Former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki on Saturday maintained her dominance over Croatia’s Petra Martic to move into the final of the Charleston Open, where she is to face Madison Keys.
Denmark’s Wozniacki, showing confidence after an illness, defeated Martic 6-3, 6-4 before Keys of the US turned back Puerto Rico’s Monica Puig 6-4, 6-0 in a semi-final that was delayed for more than an hour by rain.
“I’m just so thrilled to be healthy. That’s the main thing,” the fifth-seeded Wozniacki said after making her first final of the year. “It’s been a long time since I made this long run here.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
Wozniacki broke Martic twice in the second set to claim the win and maintain her record of never having lost a set to Martic in six meetings.
World No. 13 Wozniacki grabbed a 4-2 lead in the second set, but the 16th-seeded Martic bounced back to level at 4-4 before Wozniacki broke back and closed out the match.
“I thought I was close,” Martic said. “But many players feel this way against Caroline. I felt like I couldn’t keep up with her physically.”
Keys led 4-3 in the first set when rain halted her match with Puig.
The big-hitting Keys, who upset top seed Sloane Stephens in the quarter-finals, lost only one more game, winning eight in a row to seal the victory.
Keys closed out the first set with a forehand service return, then broke Puig, the Olympic champion, three times in the decider.
However, Puig did not go quickly in the final game, saving three match points before Keys hit a big forehand return on a fourth match point to force an error from Puig.
The rain delay helped Keys.
“Honestly, it was good,” she said. “I had just gotten broken and I got to go inside and reset. I think I did a pretty good job to close it out.”
MONTERREY OPEN
Reuters
Belarus’ Victoria Azarenka on Saturday used her superior serving and punishing groundstrokes to upset top seed Angelique Kerber of Germany 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 in Mexico’s Monterrey Open.
In a battle of former world No. 1s, the momentum shifted in Azarenka’s favor early in the third set when Kerber committed two double faults in a careless service game to hand Azarenka a 2-0 lead.
Seizing the opportunity, Azarenka consolidated the break in the next game before cruising to the finish line to reach her first final in more than three years.
Earlier, second seed Garbine Muguruza eased past Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova 6-2, 6-3 to book her ticket to the final.
Azarenka came out the victor in her only previous meeting with Spain’s Muguruza, a hard-fought 7-6(6), 7-6(4) win on the hard courts in Miami in 2016.
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
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite