World No. 2 Maria Sharapova eased into the quarter-finals of the Stuttgart indoor tournament after France’s Alize Cornet retired with an injury at the start of the second set.
Sharapova, hoping to complete her set of Grand Slams with a victory at the French Open, had added the Stuttgart clay court event to her calendar to prepare for next month’s tournament at Roland Garros.
However, Cornet gave her a short start on the indoor clay courts retiring with a shoulder injury while trailing 6-3, 1-0.
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“It was [qualifier] Alize’s fifth match in five days. Tennis is very tough on the body,” said Sharapova, who wants to get clay court practice ahead of Paris.
“Practicing helps, but matches are always a bit different. You have to get used to the different match situations and opponents with different styles,” she told reporters.
Former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki advanced to the second round by the same score after fellow Serbian Jelena Jankovic also retired injured.
Germany’s Mona Barthel sent Ana Ivanovic packing 7-5, 7-6 to confirm her fine form this year and set up a second round clash with seventh seed Marion Bartoli.
“This was something special, because Ana used to be a bit of a role model for me,” Barthel told reporters. “I was still in school when she won the French Open and I watched it on TV. That was at the time a long way for me.”
Wild card entrant Barthel, who won her maiden WTA tournament in Hobart earlier this year, saved two set points against the former world No. 1 in the first set and fired a total of 11 aces as she breezed past Serbian Ivanovic.
Hungary’s Greta Arn initially troubled Agnieszka Radwanska with her powerful backhand, with each player grabbing an early break before the Polish world No. 4 broke her again with a fine crosscourt smash to move 4-2 up and hold serve to clinch the first set 6-3.
Arn rescued a break point to hold serve with yet another sublime backhand and lead 3-2, but Radwanska got the necessary break a little later to win 6-3, 6-4 and became the first quarter-finalist when the Hungarian sank a forehand return into the net.
GRAND PRIX SAR
AP, FEZ, MOROCCO
Second-seed Svetlana Kuznetsova is out of the WTA Tour’s Grand Prix SAR after retiring in the third set of her second-round match against Irina-Camelia Begu on Wednesday.
Top-seeded Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain progressed, meanwhile, with a straight-set win over Mandy Minella of Luxembourg. The Spaniard won 6-2, 6-3.
Former French and US Open champion Kuznetsova breezed through the first set 6-1 against Begu, lost the second in a tiebreaker and was down 3-2 in the decider when she pulled out with an apparent leg injury.
Sixth-seeded Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa was also eliminated in the second round, losing in three sets to Dutch qualifier Kiki Bertens.
Third-seeded Petra Cetkovska and fifth-seeded Simona Halep progressed to the third round with straight-set wins, while qualifier Garbine Muguruza Blanco of Spain beat Patricia Mayr-Achleitner, who also retired after losing the first set 6-4.
Another Spaniard, Laura Pous-Tio, beat Arantxa Rus 6-3, 7-5.
France’s Mathilde Johansson beat eighth-seeded Shahar Peer of Israel in three sets, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 for a place in the third round.
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