Alexandr Dolgopolov is a major doubt for next week’s Australian Open after he retired hurt in the Kooyong Classic final yesterday, handing Spain’s Fernando Verdasco his second title at the exhibition event.
The Ukrainian, who is 21st seed and scheduled to play Italy’s Paulo Lorenzi in the first round at Melbourne Park next week, had just lost the first-set tiebreak 7-3 when he called for the trainer.
Clutching his right knee, he decided he could not continue, leaving his big-serving Spanish opponent to claim another title after his 2010 triumph.
Photo: AFP
“It’s my right knee, I had surgery on it last year and it started to feel the same as before,” Dolgopolov, who reached the last eight of the Australian Open in 2011, told Channel Seven. “The knee is locked, I’m going to get a scan and I really hope I’ll be able to play, but I’m not sure of that. I’m just hoping I can get out on court. That would be good for me.”
Kei Nishikori, last year’s champion at Kooyong, earlier completed his preparations for another tilt at becoming the first Asian to win the men’s singles title at the Grand Slam of the Asia-Pacific.
The Japanese, seeded fifth at the Australian Open, went down 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (8/6) to France’s Richard Gasquet, 24th seed at Melbourne Park, in the match to decide who would finish third in the traditional warm-up for the year’s first Grand Slam.
In New Zealand, world No. 16 Kevin Anderson was stunned 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) by Jiri Vesely in the semi-finals of the Auckland Open, the Czech qualifier outserving the tall South African to set up a meeting with Adrian Mannarino.
Mannarino earlier won an all-French clash against Lucas Pouille 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 to reach what will be a first ATP final for the world No. 44 and Vesely.
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
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Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier