After struggling with injuries last year, Nikolay Davydenko and Gael Monfils are playing some of their best tennis again at the Qatar Open.
Davydenko reached the quarter-finals by beating fourth-seeded Mikhail Youzhny 7-5, 6-3 on Wednesday. He was joined by Monfils, who upset third-seed Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.
Top-seeded David Ferrer swept aside Germany qualifier Tobias Kamke 6-3, 6-2 to advance. After going down an early break in the first set, the Spaniard won five straight games on the way to winning the first set. Ferrer then saved two break points in the second to hold for 4-2 and was never challenged afterward.
Davydenko has struggled in recent years with injuries, but the Russian, who was once ranked as high as No. 3, combined a consistent first serve with aggressive play to eliminate the 25th-ranked Youzhny.
Davydenko broke his opponent to take a 6-5 lead in the first set and won when Youzhny hit a forehand into the net. Davydenko kept the momentum going into the second set, forcing Youzhny to save a break point in the first and third games. At 2-2, Davydenko won three successive games to take control.
Ahead of the season-opening tournament, the 44th-ranked Davydenko said he was targeting a place in the top 20 this year after failing to win a tournament last year.
“If I really concentrate and [practice] and play, I want to see results,” Davydenko said.
Monfils, who has fallen to 77th in the rankings after knee troubles forced him to cut short his season last year, used his powerful service game to take the lead. However, in the second set, the Frenchman appeared to get frazzled by a new rule that requires players to serve in 25 seconds.
Monfils repeatedly argued with the umpire after being warned he was taking too long, and Kohlschreiber soon took a 5-1 lead in the set.
In the third set, Monfils served four of his 10 aces, while Kohlschreiber started making more unforced errors. The German also missed three chances to break Monfils.
Second-seeded Richard Gasquet stormed back from a set down to beat 55th-ranked Grega Zemlja of Slovenia 6-7, 6-4, 7-6 in a match that lasted nearly three hours.
Gasquet struggled to return Zemlja’s serve. Still, he could have won the first set, but failed to convert two points to seal it and then made a slew of unforced errors that cost him the tiebreaker.
The 10th-ranked Frenchman recovered in the second set. He broke Zemlja to go up 5-4 and then saved three break points to win the final game, closing it out with one of his 14 aces.
Zemlja recovered in the third set. He went up 2-0 and 5-2, only for Gasquet to win three games in a row. The match went to a tiebreaker and nerves seemed to get the best of the Slovenian. Gasquet served well and closed out the match with a serve and volley.
CHENNAI OPEN
AP, CHENNAI, India
Second-seeded Janko Tipsarevic beat French player Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-2, 6-3 on Wednesday in the second round of the Chennai Open.
Also, Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia defeated sixth-seeded Robin Haase of the Netherlands 7-5, 6-3, and fourth-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka beat German qualifier Cedrik Marcel-Stebe 6-4, 6-3.
Go Soeda beat Indian qualifier Prakash Amritraj 7-6, 3-6, 6-4.
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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