Kevin Anderson survived a five-hour rain delay to clinch a berth in the semi-finals of the US Clay Court Championships with a grueling 7-5, 6-7 (6/8), 7-6 (7/3) win over Jeremy Chardy.
The 28-year-old South African did not wrap up Friday’s marathon quarter-final match until 11 hours after he stepped on court to face France’s Chardy.
“They were incredibly tough conditions,” Anderson said. “I could have made it a little easier on myself, but it’s something I can improve on going into the next match. I have to give myself credit, I think I did a great job sticking it out.”
Anderson now seeks to reach the 10th ATP Tour final of his career and his second this season when he faces world No. 46 Jack Sock, of the US, in the semis.
Anderson also made the final earlier this year in Memphis.
He served for the match at 5-4 in the second set before Chardy rallied to win the tiebreaker.
Anderson served for the victory again at 5-3 in the third set, only to get broken for a third time. He would need a deciding tiebreak to seal the match.
Sock followed up his upset victory over second seed Roberto Bautista Agut with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Santiago Giraldo.
It is the third time he has reached the semi-finals at an ATP event, with each coming on a different surface — the hardcourts in Atlanta, grass in Newport and now clay courts in Houston.
American Sam Querrey defeated top seed Feliciano Lopez 6-4, 6-1 and Fernando Verdasco, of Spain, toppled Russian Teimuraz Gabashvili 6-2, 6-3.
Grand Prix Hassan II
AP, CASABLANCA, Morocco
Third-seeded Jiri Vesely easily advanced to the semi-finals of the Grand Prix Hassan II with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Aljaz Bedene on Friday.
The 21-year-old Czech player, who is regarded as a future star of the game, saved the two break points he faced and broke his opponent’s serve three times.
Vezely, who lost seven straight matches before starting his campaign at the clay-court event, is up against Daniel Gimeno-Traver in the next round. The Spaniard dropped only six points on his first serve to dispatch Lamine Ouahab 6-4, 6-3.
Spaniard Nicola Almagro was denied a 250th career win on his favorite surface, losing 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) to second-seeded Martin Klizan.
“I feel great, it was a very good match today,” Klizan said. “I was very focused during every point and I’m very proud of this victory against Almagro. I always play well in Morocco. I spend a lot of time here playing tournaments.”
Klizan next takes on Damir Dzumhur, who made light work of sixth-seeded Andreas Haider-Maurer 6-3, 6-3 to reach his first Tour semi-final.
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
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
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