Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber cruised into the WTA claycourt semi-finals in Charleston on Friday with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Irina-Camelia Begu.
The top seed from Germany had lost two of her prior three meetings with Begu, but the Romanian looked tired after saving a match point in her third-round win over Monica Puig on Thursday.
“I think I was mentally there. I was trying to focus on myself because it’s always tough to play against her,” said Kerber, who must beat seventh-seeded American Sloane Stephens in the semis to retain the world No. 2 ranking. “Sometimes you lose your rhythm against her [Begu], so that’s what I was focusing on — just trying to go for it, move good on clay and just win the match because I remember the last match against her, I lost.”
Begu produced 23 winners in the second set, but her 35 unforced errors doomed her attempt to mount a rally.
Stephens defeated 14th-seeded Russian Daria Kasatkina 6-1, 5-7, 7-5.
Russian qualifier Elena Vesnina, who toppled second-seeded Belinda Bencic in the second round, reached the semi-finals with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Germany’s Laura Siegemund.
KATOWICE OPEN
AP, KATOWICE, Poland
Third-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia played Timea Babos for the first time, beating the seventh-seeded Hungarian 7-6 (7/3), 2-6, 6-3 on Friday to reach the semi-finals of the Katowice Open.
She will be seeking her second WTA final this year in a semi-final match against fifth-seeded Camila Giorgi.
The Italian overcame ninth-seeded Kirsten Flipkens 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 to claim her first victory over the Belgian after two losses.
In another quarter-final, eighth-seeded Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia made the semi-finals with a 7-5, 6-1 victory over unseeded Francesca Schiavone of Italy.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB