Sat, Apr 11, 2009 - Page 20 News List

Haas knocks out last seed in clay court competition

AP , HOUSTON

Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark returns a shot to Virginie Razzano during their match at the MPS Group Championships in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, on Thursday.

PHOTO: AP

Tommy Haas of Germany rallied to beat defending champion Marcel Granollers of Spain 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 on Thursday in the second round of the US Men’s Clay Court Championships.

Granollers’ loss left the tournament without a seeded player in the quarter-finals, which hadn’t happened in the clay court tournament since pro tennis went to the open era in 1968.

Earlier, Evgeny Korolev of Russia fought through rough wind and a comeback try by Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain for a 6-3, 7-6 (4) victory in the second round.

Bjorn Phau of Germany, who eliminated second-seeded Mardy Fish in the first round, also needed a tiebreaker to beat Scoville Jenkins of the US 6-4, 7-6 (2) in another second-round match.

Guillermo Canas of Argentina defeated American Taylor Dent 6-2, 6-2 to grab the final quarter-final spot in the last match of the evening.

■ANDALUCIA CHAMPIONSHIPS

REUTERS, MADRID

World No. 4 Jelena Jankovic eased into the quarter-finals of the Andalucia Tennis Championships with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Tunisia’s Selima Sfar on Thursday.

The Serbian second seed, by far the highest-ranked player left in the tournament after Wednesday’s shock exit of world No. 1 Serena Williams, converted five of her 11 break points on the clay in Marbella and was broken just once.

■MPS GROUP CHAMPIONSHIPS

AP, PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA

Second-seeded Caroline Wozniacki moved into the quarter-finals of The MPS Group Championships by beating France’s Virginie Razzano 6-3, 7-5 on Thursday.

Wozniacki’s sixth quarter-final in seven tournaments this year will be against Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova, who beat No. 8 Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the US 6-3, 7-5 in the late match.

Fifth-seeded Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada fought off Germany’s Sabine Lisicki to win 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4 and claim consecutive matches for the first time this year. Next up will be Austria’s Tamira Paszek, who reached her first tour quarter-finals since September with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over Varvara Lepchenko of the US, who replaced a fatigued Jelena Dokic in the draw.

The top-seeded doubles team of American Lisa Raymond and Kveta Peschke will meet Wozniacki and Strycova in the semis after beating American Carly Gullickson and Taiwan’s Chan Chin-wei 6-0, 7-5.

The second-seeds, China’s Peng Shuai and Yan Zi lost to American Angela Haynes and Liga Dekmeijere 7-6 (3), 6-4.

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