Mon, Aug 18, 2008 page17

• Del Potro beats Haas for 18th straight win

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  AP, WASHINGTON

  Juan Martin del Potro won his 18th consecutive match and a spot in the Legg Mason Tennis Classic final with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Tommy Haas on Saturday.

  Del Potro will play Viktor Troicki, who beat Igor Kunitsyn 6-4, 6-2 to earn his first career ATP finals berth.

  

  Juan Martin del Potro, of Argentina, returns a ball against Tommy Haas, of Germany, in their match at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic, in Washington on Saturday.

  PHOTO: AP

  “I’m very, very confident,” del Potro said. “And I have to use that confidence tomorrow.”

  The second-seeded del Potro has won his last three tournaments.

  The winning streak is the second best on the ATP this year, behind Rafael Nadal’s 32 straight.

  Del Potro broke Haas for a 3-2 lead in the first set, starting a streak in which he won eight straight games. Haas next held serve to make it 4-1 in the second.

  Del Potro has only lost two sets during his 18-match run, which includes wins in Stuttgart, Germany, the Austrian Open and the Countrywide Classic in Los Angeles. His last loss came in the second round of Wimbledon on June 25.

  ■CINCINNATI WOMEN’S

  AP, MASON, Ohio

  Nathalie Dechy reached her first final in four years with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 upset against fifth-seeded Amelie Mauresmo in a semifinal of the Cincinnati Women’s Open on Saturday.

  Dechy, who won the last two US Open womens’ doubles titles, was to play in yesterday’s final for the first time since losing the championship match at the 2004 New Haven tournament.

  “It’s exciting,” said Dechy, who estimated that she’s played Mauresmo 50 times since the two Frenchwomen met 20 years ago. “It’s always tough when you beat a good friend, but I haven’t felt this way in singles since 2004.”

  Dechy went to the net 34 times, converting 25 into points.

  “She took every opportunity she had to come in and make me play one more shot or one more passing shot,” said Mauresmo, who was playing her first tournament since Wimbledon while coming back from a thigh injury.

  After Dechy won the first set, the two players held serve until Mauresmo came up with a backhand passing shot and Dechy sailed a forehand long to give Mauresmo a break in the eighth game, allowing her to serve it out and force the third set.

  Dechy rode an early break to a 4-1 lead in the third set, winning the fifth game with an ace that Mauresmo disputed, one of three calls she questioned during the set. Mauresmo held on with her own break, but Dechy came back with another break, clinching the win when Mauresmo sent a backhand into the net.

  “I got a little bit upset,” said Mauresmo, who was ranked No. 1 on the WTA Tour in 2004 and 2006. “That’s the way it is. I got four matches in this week, which is what I was looking for. It would have been great to play five, but I’ll go to New Haven hoping to find a little more rhythm and build up to the [US] Open.”

  Kirilenko needed fewer than 25 minutes to roll through the first set against her doubles partner, who complained about feeling nauseated and received some medication from trainers between the first and second sets. Petrova committed 13 unforced errors to Kirilenko’s two in the first set.

  “I felt sluggish,” Petrova said about the first set. “The longer the rallies went, the worse I felt. I felt like I didn’t have any coordination. Whatever they gave me really helped.”

  Petrova regrouped in the second set, riding two service breaks to a 3-1 lead before winning the last three games to extend the match.

  Kirilenko, who took a locker room break after a poor second set during her quarterfinals win on Friday, took another break before the third set on Saturday, but it didn’t work as well. Petrova broke her serve to start the third set and never let up.

  “I was just very tired,” Kirilenko said. “I felt like I couldn’t move at all.”

  “I think she was hoping I would keep making the same mistakes,” said Petrova, who also reached the finals of the Tier II tournament at Eastbourne in June, but hasn’t won since capturing last year’s Paris indoor tournament. “You could see her starting to get frustrated. I expected to have a much harder time with her.”
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