World No. 3 Maria Sharapova slumped to a surprise 6-4, 6-4 defeat against German Angelique Kerber in the Paris Open quarter-finals on Friday.
The top seeded Russian broke first in both sets, but failed to take her chances and was eventually eliminated when she hit a forehand out on match point.
“It was a hard day. She played extremely well,” Sharapova told reporters. “I was not as aggressive as I would have liked to be and she has a lot of power.”
Sharapova, who reached the final of the Australian Open last month, denied she took Kerber lightly.
“I did not underestimate her. She has been playing very well for six months,” the Russian said. “You would like to be in the final in every tournament you play, but let’s be realistic, the positive thing is I have the feeling I can play better than this.”
Kerber was delighted after beating a top five player for the first time in her career.
“I played very well. I just played my game, that was my plan,” ninth seed Kerber said.
The world No. 27 next meets Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium, who beat German Mona Barthel 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 6-3 in their late -quarter-final clash.
Local hope Marion Bartoli was trailing 4-1 in the second set and 5-2 in the third and needed to show tremendous grit to battle back and beat Italy’s Roberta Vinci 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/2).
The second seed will meet Klara Zakopalova in the last four after the Czech beat sixth seed Julia Goerges of Germany 3-6, 7-5, 6-1.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
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