Rafael Nadal overcame Ernests Gulbis and his continuing bout of fever with a courageous performance to reach the semi-finals of the Qatar Open on Thursday.
Nadal’s 7-6 (7/3), 6-3 win over Gulbis, a gifted but unpredictable Latvian ranked just outside the top 20, means that he is within one win of another episode of his great rivalry with Roger Federer.
However, the holder of three of the four Grand Slam titles could not capitalize on a good start, lacked his usual overwhelming physicality and often left the ball in short, attackable positions for a hard-hitting opponent.
PHOTO: AFP
Indeed, after relinquishing a 3-1 lead in the first set, there seemed to be doubts about whether Nadal, who has been on antibiotics, would last if it developed into a long, tough tussle.
Nadal called for the doctor, apparently feeling unwell. He was told to drink more and that if he didn’t feel better soon, he might then think about whether or not he wanted to continue.
That caused Nadal to call out rather alarmingly “water, water, water,” but although his performance remained below par, he always seemed the likely winner after surviving the tiebreaker.
The highlight of his effort was a brilliant plunging volley from a fierce passing shot by Gulbis at 30-40 in the sixth game of the second set, just when a break of serve might have lifted his young opponent to a higher level. After closing that game out for 4-2, he began to see the finish line and appeared to find extra energy as he did so.
“I just did the best I could today,” Nadal said. “I started well and I pushed him to make many mistakes. I will be more ready for my next match.”
His semi-final opponent will be Nikolay Davydenko, the defending champion from Russia, who overcame the steep serving of Ivo Karlovic, the former top 20 Croatian, 6-3, 7-5.
Davydenko beat Nadal in a sensational final last year, losing the first set to love and saving two match points in the process.
“I will be ready for him this time,” Nadal said.
Federer was not at his best either, but he reached his eighth successive semi-final since losing his Wimbledon title six months ago by outplaying Viktor Troicki 6-2, 6-2.
Federer passed up fully seven break points before breaking through for 4-2 in the second set, but there were still some signs of the improved form he has enjoyed since his association with coach Paul Annacone.
There was also a surreal phase, late in the first set, when Federer’s acceleration into a 5-2 lead coincided with a burst of noisy and colorful fireworks, as if they had been planned as an accompaniment to his explosive arts.
Federer now has a semi-final against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who is seeking his first title in 15 months after a long spell with knee problems, and who progressed with a 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (11/9) win over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, the seventh-seeded Spaniard.
CHENNAI OPEN
AP, CHENNAI, INDIA
Kei Nishikori of Japan rallied to beat Alejandro Falla of Colombia 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 on Thursday to reach the quarter-finals of the Chennai Open.
The 98th-ranked Nishikori, who beat two-time defending champion Marin Cilic in the opening round, was down a break and trailing 3-0 in the second set when he turned it around.
Also, sixth-seeded Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia defeated Alexandre Kudryavtsev of Russia 6-2, 7-6 (7-3), and eighth-seeded Robin Haase of the Netherlands beat Yuichi Sugita of Japan 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Swiss third seed Stanislas Wawrinka overcame Belgian qualifier David Goffin 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-3) to advance to the next round.
Falla, who stretched Roger Federer to five sets at Wimbledon last year, overpowered his Japanese opponent in the opening set with powerful strokes from the baseline and looked in complete control after going up a break early in the second.
However, Nishikori managed a break in the fourth game of that set and went on to win nine straight games. Falla, ranked 105th, smashed his racket on the court in frustration as his opponent took control.
The 49th-ranked Tipsarevic broke Kudryavtsev in the fourth and eight games to clinch the opening set, but the big serving Serbian was extended to the tiebreaker in the second set.
Last year’s runner-up Wawrinka was broken in the opening game of the first set, but broke back in the eighth to force the tiebreaker.
Goffin raced to a 3-0 lead in the second game, but Wawrinka broke his opponent in the seventh game and won on another tiebreaker.
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