Andy Murray made sure of claiming the world No. 2 ranking, but he still had to get past Juan Martin Del Potro to claim the ATP Montreal Masters crown.
Third-seeded Murray beat French seventh seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-4, 7-6 (10/8) in the semi-finals and is set to rise to second in the world for the first time in his career.
Sixth-seeded Del Potro, who won the title in Washington over Andy Roddick last weekend, continued his dominance over the three-time Wimbledon runner-up as he beat the fifth-seeded American 4-6, 6-2, 7-5.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Del Potro fired 19 aces in a semi-final victory lasting just over two hours.
Del Potro owns former No. 1 Roddick after winning all three of their meetings. He trails Murray, 3-1, earning his lone victory in their last meeting at the Madrid Masters in May.
Del Potro trailed 5-4 in the third, saved a match point and then broke Roddick en route to taking the match.
Britain’s Murray will replace Rafael Nadal in the slot behind Roger Federer when the new rankings are released today.
Murray’s trip to the final insured his promotion after Nadal — back after a break of more than two months nursing tendonitis in his knees — lost in the quarter-finals on Friday to Del Potro.
The change makes Murray the first player other than Nadal or Federer to rank No. 2 since July 18, 2005, when Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt stood second behind Federer.
“This is very special for me,” Murray said.
“For five years it’s been Rafa and Roger on one and two, they are I think the two best maybe of all time,” he said. “So it’s pretty special to get in between them.”
Murray reinforced his status as the highest-ranked British player since the rankings began in 1973 as he won his 49th match of the season.
Murray recovered from an early break to win the opening set. In the second-set tiebreaker he trailed 4-2 and saved two Tsonga set-points before claiming the victory on his second match point.
“Andy’s a very good player and it’s tough to go to the net every time against him,” Tsonga said. “But that’s fine, I’m OK with that.”
■CINCINNATI OPEN
AFP, CINCINNATI, OHIO
World No. 1 Dinara Safina cruised into the final of the US$2 million WTA Cincinnati Open on Saturday as Jelena Jankovic clawed her way into the title match.
Safina needed just 56 minutes to post a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Italy’s Flavia Pennetta. She improved to 7-0 lifetime against Pennetta, who was coming off a third-round victory over Venus Williams here as well as a title in Los Angeles last weekend.
In yesterday’s final, Russia’s Safina was to take on fifth-seeded Serbian Jankovic, who emerged from a scrappy match with a 7-6 (7/2), 0-6, 7-6 (8/6) victory over fourth-seeded Russian Elena Dementieva.
Jankovic squandered three match points in the third set as Dementieva forced the tiebreaker.
She fell behind 6-2 before winning the final six points, finally sealing the victory after 2 hours and 46 minutes.
She and Dementieva combined for 13 breaks of serve and 25 double-faults.
“I don’t believe I won this match,” Jankovic said.
There were no such worries for Safina, who reached her eighth final in 14 tournaments this year.
Pennetta admitted her run of success, which saw her playing her 11th match in 13 days, had taken a toll. She had blisters on her feet and played with her aching right ankle taped.
“She was playing much better than me,” Pennetta said. “I was a little bit tired, of course, but I didn’t lose for that. She was playing unbelievable.”
While Pennetta didn’t want to make excuses, Safina said she could tell her opponent was running on empty.
“I know how it is playing that many matches in a row,” Safina said. “When somebody starts to put pressure on you from the first, it’s tough mentally to face it.”
Safina won the first six points of the match, earned an early break to take a 2-0 lead and never looked back.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set