Top seed Richard Gasquet of France easily advanced to the Open Sud de France quarter-finals after beating fellow countryman Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-1, 6-3 on Thursday.
Gasquet, the defending champion, saved all seven break-point chances he faced and broke Mathieu’s serve twice in each set.
He next faces another countryman, qualifier Albano Olivetti.
Photo: AFP
Third seed Jerzy Janowicz of Poland beat Adrian Mannarino of France 7-6 (7/2), 6-3 and next plays seventh seed Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France after he won 6-3, 6-4 against Dustin Brown of Germany.
Earlier, veteran Marc Gicquel beat second seed Gilles Simon 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 in their first meeting for six years. The Frenchmen dropped serve twice in the first set, but Giquel broke Simon two more times in the second.
Gicquel moves on to face sixth seed Jarkko Nieminen of Finland, who advanced with a 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/5) win over wild-card Pierre-Hugues Herbert, despite the Frenchman’s 23 aces.
Fifth seed Gael Monfils had little trouble beating Portugal’s Joao Sousa 6-3, 6-2, while Olivetti downed Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (5/7), 7-5.
In another second-round upset, fourth seed Dmitry Tursunov of Russia lost 7-5, 6-4 against Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan, who next plays Monfils.
ROYAL GUARD OPEN
AP, VINA DEL MAR, Chile
Top seed Fabio Fognini of Italy defeated Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia 6-4, 7-6 (7/0) on Thursday to reach the quarter-finals of the Royal Guard Open.
Fognini next faces No. 5 seed Jeremy Chardy of France, who moved into the final eight by beating Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain 6-3, 7-6 (7/5).
Third seed Nicolas Almagro of Spain won his first competitive match in more than three months, defeating Martin Alund of Argentina 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
A shoulder injury forced Almagro to miss Sydney and the Australian Open.
Of his 12 titles on the ATP Tour, all on clay, six were on the Latin America swing, the most of any player. He has won in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico, and is bidding for his first win in Chile.
He will face first-time ATP Tour quarter-finalist Daniel Taro, who beat eighth seed Federico Delbonis of Argentina 1-6, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (8/6).
Taro, a Japanese who entered as a qualifier, was born in New York, but trains in Valencia, Spain, where he learned the clay-court game.
Unseeded Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain beat Hector Zeballos of Argentina 6-2, 6-4 and his opponent in the last eight is Leonardo Mayer of Argentina, who advanced on Wednesday with a victory over second seed Tommy Robredo of Spain.
Rafael Nadal, the world’s top clay-court player, skipped the event.
On Thursday, he pulled out of next week’s event in Buenos Aires, saying a stomach virus had kept him from practicing. He also is recovering from a back injury.
It is not clear if he will play the following week in Rio de Janeiro.
ZAGREB INDOORS
AP, ZAGREB
German qualifier Bjorn Phau upset second seed Mikhail Youzhny to reach the quarter-finals of the Zagreb Indoors on Thursday.
Phau beat the Russian 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 and will compete in his first quarter-final since Stuttgart, Germany, in 2012.
Another qualifier and a lucky loser also made the last eight.
Youzhny, the 2012 champion, was playing well until he lost his serve in the second set when he foot-faulted. Phau used the opportunity to win four games in a row and turn the match around.
“It was not the foot fault that caused me to lose the match,” Youzhny said, adding he felt sick during play.
Top seed Tommy Haas of Germany came back from one set down to beat countryman Benjamin Becker 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 for his first victory this year.
“Every time you win you appreciate the fact,” Haas said. “There is still a lot of work to be done.”
Third seed Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany defeated Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan 6-4, 6-2, while Croatia’s Ivan Dodig notched his fourth straight win against fellow countryman Ivo Karlovic 7-6 (7/5), 6-3.
“It’s not easy to play against a very good friend,” Dodig said. “Hopefully, I can now win the title.”
Russian qualifier Andrey Kuznetsov beat eighth seed Igor Sijsling of the Netherlands 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), while lucky loser Daniel Evans of Britain beat Michael Berrer of Germany 1-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7/4).
Dudi Sela of Israel also advanced, defeating Lukas Lacko of Slovakia 6-3, 6-2.
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
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite