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Djokovic battles into semis in China

Novak Djokovic of Serbia returns to Fernando Verdasco of Spain during the quarter-finals at the China Open in Beijing yesterday. PHOTO: EPA

Novak Djokovic battled into the semi-finals of the China Open on Friday with a three-set win over Spain’s Fernando Verdasco, putting himself one win away from regaining the world No. 3 ranking.

Djokovic, the second seed at the tournament, overpowered fifth seed Verdasco in the third and final set, 6-3, 1-6, 6-1.

The Serb will replace injured Scot Andy Murray in the ATP third spot behind Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal if he wins his next match against Roland Garros finalist Robin Soderling of Sweden, a winner over Croatia’s Ivan Ljubicic.

Murray has withdrawn from next week’s Shanghai Masters with a lingering wrist injury and will slide down the rankings by being inactive and losing the winner’s points he gained the same week a year ago.

Should he beat Soderling, Djokovic — the 2008 Australian Open champion — would overtake Murray when the ATP rankings come out on Oct. 19, one day after the Shanghai final.

“I thought I was playing well and consistent this year, but I still dropped a spot,” the Serb said. “That meant others were playing really well, including Andy Murray. I was surprised he pulled out from Shanghai, but that’s how tennis is. It isn’t the end of the year — there are still three or four tournaments to go.”

Nadia Petrova of Russia celebrates after winning her quarter-final against Peng Shuai of China at the China Open in Beijing yesterday. PHOTO: REUTERS

In other action in Beijing, world No. 2 Nadal defeated Russian Marat Safin 6-3, 6-1 in a late match.

In women’s singles, Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova marched into the semi-finals with a routine win, but compatriot Nikolay Davydenko was ousted in a straight-set upset. Kuznetsova, the 2006 champion in Beijing, notched an easy 6-3, 6-3 victory over talented Russian teen Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who earlier this week knocked Venus Williams out of the US$6.6-million mixed WTA/ATP event.

The elder Russian, the reigning French Open champion, will face compatriot Nadia Petrova in the semifinals after the 13th seed put out Peng Shuai — the home crowd’s last hope in the tournament — 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 6-2. Petrova upset soon-to-be world No. 1 Serena Williams on Thursday to reach the quarters.

On the men’s side, fourth seed Davydenko, who claimed his third title of the season last week in Kuala Lumpur, was upset by Croatian eighth seed Marin Cilic in just over 90 minutes, 6-4, 6-4. The result halted Davydenko’s current run of form at six consecutive wins while Cilic, who knocked Murray out in the US Open fourth round, improved to 3-0 over the world No. 8 Russian.

The 15th-ranked Croatian secured his 39th match win of the season against 16 losses as he bids for a third title this year, following victories in Chennai and Zagreb.

Elena Dementieva became the latest of the top seeds to be ousted when she was upset 7-5 6-3 by Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska.

In the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Peng Shuai of China defeated Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Belgian Yanina Wickmayer 6-3, 6-1.



■JAPAN OPEN

AFP, TOKYO

Second seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France had to work hard to beat qualifier Ernests Gulbis of Latvia to reach the semi-finals of the Japan Open tennis tournament yesterday.

The 2008 Australian Open finalist, the highest remaining seeded player in the tournament, shrugged of a one-set deficit to score a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory over the 98th-ranked Latvian.

Earlier, Mikhail Youzhny of Russia eliminated defending champion Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic 6-2, 7-6 (8/6) to set up a semi-final meeting with 2001 champion Lleyton Hewitt of Australia.

Hewitt, seeded eighth, put an end to French qualifier Edouard Roger-Vasselin’s excellent run with a 6-4, 6-0 victory.

In the last match of the day, fourth seed Gael Monfils of France defeated Beijing Olympic doubles gold medalist Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 to earn a place against Tsonga.

Gulbis, who eliminated sixth seed Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic on his way to the quarter-finals, hit a double fault on Tsonga’s set point to tie the match at one-set all.

But he failed to secure a break opportunity in the final set, with Tsonga firing 19 aces, eight of them in the third set.

“I tried to [maintain] focus on my game, not on his serve, because it’s very difficult when he served like that. He served just unbelievably today in the first two sets,” said Tsonga, ranked seventh.

“I had a break at the end of the second set, but it was a surprise for me, because I didn’t have one chance in the other games,” Tsonga said.

It was a shock defeat for Berdych, who furiously smashed his racket on the court before walking off.

“All our matches were really close,” said Youzhny. “In Munich it was much closer, it was in the final-set tie-break, and I lost six points in a row. I thought about it when I was going to serve [for the match] at 5-4. I played not so bad on the first three points for 30-10 and then he played aggressive. And at 6-5 [for Berdych], he got a set point, but I hit a good backhand down the line.”

Roger-Vasselin, who shocked US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina and Jurgen Melzer of Austria on his way to the quarter-finals, double-faulted on a break point to go down 1-2.

It was Hewitt’s turn to hit a double fault on a break point in the sixth game, taking the game to 3-3.

Roger-Vasselin secured the following game, but he never got another break point chance as the Australian former world No. 1 stepped up his serve and took the last nine games.
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