Novak Djokovic and Ana Ivanovic led Serbia into the Hopman Cup final, winning their singles matches yesterday over Germany. Djokovic beat Tommy Haas 6-2, 6-0, while Ivanovic defeated Tatjana Malek 6-0, 6-1.
The Serbs will face Spain in today’s final.
Djokovic took a 4-0 lead in the first set, but was then broken by Haas in the fifth game. The German held his serve for the only time in the match in the next game.
Photo: AFP
Haas then had three break points when trailing 2-0 in the second set but he could not convert.
Earlier, South Africa beat France 2-1 when Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had to retire in the deciding mixed doubles match with a left hamstring injury. The Frenchman was later forced to withdraw from next week’s Sydney International.
Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa beat Mathilde Johansson 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 before Tsonga defeated Kevin Anderson 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/3), including winning the final five points of the first-set tiebreaker.
During the singles match, Tsonga injured his leg while stretching for a shot.
Scheepers and Anderson had won the first set of the mixed doubles 6-3 and were trailing 1-2 and on serve in the second when Tsonga indicated that he could not continue.
Neither team had a chance of advancing to the final.
Tsonga said he was unsure of the exact nature of his injury, but his retirement was a precaution to ensure he does not worsen the problem before the Australian Open, which begins in Melbourne on Jan. 14.
In the women’s singles, both players struggled to find their best form or consistency, with the pair sharing 111 unforced errors and 33 break points.
At the end of the two hour, 50 minute match which included 15 breaks of serve, Johansson finally gave her opponent a crucial breakthrough by dropping serve with her 12th double-fault to leave Scheepers serving for victory.
“I think we both played well within stages of the match,” Scheepers said.
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