Kevin Anderson kept alive his hopes of a first career ATP title at the SA Tennis Open with a 6-7 (3), 6-0, 6-4 semi-final win over Adrian Mannarino of France at Montecasino on Saturday.
The fourth-seeded South African was due to play unseeded Somdev Devvarman of India in yesterday’s decider. Both men have lost in their only previous final appearance on tour, Anderson in Las Vegas in 2008 and Devvarman in Chennai in 2009.
Anderson beat Devvarman in their only previous match at last year’s US Open.
“He [Devvarman] is a tough player and makes a lot of balls,” Anderson said. “I’ll look at my match against him at the US Open and if I play my game and serve well I’m confident I’ll have a good chance.”
Anderson was serving for the opening set at 5-3 against Mannarino before a lapse saw his sixth-seeded opponent break back and clinch it in a tiebreak.
The South African double-faulted and then pushed a forehand long soon after for the break, letting Mannarino back in. The Frenchman took the tiebreak 7-3.
However, 2.03m-tall Anderson powered through the second set 6-0 and clinched a crucial break in the fifth game of the third to win in a little over 2 hours.
He sealed it with an ace on his first matchpoint, his 19th ace of the match.
“I was happy to have turned the match around,” Anderson said. “It’s a challenge when the going gets tough and I just told myself to stay positive after that first set. I always felt I was on top after that.”
Devvarman had earlier reached his first ATP final in two years by beating South African wild card Izak van der Merwe 6-2, 6-4. He improved his record to 4-0 over his much taller opponent.
He landed 65 percent of his first serves while the 1.96m Van der Merwe could manage only 47 percent, despite his five aces.
Devvarman broke twice in the first set for a 4-0 lead, claiming the opener in 39 minutes as Van der Merwe struggled early in his first top-tier semi-final.
The home player rallied in the second, but Devvarman broke again in the seventh game and served out to win.
“I felt he was more nervous than me at the start and he made more mistakes and that helps in big matches,” Devvarman said. “I don’t want to come across as the bad guy but it’s good to win a few matches when the crowd is against you.”
MOVISTAR OPEN
AP, SANTIAGO
Santiago Giraldo of Colombia and Tommy Robredo of Spain each rallied from a set down to win their semi-finals and advance to the final of the Movistar Open.
Eighth-seed Giraldo reached his first ATP final by defeating No. 5 Potito Starace of Italy 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-1.
Sixth-seeded Robredo defeated No. 7 seed Fabio Fognini of Italy 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.
ZAGREB INDOORS
AP, ZAGREB
Unseeded Ivan Dodig advanced to his first ATP final by overcoming third-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 in the Zagreb Indoors on Saturday.
Dodig will meet Michael Berrer in the final after the German defeated compatriot Florian Mayer 6-1, 6-4 in the other semi-final.
Dodig’s victory gives Croatia a finalist at home after its highest-ranked players, Marin Cilic and Ivan Ljubicic, lost in the quarter-finals. A Croat has been in the final every year since 2006.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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