Canada’s Milos Raonic took just 53 minutes to demolish Tommy Robredo 6-1, 6-2 and reach the semi-finals of the St Petersburg Open on Friday.
Raonic, the second seed and top-ranked player left in the draw, won almost twice as many points as his fifth-seeded Spanish opponent, hitting 10 aces in a one-sided match.
Raonic faces another Spanish player, fourth seed Roberto Bautista Agut, who earlier on Friday saw off France’s Lucas Pouille 6-2, 6-3.
World No. 9 Raonic said he respected Bautista Agut’s ability on serve, adding: “Hopefully I can find some solutions in my match” in televised comments.
A win against Raonic would continue success in Russia for Bautista Agut, whose past tour final came in October last year in Moscow. Raonic won their only meeting last year in straight sets in Paris.
In the other semi-final, Austrian third seed Dominic Thiem, ranked world No. 21, faces seventh-seeded Portuguese player Joao Sousa after they won their respective quarter-finals earlier on Friday.
Thiem stormed past Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin, holding serve throughout and converting three of 12 break points on his way to a 6-2, 7-5 win. The 22-year-old Austrian is chasing more success in a breakout season that has seen him win three titles from his first four ATP finals.
However, a final on the St Petersburg hard court would be Thiem’s first tour final on a surface other than clay.
Thiem has won all three of his previous encounters with Sousa, including beating him 6-4, 6-1 in the final of the Croatia Open in July.
Sousa won 7-6 (9/7), 7-6 (7/1) against Italy’s Simone Bolelli, who a day earlier had disposed of top seed Tomas Berdych. Even though the match did not feature a single break point for either player, the first-set tiebreak was tense, with Sousa saving set point from Bolelli on an 18-shot rally before converting his fourth set point.
OPEN DE MOSELLE
AP, METZ, France
Top-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka withdrew from the Open de Moselle with an ankle injury on Friday, while former two-time champion Gilles Simon made it to the semi-finals.
The French Open champion was scheduled to face Philipp Kohlschreiber in the quarter-finals at the indoor hard-court tournament, but was unable to play.
Wawrinka, who has already qualified for the ATP World Tour Finals from Nov. 15 to Nov. 22 in London, hurt his right ankle during his 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) win over Dustin Brown in the second round.
“Unfortunately I have to pull out because yesterday I twisted my ankle at 5-4 in the first set,” Wawrinka said. “It was painful in the match, but still OK with tape on it, but after a lot of treatment last night and some tests this morning, it’s dangerous for me to play because the pain is still there. So I will have to see a doctor to see if I will be OK in the next few weeks.”
The second-seeded Simon, who clinched his titles in the northeastern city in 2010 and 2013, converted two of his five breakpoints and withstood 12 aces to advance past Gilles Muller 6-4, 6-4. Next up, Simon faces sixth-seeded Martin Klizan, who rallied to beat fourth-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/4).
In the semi-finals, Kohlschreiber faces third-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who came back from one set down to beat fellow Frenchman Nicolas Mahut 6-7 (6/8), 6-3, 7-5.
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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
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