Sara Errani overcame a slow start to defeat Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa 2-6, 6-1, 6-3 in the quarter-finals of the Gastein Ladies on Friday.
The 14th-ranked Italian, who won the doubles at Wimbledon last week, was broken three times in the opening set as she won just six points on her serve.
Errani, who was seeded second, dominated play afterward to set up a semi-final against Shelby Rogers, who beat No. 7 Camila Giorgi of Italy 6-1, 7-5.
Appearing in her first WTA quarter-final, the 147th-ranked qualifier from the US dropped serve only once, while Giorgi hit 11 double faults.
Earlier, Andrea Petkovic reached her third semi-final of the season by defeating Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland 6-3, 6-2.
The fourth-seeded German, who won her first of three career titles here in 2009, broke Voegele’s serve eight times in a match interrupted for 3.5 hours by rain at 1-1 in the second set.
Petkovic will next play Grace Min of the US, who beat No. 8 Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-1 in just under an hour.
It is the first WTA semifinal for the 138th-ranked Min, who won two events on the lower-tier ITF circuit this season.
BUCHAREST OPEN
AP, BUCHAREST, Romania
Top-seeded Simona Halep defeated Spain’s Lara Arruabarrena 6-3, 6-1 on Friday to advance to the semi-finals of the BRD Bucharest Open.
Halep will play fellow Romanian Monica Niculescu on Saturday. The unseeded Niculescu upset eighth-seeded Polona Hercog of Slovenia in a 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (7/3) victory.
The other semifinal will be between second-seeded Roberta Vinci of Italy and Slovakia’s Kristina Kucova.
Vinci beat Petra Cetkovska of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-3, while Kucova defeated Montenegro’s Danka Kovinic 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.
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