Kevin Anderson came back to defeat Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine 6-1, 5-7, 6-4 on Friday and advance to the Mexican Open.
The fifth-seeded South African, runner up last week at Delray Beach, will be playing in back-to-back finals for the first time in his career. Ranked 21st, Anderson will face the winner of the other semi-final between Andy Murray and Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov.
Dolgopolov lost to Rafael Nadal in the Rio de Janeiro Open final last week.
Anderson downed Frenchman Stephane Robertson and American Sam Querrey on his way to the to Mexican Open quarter-finals, where his opponent, David Ferrer, retired with a left-leg injury.
On the women’s side, top-seeded Dominika Cibulkova reached her first final since the Australian Open after Zhang Shuai retired with a right bicep injury.
Cibulkova, 13th in the WTA rankings, was leading 4-2 in the first set when her Chinese opponent decided to quit.
“This is awesome, I came to Mexico looking for a couple of victories to get back on track, and I will be playing for a title,” Cibulkova said.
The Slovakian was beaten by Li Na in the Australian Open final.
Cibulkova is to play the winner of the later semi-final between Christina McHale and Caroline Garcia.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later