Caroline Wozniacki reached the final of the Dubai tennis championships by beating Serbian sixth seed Jelena Jankovic 7-5, 6-3 on Saturday.
The top seed from Denmark, who will return to the top of the world rankings this week, was to face 16th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in yesterday’s final after the Russian defeated 11th-seeded Italian Flavia Pennetta 6-4, 6-4.
Jankovic made the more positive start, breaking Wozniacki’s serve to love as she built up a 3-0 lead and then holding off two break points when leading 4-2.
Photo: EPA
However, she failed to take advantage of four set points as she led 5-3, before Wozniacki recovered the break by rushing her opponent into a forehand error.
Wozniacki broke again to lead 6-5 and held off two break points as she served out the set.
Jankovic clearly began to tire in the second set, and an exchange of three consecutive breaks left Wozniacki leading 4-3.
Once again Jankovic held, but failed to convert two break points as Wozniacki held for 5-3, and the Dane then broke to love in the next game to seal her victory.
Kuznetsova will be seeking her first Dubai title after reaching the final for the third time.
MEMPHIS CHAMPIONSHIP
REUTERS, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
Top seed Andy Roddick advanced to the Memphis Championship final with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Juan Martin Del Potro on Saturday and will face big-hitting Canadian Milos Raonic.
The 20-year-old Raonic, coming off his first tournament win last week at the San Jose Open, fired 23 aces in the earlier semi-final to beat American Mardy Fish 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.
Del Potro, who held serve en route to his second semi-final in two weeks, was broken by Roddick in the second game of the match as the American established a 3-0 lead in eight minutes.
Roddick, seeking the 30th title of his career, had lost his three previous matches against del Potro, but held on for the victory in 1 hour and 34 minutes.
Raonic saved five of the six break points he faced and won 85 percent of points behind his powerful first serve to dismiss Fish in just under two hours.
MARSEILLE OPEN
REUTERS, MARSEILLE, FRANCE
Top seed Robin Soderling powered into the Marseille Open final with a 7-5, 6-1 win over Dmitry Tursunov on Saturday and Marin Cilic joined him after a much sterner test.
Croatia’s unseeded Cilic survived a match point at 3-5 in the final set to outlast Russian No. 3 seed Mikhail Youzhny 6-2 1-6 7-5 to reach yesterday’s showpiece where Swede Soderling was to go for a second consecutive tour title.
Soderling won in Rotterdam last week and looks odds-on for another crown after demolishing the previously in-form Tursunov in 1 hour and 15 minutes on the indoor hardcourt.
BUENOS AIRES OPEN
REUTERS, BUENOS AIRES
Top seed Nicolas Almagro will meet Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela in the final after two wins apiece on Saturday in the rain-affected Buenos Aires Open.
Almagro followed his early afternoon quarter-final victory over Argentine wild card Jose Acasuso with a devastating performance to beat fellow Spaniard Tommy Robredo 7-5, 6-1 in their evening semi-final.
Robredo, winner of the Santiago Open two weeks ago at the start of the Latin American claycourt circuit, had earlier disposed of home favorite David Nalbandian 6-4, 6-4 in a tussle of former champions.
Chela reached his first home final with a 6-2, 6-2 upset victory over second seed Stanislas Wawrinka having earlier completed a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win against Albert Montanes of Spain.
Wawrinka, the world No. 15 playing his first tournament on clay since last year’s French Open, had earlier beaten Argentine fifth seed and 2007 champion Juan Monaco 7-5, 6-3 in their quarter-final.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB