Roger Federer takes the confidence of a 6-0 career record over Feliciano Lopez into his semi-final at the Swiss Indoors as the top seed kept up his bid for a home trophy hat-trick on Friday.
Federer eased past Italian Simone Bolelli, claiming his 61st victory of the season, 6-2, 6-3 in their quarter-final. Dubai finalist Lopez upset American fourth seed James Blake 6-4, 7-6 (9/7) as the Spaniard went through on his fourth match point, leaving Blake’s effort to qualify for the Masters Cup in Shanghai stalled.
The American missed on all eight of his break point chances. Final jockeying for positions at the eight-man year-end Masters Cup will take place next week as the regular ATP season ends at the Paris Masters.
PHOTO: EPA
Federer, who began his career at his local event, recovered well after a testing second round clash with Jarkko Niemimen, as 42nd-ranked Bolelli failed to pose any major problems.
Bolelli rallied briefly in the penultimate game, saving three match points before the Swiss superstar secured victory with two aces and a service winner to wrap it up in just over an hour.
“Bolelli’s difficult, so I had to stay alert,” Federer said of the Munich finalist. “But when I got settled in this was the optimum result for me.”
Second seed David Nalbandian reached the semis for the fourth time in seven appearances to set up a showdown with Davis Cup teammate Juan Martin Del Potro.
Second seed Nalbandian, the 2002 champion, is fresh from a loss to his talented 20-year-old compatriot last week in the Madrid Masters third round. Del Potro, 20, and ranked ninth in the world to Nalbandian’s eighth, beat Russian Igor Andreev 6-4, 7-5, while Nalbandian accounted for German qualifier Benjamin Becker 7-6 (7/4), 6-4.
Nalbandian is devoting all of his energy toward the Nov. 21 to Nov. 23 Davis Cup final in Mar del Plata against Spain, uninterested in qualifying for the Masters Cup and refusing this year to make a trip across the Pacific. Del Potro, young and eager at age 20, is keen to make it to both Shanghai, where he stands seventh in the race for one of three remaining spots, and the Davis Cup final.
Del Potro moves from strength to strength as he won his 35th match from his last 38, including a run to four straight titles over the summer. He also finished runner-up in Tokyo, then reached his first Masters Series quarter-final at Madrid, where he lost to Federer. The youngster now stands 44-11 on the season with a 1-1 record against his senior compatriot.
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
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite