Top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki was given an easy path into the Pan Pacific Open semi-finals yesterday when Agnieszka Radwanska retired with a left foot injury in the first set.
Trailing 5-0, the sixth-seeded Radwanska consulted with a trainer during the changeover before deciding she could not continue.
Wozniacki, aiming for her sixth title this year, will meet eighth-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus in the semis on Friday.
Azarenka defeated American qualifier Coco Vandeweghe 6-2, 6-1.
Wozniacki could overtake Serena Williams as No. 1 in the world rankings if she lifts the trophy in Tokyo and reaches the quarter--finals in Beijing next week.
In other matches, French Open champion Francesca Schiavone of Italy beat Kaia Kanepi 7-5, 4-6, 7-5 yesterday to reach the semi-finals of the Pan Pacific Open.
Fifth-seeded Schiavone went ahead 6-5 in the third set on a double-fault by the Estonian. She clinched the match with a powerful serve to the corner that Kanepi was unable to return.
Schiavone will meet seventh-seeded Elena Dementieva of Russia in the semi-finals. Dementieva beat compatriot and No. 2 seed Vera Zvonareva 7-5, 6-2.
Thailand Open
AP, NONTHABURI, Thailand
Jurgen Melzer reached his 10th quarter-final of the year with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Dudi Sela of Israel at the Thailand Open on Wednesday.
The third-seeded Austrian, who is enjoying the best season of his career at the age of 29, beat Sela for the third time this year.
In today’s quarter-finals, Melzer will meet either seventh-seeded Viktor Troicki or Jarkko Nieminen.
Fourth-seeded Ernests Gulbis survived a grueling match against veteran German Rainer Schuettler to book his place in the quarter-finals, winning 7-6 (4), 6-7 (4), 6-4 after two hours, 51 minutes.
Two big serves helped the Latvian take the first set tiebreak, but lost his cool in the second set when he was deducted a point for smacking the ball in the air, leaving him 5-3 down in the tiebreak.
Schuettler took advantage to level at one set all, but Gulbis secured the only break of the match early in the decider and that was enough to send him through to today’s quarter-finals.
Earlier, 53rd-ranked Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain became the first player to reach the quarter--finals after a hard fought 7-5, 6-7 (3), 7-5 victory over France’s Florent Serra that lasted two hours, 43 minutes.
Malaysian Open
AP, KUALA LUMPUR,
Defending champion Nikolay Davydenko crashed out of the Malaysian Open in the second round on Wednesday, beaten by fellow Russian Igor Andreev.
Andreev won 7-6 (7-5), 5-7, 6-3 in two hours, 47 minutes in stifling heat for his first victory over Davydenko in seven years.
Davydenko, who got a bye in the first round, looked to be on course for a relatively straightforward victory when he led 5-1 in the first-set tiebreak, but Andreev found his range with his forehand and rattled off six points in a row to steal it.
Davydenko started the second set on fire, racing to a 5-1 lead, and although Andreev fought back to level it 5-5, Davydenko took the next two games to make it one set apiece.
Andreev’s more aggressive approach in the decider paid dividends as Davydenko began to wilt in the heat.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier