Australians Bernard Tomic and Marinko Matosevic took similar paths to the quarter-finals of the BMW Open on Thursday.
Both dominated the opening sets, lost the middle tiebreakers and recovered in the third.
Fifth seed Tomic beat Potito Starace of Italy 6-1, 6-7 (4/7), 6-3 to make his first career quarter-final on clay. Tomic was down a break of serve at the start of the final set, before coming back.
Photo: EPA
Matosevic defeated fellow qualifier Robert Farah of Colombia 6-1, 6-7 (2/7), 6-2. Matosevic is playing his first career tournament on clay.
Tomic next goes up against Feliciano Lopez, the second-seeded Spaniard who beat Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine 6-4, 7-6 (7/4).
Matosevic plays fourth seed Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany, who beat Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 7-5, 6-3.
In the other quarter-finals, third seed Marin Cilic of Croatia plays sixth seed Mikhail Youzhny of Russia and eighth seed Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus meets Tommy Haas of Germany.
SERBIA OPEN
AP, BELGRADE
Top seed Pablo Andujar of Spain rallied past Filippo Volandri of Italy 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 to reach the Serbia Open quarter-finals on Thursday.
Andujar had to save 10 of 14 break points he faced to beat Volandri in 2 hours, 20 minutes spent in humid, 28oC heat.
He is aiming to win his second title of the year after taking the title in Casablanca.
Benoit Paire of France also came from behind, beating Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 in 2 hours, 24 minutes for his third quarter-final of the year.
Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic defeated Victor Hanescu of Romania 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 and he is scheduled to meet Andujar next.
The match between third seed Jarkko Nieminen of Finland and Croatian qualifier Antonio Veic was suspended because of heavy rain.
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
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