Serena Williams’ march toward a fourth WTA title this year came to a premature halt on Saturday, as an injured knee and Canadian qualifier Aleksandra Wozniak proved too much for the top seed.
Williams retired with a left knee injury while trailing Wozniak 2-6, 1-3 at the Bank of the West Classic hard court event in Stanford.
The Canadian will battle for the title against sixth-seeded Marion Bartoli of France, who defeated Japan’s Ai Sugiyama 6-3, 6-3.
PHOTO: AP
Wozniak, currently ranked 85th in the world, showed no sign that she was intimidated by the 26-year-old American.
After Williams won the opening game, Wozniak captured the next three and quickly closed out the opening set as her opponent started limping.
Williams had her left knee wrapped, but still was laboring early in the second set and retired 47 minutes after the match had begun.
Wozniak, 20, won 70 percent of her service points and capitalized on three of four break chances to advance to just her second WTA final.
Wozniak will be attempting to capture her first singles title when she takes on Bartoli.
■ GASTEIN LADIES
AP, BAD GASTEIN, AUSTRIA
Pauline Parmentier of France will play the 237th-ranked qualifier Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic in the Gastein Ladies final.
In Saturday’s semi-finals, the fourth-seeded Parmentier upset top-seeded Agnes Szavay 6-4, 6-2, while Hradecka defeated Mariya Koryttseva of Ukraine 6-3, 6-2.
It will be Parmentier’s second career final, after winning in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, last year, and the first final for the 23-year-old Hradecka. The Czech won 11 titles on the ITF women’s circuit, but had previously never passed the second round of a WTA Tour event.
Hradecka won three qualifying matches to enter the main draw, where she conceded just 17 games in four straight-set victories.
The 53rd-ranked Parmentier saved seven break points against Szavay to hold serve throughout. She broke the 14th-ranked Hungarian once in the opening set and twice in the second.
■ INDIANAPOLIS
AFP, INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA
James Blake and Sam Querrey, both of the US, lost early momentum, crashing to defeats and leaving Frenchman Gilles Simon and Russian Dmitry Tursunov to contest the final of the Indianapolis Tennis Championships.
Second-seeded Simon stayed steady as fourth seed Querrey suffered a physical meltdown in the final set to lose 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. The notably fragile Blake opened the door to defending champion Tursunov, returning after a second-set rain break with nothing left on his serve and paying the price 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
■ AUSTRIAN OPEN
AP, KITZBUEHEL, AUSTRIA
Jurgen Melzer and Juan Martin del Potro reached the final of the Austrian Open on Saturday.
Melzer beat last year’s runner-up Potito Starace 6-4, 6-7 (8), 6-3, and Del Potro defeated Victor Hanescu 6-3, 7-6 (5).
It is Melzer’s first final of the year — and seventh overall — as the Austrian seeks his second ATP Tour title. He won in Bucharest, Romania, in 2006.
The 19-year-old Del Potro will play his second career final, just one week after the Argentine won his maiden title in Stuttgart, Germany.
■ CROATIA OPEN
AFP, UMAG, CROATIA
Spain’s Fernando Verdasco and Igor Andreev of Russia qualified for the final of the Croatia Open ATP clay court tournament on Saturday.
The top-seeded Verdasco beat Italy’s Fabio Fognini 6-1, 6-3 in a match lasting less than an hour. In the first set, lasting only 23 minutes, Verdasco broke twice in the third and sixth games, while the second set had a similar outcome, providing the 24-year-old Spaniard an easy entry into the title match.
Fourth-seeded Andreev defeated Argentina’s Maximo Gonzalez 6-2, 7-6 (2) in 1 hour, 35 minutes.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB