Taiwan’s Jimmy Wang crashed out of the Claro Open Colombia quarter-finals on Friday after he was beaten by defending champion and No. 2 seed Ivo Karlovic in Bogota.
The Croatian improved to 7-0 at the hard-court event after serving 21 aces, facing no break-point chances and converting two of seven to defeat Wang 6-3, 7-6 (8/6) in 1 hour, 25 minutes.
Karlovic goes on to face fellow 35-year-old Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic after the fourth seed beat hometown favorite Alejandro Gonzalez 6-4, 6-4.
In yesterday’s other semi-final, wild-card Bernard Tomic of Australia was due to face off against No. 8 seed Victor Estrella Burgos of the Dominican Republic.
Estrella Burgos reached his first ATP Tour semi-final after defeating top seed Richard Gasquet of France 6-3, 6-4 in 1 hour, 5 minutes, while Tomic advanced after a 6-4, 6-4 win over Vasek Pospisil of Canada.
The Australian hammered 10 aces and saved the lone break-point opportunity created by the No. 3 seed.
HAMBURG OPEN
AP, HAMBURG, Germany
The 17-year-old Alexander Zverev reached the semi-finals of his hometown tournament by defeating Tobias Kamke 0-6, 7-5, 6-3 in the Hamburg Open on Friday.
Zverev earned just six points in the opening set, but he saved seven of 11 break points and converted four chances to beat his fellow Hamburg resident in two hours.
The 285th-ranked Zverev is the first 17-year-old to reach an ATP semi-finals since 2006, when Marin Cilic lost to Feliciano Lopez at Gstaad.
Zverev has also beaten Robin Haase, fifth-seeded Mikhail Youzhny and 11th-seeded Santiago Giraldo. He next faces top-seeded David Ferrer, who eased past Spanish compatriot Pablo Andujar 6-0, 6-2.
Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer defeated Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic 6-1, 7-5 and the seventh-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany later beat Czech player Lukas Rosol 6-4, 6-4 to complete the other semi-final.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
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