ATP WORLD TOUR
Spanish seed Nicolas Almagro reached the quarter-finals of the Barcelona Open on Thursday before rain wrecked more than half of the third-round program.
Second seed Rafael Nadal was due to face French 13th seed Benoit Paire, but never got started due to the weather.
His match was moved to yesterday though forecasts remained grim for the ensuing days, with more rain likely.
In a match stranded on court, Slovak Martin Klizan led German eighth seed Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-1, 6-7 (2/7), 4-3.
Beside Nadal, third-round matches involving seeds including No. 3 Tomas Berdych, No. 5 Milos Raonic and No. 6 Kei Nishikori were all postponed.
Almagro, seeded fourth, defeated compatriot Marcel Granollers 6-3, 6-4, in 93 minutes.
Argentine Juan Monaco, the No. 7 seed, put out French 10th seed Jeremy Chardy 6-0, 7-6 (13/11) while Brazilian No. 16 Thomaz Bellucci ended the upset run of Dmitry Tursunov 4-6, 6-1, 6-3.
The Russian qualifier had knocked out top seeded Spaniard David Ferrer the day before, leaving second seed Nadal with a gilt-edged opportunity for an eighth title from nine appearances at the Real Club de Tenis.
Almagro broke Granollers three times to set up his quarter-final with Monaco. The Spaniard leads the Argentine four wins to three, with Monaco winning their last two over the past two seasons.
“I have a tough quarter-final, so I don’t want to look any further,” the Spaniard said. “I don’t want to put any more pressure on myself than is necessary.”
“I’m eager to win the title. I’m playing well and being more aggressive on court. Tomorrow will be difficult, but I’m on good form and have the crowd support,” he said.
Almagro’s victory was his seventh without a loss against Granollers. Almagro has twice reached Barcelona semi-finals (2006, 2011) and is competing at the event for the 10th time.
He improved to 19-9 in Barcelona as he won his 13th clay match of the season.
NASTASE TIRIAC TROPHY
AP, BUCHAREST
Top-seeded Janko Tipsarevic marched into the BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy quarter-finals with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Santiago Giraldo of Colombia on Thursday.
Tipsarevic dropped serve just once and saved eight of the nine break points he faced.
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain will face Tipsarevic after beating Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, while Romania’s Victor Hanescu eliminated fourth-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia 6-4, 6-3 and No. 5 Florian Mayer passed David Goffin of Belgium 7-6 (7/2), 1-6, 6-3. Hanescu was due to play Mayer yesterday.
The other quarter-finals were due to feature defending champion Gilles Simon playing Daniel Brands, and eighth-seeded Viktor Troicki going up against Lukas Rosol.
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