French top seed Gael Monfils won two matches in 10 hours on Thursday, ousting Russian Dmitry Tursunov 6-2, 7-6 (11/9) in the latter to reach the quarter-finals of the US$1.4 million ATP Washington Classic.
Seventh-ranked Monfils, a French Open quarter-finalist, had earlier fired 17 aces in downing American Ryan Sweeting 6-3, 7-6 (7/3), his twice-in-a-day feat of endurance necessitated by rain on Wednesday that resulted in the postponement of six matches.
“I’m in good shape,” Monfils said. “I come from the clay season so I’m used to having long matches.”
Monfils must win five matches in four days here to claim his fourth career ATP crown after titles last year at Montpelier, in 2009 at Metz and in 2005 at Sopot. His only outdoor hardcourt final since 2006 was last year in Tokyo.
Serbian sixth seed Janko Tipsarevic, the next opponent for Monfils, and Cypriot seventh seed Marcos Baghdatis, who went six sets in one day for the first time, also won twice on Thursday to book last-eight berths at the US Open tuneup event.
“It’s good to finish six sets and physical-wise I feel good,” Baghdatis said. “You know you can do it, but it’s nice to achieve that.”
World No. 45 Tursunov, who won his seventh career ATP title last month at Rosmalen, was denied on all three break chances against Monfils in the first set, which took only 33 of the match’s 99 minutes.
Tursunov broke Monfils to level the second set 2-2 and they battled to a tie-break.
Monfils squandered three match points, sending two forehands and a backhand beyond the baseline. Turnsunov hit a backhand long on his only set point and Monfils took the match two points later when the Russian sent a forehand wide.
“For sure it’s better for the next match for the recovery not to go three sets,” Monfils said. “I can handle six sets in a day so it’s OK for me.”
In his opener, Monfils connected on 71 percent of his first serves and dazzled 66th-ranked Sweeting, who at times could only marvel at the moves of the lanky Frenchman, who hit shots behind-the-back and after astonishing leaps.
“He’s just so athletic. I was laughing because it was so amazing,” Sweeting said. “Sometimes I respected his speed too much, but the main factor was how well he served. He was placing it really well. It was pretty tough to read.”
Monfils, 24, split with Australian coach Roger Rasheed after Wimbledon and has made fitness coach Patrick Chamagne his overall coach.
“We both wanted different goals,” Monfils said of Rasheed. “Now [Chamagne] is the main coach. I think he can handle it. I can trust in him.”
Tipsarevic, 27, ousted Germany’s Michael Berrer 6-3, 6-4, in the afternoon and dispatched Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-2 in the nightcap to book a date with the Frenchman.
Monfils, a 2007 semi-finalist in his only prior Washington event, is 3-2 lifetime against the Serb, winning their past two meetings in last year’s US Open third round and the Davis Cup finals.
“It was more pressure when we played there and in the US Open it was very tough,” Monfils said. “I’ll try to be aggressive, make him make mistakes.”
Baghdatis, last year’s Washington runner-up, defeated reigning Commonwealth Games and Asian Games champion Somdev Devvarman 6-2, 0-6, 7-5 and later outlasted Brazil’s Tomaz Bellucci 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Baghdatis will next face Donald Young, a 22-year-old American who beat compatriot Michael Russell 6-3, 6-3, avenging a loss two weeks ago at Atlanta to reach only his second ATP quarter-final, the first since 2008 at Memphis.
Spanish fifth seed Fernando Verdasco snapped a four-match losing streak to Russian Nikolay Davydenko with a 6-4, 7-5 triumph. Verdasco next faces Czech Radek Stepanek, who beat Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.
John Isner outlasted pal and neighbor James Blake 7-6 (7/0), 1-6, 7-6 (7/4).
Isner, trying to reach his third final in a row after winning at Newport and losing to Mardy Fish at Atlanta, will next face Serbian third seed Viktor Troicki, who eliminated South Africa’s Kevin Anderson 6-3, 6-3.
BET-AT-HOME CUP
AP, KITZBUEHEL, Austria
Top-seeded Juan Ignacio Chela defeated Marcel Granollers of Spain 6-3, 6-4 on Thursday in the quarterfinals of the Bet-at-Home Cup.
The 23rd-ranked Argentine will take on Albert Montanes of Spain for a place in the final. Robin Haase of the Netherlands and Joao Souza of Brazil compete in the second semifinal.
Chela dropped just three points on serve to take the first set, but was broken in the opening game of the second.
The seventh-seeded Granollers, who was on a seven-match winning streak following his victory in Gstaad last week, got treatment for a sore right arm muscle and lost control of the second set.
“The result looks easy but it was tough. I am happy to win it in straight sets,” Chela said.
The 50th-ranked Montanes downed Santiago Giraldo of -Colombia 6-1, 7-6 (7/0) to advance to his second semifinal of the season.
Haase defeated sixth-seeded Andreas Seppi 6-4, 6-2 to reach his second career semifinal.
The Dutchman needed eight set points to close out the opening set but converted his first match point against the Italian, who won just two service games.
“I played too defensively from the start but he helped me with some mistakes and I was more aggressive in the second set,” said the 53rd-ranked Haase, who reached the semifinals at the Dutch Open in 2007.
Souza, a qualifier ranked 110th, beat No. 8 Pablo Andujar of Spain 6-3, 6-4 to reach his second semifinal of the season after Santiago, Chile in February.
Earlier on Thursday, Haase rallied to beat second-seeded Feliciano Lopez of Spain 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 in a second-round match.
Haase and Lopez were even at 1-1 in the final set when rain interrupted play on Wednesday. Haase broke Lopez in the first game after resuming and closed out the win when the Spaniard double-faulted on match point.
Andujar routed fellow Spaniard Albert Ramos 6-2, 6-1, and Souza defeated Diego Junqueira of Argentina 6-2, 6-2. Junqueira replaced No. 3 Ivan Ljubicic, who pulled out of the event with a back injury.
Montanes downed No. 5 Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany 6-4, 7-5 and Granollers defeated Croatian qualifier Antonio Veic 6-0, 3-6, 6-4.
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