Second seed Robin Soderling beat fellow Swede Andreas Vinciguerra 6-1, 7-6 (8/6) on Saturday to set up a meeting with Juan Monaco in the Swedish Open final.
Monaco, an unseeded Argentine, routed two-time defending champion Tommy Robredo 6-0, 6-2 in the other semi-final on the slow clay.
Soderling, this year’s surprise French Open finalist, saved a set point in the second-set tiebreaker when trailing 6-5. He won it 8-6 when Vinciguerra netted a forehand return.
PHOTO: EPA
Vinciguerra, a wild card entry ranked No. 460, broke Soderling’s serve only once to level at 3-3 in the second set.
Soderling is trying to become the first Swedish winner of the tournament since 2000, when his coach Magnus Norman won the title.
Monaco broke the third-seeded Robredo three times in the opening set and raced to a quick 5-1 lead in the second after securing two more breaks of the Spaniard’s serve.
With the win, the 61st-ranked Monaco avenged his final loss to Robredo at the Copa Telmex, an ATP tournament in Buenos Aires last February.
Monaco is the first Argentine to reach the Swedish Open final since Mariano Zabaleta, who won back-to back titles in 2003 and 2004.
Robredo, playing in Bastad for the ninth straight year, has a 23-7 record in the tournament.
■PALERMO OPEN
AP, PALERMO, ITALY
Defending champion Sara Errani will meet top-seeded Flavia Pennetta in an all-Italian final of the Palermo Open.
Fifth-seeded Errani beat Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 in the semi-finals on Saturday and Pennetta defeated another Italian, Tathiana Garbin, 6-1, 6-1 on the red clay courts.
■MERCEDES CUP
REUTERS, STUTTGART, GERMANY
Frenchman Jeremy Chardy beat Germany’s Nicolas Kiefer 6-3, 7-5 on Saturday to reach the Mercedes Cup final, where he will face fourth seed Victor Hanescu.
World No. 43 Chardy reached his second tournament final of the year with a convincing performance on a windy and drizzly day.
“It was a great week for me and I played well, despite playing two matches today,” Chardy said, having also played his quarter-final against German Mischa Zverev earlier on Saturday after rain washed out play on Friday.
The 22-year-old, whose top-spin forehand was his biggest weapon, grabbed two breaks either side of a Kiefer break to take the first set.
Kiefer, who also won his quarter-final against Polish qualifier Lukasz Kubot earlier on Saturday, played more aggressively in the second set, rushing to the net and holding serve until 6-5. The Frenchman, runner-up in Johannesburg in February, then turned up the heat and wrapped up the match with two fierce forehand winners.
Earlier, Hanescu had ended Fabio Fognini’s dream run, beating the Italian 6-3, 6-7 (4/7), 6-2 to reach his first final in a year.
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