Defending champion Anabel Medina Garrigues beat Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland 6-3, 6-3 on Friday to advance to the final at the Strasbourg International.
The sixth-seeded Spaniard broke serve five times to set up a final against No. 5 Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia, who ended the run of unseeded Taiwanese player Chan Yung-jan (詹詠然) 6-1, 6-7 (8), 6-4.
Medina Garrigues, who also won in 2005, is bidding for an eighth career title and a first since winning last year at Strasbourg.
PHOTO: AFP
In a match lasting two hours, 19 minutes, Srebotnik broke Chan’s serve seven times.
The clay-court tournament is a warmup to the French Open, which starts tomorrow.
■ HYPO GROUP
AP, POERTSCHACH, AUSTRIA
After defeating Russian compatriot Igor Kunitsyn 6-3, 6-2 in Friday’s semi-finals, top-seeded Nikolay Davydenko was set for a showdown with defending champion Juan Monaco in the final of the Hypo Group International yesterday.
Second-seeded Monaco saved three match points before beating Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia 6-4, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4) on Friday.
■ WORLD TEAM CUP
AP, DUSSELDORF, GERMANY
Dmitry Tursunov won his singles and doubles matches to lead Russia over Germany 3-0 on Friday and a place in the World Team Cup final against Sweden.
Sweden beat the US 3-0 in the last of the round-robin matches and will seek a fourth title in its sixth final. Russia has yet to win the title after finishing runner-up three straight years from 2000 to 2002.
Tursunov beat Nicolas Kiefer 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 in the Blue Group match to add to Igor Andreev’s win over Philipp Kohlschreiber. In the doubles, Tursunov and Mikhail Youzhny beat Christopher Kas and Philipp Petzschner 7-6 (2), 6-3.
Sweden had already qualified for the final from the Red Group by winning both of Thursday’s singles matches. It completed the victory as Robert Lindstedt and Robin Soderling crushed Wayne Odesnik and Bobby Reynolds 6-1, 6-2.
Kiefer converted just one of 13 break points against Tursunov, holding two break points for a 5-3 lead in the first set before netting a backhand to give Tursunov a break for 5-4.
In other matches, Italy earned a 2-1 win over Spain, as Simone Bolelli defeated Feliciano Lopez 6-4, 6-3 and then teamed with Potito Starace to beat Lopez and Marcel Granollers 6-4, 7-6 (3).
David Ferrer got Spain’s only win by beating Starace on Thursday.
Argentina defeated the Czech Republic 2-1 thanks to Lucas Arnold and Sebastian Prieto who beat Tomas Berdych and Pavel Vizner 7-6 (3), 6-3.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set