Janko Tipsarevic saved Serbian pride yesterday as he beat Japan’s Kei Nishikori 6-4, 6-3 to set up a Malaysian Open final against Marcos Baghdatis.
Cypriot Baghdatis, who was runner-up to Roger Federer in the 2006 Australian Open final, had earlier defeated Serbia’s second seed Viktor Troicki 6-3, 6-1, leaving Tipsarevic with a mission on court at the Putra Stadium
Tipsarevic has played — and beaten — Nishikori five times this season on hardcourt, clay, grass and now indoors.
Photo: AFP
The Japanese No. 1 made a run at another upset scenario in the wake of his semi-final defeat of top-seed Nicolas Almagro, but Tiposarevic was having none of it.
The Serb closed out the victory in just less than two hours as he saved all six break points he faced to nullify the Nishikori attack.
The winner improved to 43-20 on the season as he enters his third final this season after Delray Beach and Eastbourne, both of which he lost.
Tipsarevic said he will have to be at the top of his game to claim the title against Baghdatis, who has shown a return to form.
“Both Marcos and I are playing good tennis,” Tipsarevic said. “I know I have to play like I did today or better to have a chance to win the final tomorrow. Marcos is an experienced player — he will not give me the final, I will have to take it from him and play aggressively. I’m here to win one more match — if not then it’s still been a good week overall.”
Baghdatis is turning around a disappointing season in which he has dropped from 20th to 60th, reaching his first final since Moscow a year ago.
“It feels great to be in another final, but there’s still one match to go,” he said. “Today was a strange first set from both of us, struggling with our serves, but I stayed calm and focused on what I had to and played the important points better in the first set. I’m happy with the way I fought, and to win without spending too much time on court.”
Baghdatis has put in a patchy effort since January, but he has not lost a set this week in the Malaysian capital on his way to eliminating two seeds, No. 6 Alex Bogomolov and No. 4 Jurgen Melzer.
Baghdatis, winner of four career titles, took just less than 90 minutes for his semi-final victory, advancing to the title match on the first of two match points.
The winner saved five of the seven break points he faced while cracking the Troicki serve six times to take a 2-1 lead in their series.
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