Andreas Seppi earned his 10th singles win this year by defeating Marcel Granollers of Spain 7-6 (7/5), 6-1 to reach the Zagreb Indoors final on Saturday.
Seppi faces another Spaniard, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, who beat 2007 champion Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 6-4, 6-4 in the first semi-final.
Seppi and Gacria-Lopez are through to their seventh ATP final; it is Seppi’s first since Moscow in 2012 and Garcia-Lopez’s first since winning in Casablanca, Morocco, last year. Seppi leads their head-to-heads 4-0 on the Tour.
After taking the first-set tiebreaker on his second set point, Seppi rolled to 4-0 in the second set and broke again to close the match. Seppi was in Zagreb for the first time since the inaugural event in 2006, when he reached the quarter-finals.
“This was not an easy match,” he said. “I served well in the tiebreaker and played better tennis in the second set.”
“One of my goals for this season was to be in the final again, and to win a title again,” he said. “One is achieved and another one might be... I am feeling really well.”
Garcia-Lopez beat Baghdatis for the third time in as many outings. Baghdatis was appearing in his first ATP semi-final since Brisbane, Australia, in January 2013, but he could not muster enough pressure.
? OPEN SUD DE FRANCE
AP, MONTPELLIER, France
Two-time champion and local favorite Richard Gasquet was to take on big serving Jerzy Janowicz of Poland in the final of the Open Sud de France yesterday after the Frenchman defeated his Davis Cup teammate Gael Monfils 6-4, 6-3 on Saturday in a rematch of last year’s final.
The fourth-seeded Gasquet, who was born in the nearby city of Beziers, has yet to lose a set in the tournament.
Gasquet leads Janowicz 2-1 in their head-to-heads, and beat him in semis in Montpellier last year.
Janowicz, chasing a first ATP title, battled nearly two hours and hit 14 aces to get past Joao Sousa of Portugal 7-6 (11/9), 3-6, 6-1 and make it to his third Tour final.
ECUADOR OPEN
AP, QUITO
At the Ecuador Open semi-finals on Saturday, Feliciano Lopez of Spain defeated compatriot Fernando Verdasco 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/1), while Victor Estrella Burgos of the Dominican Republic beat Brazil’s Thomaz Bellucci 7-6 (7/5), 7-5.
US track and field athletes have about four dozen pieces to choose from when assembling their uniforms at the Olympics. The one grabbing the most attention is a high-cut leotard that barely covers the bikini line and has triggered debate between those who think it is sexist and others who say they do not need the Internet to make sure they have good uniforms. Among those critical or laughing at the uniforms included Paralympian Femita Ayanbeku, sprinter Britton Wilson and even athletes from other countries such as Britain’s Abigail Irozuru, who wrote on social media: “Was ANY female athlete consulted in
Forget Real Madrid, Manchester City or Paris Saint-Germain, the world’s best soccer team — statistically speaking — might be a little-known outfit from the closed central Asian nation of Turkmenistan. Founded last year, Arkadag, named in honor of former Turkmen president Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, have been unstoppable, notching up 36 consecutive domestic victories in a run still ongoing. The side have not lost a single competitive match and swept to a league and cup double in their inaugural season — success unthinkable almost anywhere else. However, in Turkmenistan, it could hardly have gone any other way. The energy-rich country is one of the most closed
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Taiwan’s Lee Jhe-huei and Yang Po-hsuan on Saturday won the men’s doubles bronze medal at the Badminton Asia Championships in Ningbo, China, after they were bested by the hosts in their semi-final. The Taiwanese shuttlers lost to China’s Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang, who advanced to yesterday’s final against Malaysia’s Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzudin. The Chinese pair outplayed Lee and Yang in straight games. Although the Taiwanese got off to a slow start in the first game, they eventually tied it 14-14, before Liang and Wang went on to blow past them to win 21-17. In the second game, Lee and