Colombian qualifier Robert Farah upset defending champion Nikolay Davydenko 6-3, 6-2 in the opening round of the BMW Open in Munich, Germany, on Tuesday.
The seventh-seeded Russian, who also won the tournament in 2004, dropped serve four times.
Sixth-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, the 2010 champion, edged out Philipp Petzschner of Germany 7-5, 7-5, and eighth-seeded Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus outlasted Tobias Kamke of Germany 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 for his first clay-court win of the season.
Photo: AFP
Baghdatis broke serve four times and saved six of eight break points to advance in a tournament he has twice been a semi-finalist.
Also advancing were Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine, Ernests Gulbis of Latvia, Dustin Brown and Matthias Bachinger of Germany, Potito Starace of Italy, Tommy Haas of Germany and Marinko Matosevic of Australia.
? Serbia Open
AP, BELGRADE
Seeded players Lukasz Kubot of Poland, Fabio Fognini of Italy and Ryan Harrison of the US were beaten in straight sets on Tuesday in the first round of the Serbia Open.
Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic beat the fifth-seeded Kubot 7-5, 6-2, Benoit Paire of France downed the sixth-seeded Fognini 6-1, 6-4 and Joao Souza of Brazil defeated the seventh-seeded Harrison 6-3, 6-3.
Eighth-seeded Gilles Muller downed Lukas Lacko of Slovakia 6-0, 4-6, 6-3, and Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez topped Igor Kunitsyn of Russia 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (1/7), 6-2.
Victor Hanescu, qualifier Aljaz Bedene, Antonio Veic and Eduardo Schwank all won.
The tournament is organized by the family of top-ranked Novak Djokovic, who is sitting out the tournament after the recent death of his grandfather.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB