,” Federer said.
“You know, up and coming. I think he gives you a chance to play aggressive because he doesn’t like to do the game himself,” he said. “It allows you to potentially make a lot of mistakes.”
Murray, seeded 14th, was nowhere to be seen in the first set but fought back in the second, only to serve successive double faults in the last game.
“The second set was obviously a bit better. I had quite a few chances but I probably hit about three or four winners and about 25, 30 unforced errors so it’s not good enough against a player like Novak,” the Scot said.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier