Caroline Wozniacki was dumped from the Sydney International yesterday, opening the way for rival Petra Kvitova to seize the world No. 1 ranking heading into next week’s Australian Open.
Wozniacki crashed out to Polish world No. 8 Agnieszka Radwanska 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 in the quarter-finals after being broken while serving out for the match at 5-4 in the second set.
Radwanska will now face Belarussian third seed Victoria Azarenka in today’s semis, with Kvitova lining up against Chinese defending champion Li Na in the day’s other semi-final.
Photo: Reuters
Wimbledon champion Kvitova had an emphatic straight-sets victory over Daniela Hantuchova, while world No. 5 Li downed Czech Lucie Safarova 6-2, 7-6 (7/3).
Kvitova is on track to take the No. 1 ranking by winning the tournament.
Wozniacki, whose tenure at the top of the women’s singles rankings comes despite not yet winning a Grand Slam in 19 attempts, was taken to a third set by Radwanska after appearing to be in a winning position.
Photo: Reuters
The Dane seemed troubled by a left-wrist injury as Radwanska broke her three times in the final to claim only her second victory in seven meetings.
Earlier, Kvitova reeled off the opening eight games before dishing out a 6-0, 6-4 victory over Hantuchova, the Slovak No. 21.
Kvitova, who like Li has been in top form in preparation for the season’s first Grand Slam in Melbourne, swept to victory breaking Hantuchova’s service five times for her fourth win over the Slovakian.
Photo: AFP
Li said she was playing her best tennis since before last year’s Wimbledon as she battled into the semi-finals.
The world No. 5 needed 1 hour, 50 minutes to subdue battling Czech Safarova in blustery conditions to move into the last four in the defense of the Sydney title she won last year.
It was Li’s third win this week, continuing her upsurge in form after a dismal follow-up to her landmark French Open success at Roland Garros, which saw her become the first Asian to win a Grand Slam title.
Li, 29, was clearly relieved to have put her problems of the second half of last year behind her and is eyeing back-to-back Sydney finals.
“Of course I’m feeling good,” she said. “Win here last year and this year reach the semis in just the beginning of the year, yeah, I am feeling much, much stronger.”
Belarussian Azarenka downed France’s Marion Bartoli 7-5, 6-4 in their quarter-final.
In the men’s matches, Juan Martin del Potro brushed aside Lukasz Kubot to reach the quarter-finals as the Argentine edges closer to cracking the top 10 rankings.
World No. 11 del Potro, clawing his way back after a career-threatening wrist injury, downed the 58th-ranked Polish player 6-4, 6-2 in blustery conditions on the Ken Rosewall Arena.
The 2009 US Open champion and Sydney top seed will take on unseeded Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis in the quarter-finals.
Baghdatis, the 2010 Sydney champion, took more than two hours to subdue Australia’s Matthew Ebden 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7/3).
American second seed John Isner crashed out 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 to compatriot Bobby Reynolds, who will face Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen in the last eight.
Nieminen, a runner-up in Sydney three years ago, accounted for eighth seed Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 7-6 (7/5), 5-7, 6-1.
French third seed Richard Gasquet cruised past Italian Fabio Fognini in straight sets and will take on Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin in the quarters.
Two more men’s seeds were knocked out late yesterday, with Frenchman Julien Benneteau accounting for fourth-seeded Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 6-4 and Russia’s Alex Bogomolov Jr eliminating Serbian fifth seed Viktor Troicki 7-6 (7/5), 6-4.
KOOYONG CLASSIC
AFP, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
A jet-lagged Jo-Wilfried Tsonga paid the price for a flight halfway round the world yesterday as he lost his Kooyong Classic opener in straight sets to Austria’s Jurgen Melzer.
The 6-4, 6-3 defeat in cold and blustery conditions drops the French world No. 6 into the relegation round, where he will face Milos Raonic of Canada, who won the Chennai Open in India last week.
The eight-man Kooyong tournament, where players face three matches in the space of four days, is a key warm-up for the Australian Open.
Tsonga recorded the best Grand Slam performance of his career when he reached the Australian Open final in 2008, but admitted he had not adjusted to the time difference from Doha, where he won the Qatar Open on Saturday.
“I’m not feeling very well. I still have jet lag. We train a lot and we all want to be ready for the Open. Today was difficult with the conditions,” he said.
His compatriot Gael Monfils, the losing finalist in Doha, came up a winner as he beat three-time Kooyong champion Andy Roddick 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/3). He will next play Bernard Tomic.
“It was a tough match, very windy,” said Monfils, Kooyong runner-up last year. “I stayed focused and won it. This is good Australian Open preparation. Andy is always tough, this was a good match.”
Raonic lost 6-1, 6-2 to American Mardy Fish, who will play world No. 33 Melzer in the promotion round.
Australia’s 19-year-old Tomic, ranked 37th, began living up to local expectations as he bids to fill the shoes of fading hero Lleyton Hewitt, scoring a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over the Czech Republic’s Tomas Berdych.
He also struggled with the wind, calling the game he had to play on court “not tennis.”
Tsonga had beaten the 30-year-old Melzer in both of their two previous meetings in 2008.
“We had really tough conditions, but when the wind wasn’t blowing I hit some good shots,” Melzer said. “It’s always good to get a win over a top 10 guy. I had some good form today. I hope to keep it up this week and straight through to the Open.”
HOBART INTERNATIONAL
REUTERS, WITH STAFF WRITER
Second seed Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain crashed out of the Hobart International yesterday, losing in straight sets to Germany’s Mona Barthel 6-1, 6-4.
In other action, fifth seed Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia shrugged off a disappointing second set to defeat compatriot Anastasia Rodionova 6-3, 1-6, 6-4.
Israel’s sixth seed Shahar Peer managed to fend off hard-charging Kiwi Sacha Jones 7-6 (9/7), 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