Ashleigh Barty on Friday edged closer to a return to the top WTA ranking after reaching the Western & Southern Open semi-finals as No. 1 Naomi Osaka retired with a knee injury.
Barty, the Australian top seed, engineered her second comeback in as many days, overhauling Maria Sakkari 5-7, 6-2, 6-0.
However, the US Open alarm bells were ringing for Osaka less than two weeks before the start of her title defense at Flushing Meadows, after a left-knee injury saw her retire against Sofia Kenin — sending the American into the semis with a 6-4, 1-6, 2-0 victory.
Photo: AP
Men’s top seed Novak Djokovic also had the trainer on during his 7-6 (7/2), 6-1 victory over Lucas Pouille, but hoped discomfort in his right elbow would not linger.
“I managed to finish the match, there was a little bit of tightness in there,” Djokovic said. “Hopefully all will be fine for tomorrow.”
The 16-time Grand Slam champion is next to face Daniil Medvedev, who beat Russian compatriot Andrey Rublev 6-2, 6-3.
Osaka’s left-knee trouble was more of a concern, putting a cloud over her US Open title defense.
“Last year I won the US Open and this year I’m trying to play the US Open,” she said. “I don’t even really think about winning the tournament. I just want to have the chance to play it.”
Osaka had won the second set to level the match when she first complained of apparent knee pain and after one game of the third set called for the physio.
“This is not the way I wanted to win,” said Kenin, who will next play fellow American Madison Keys, a 6-2, 6-3 winner over Venus Williams.
Barty is to play for a place in the final against Russian veteran Svetlana Kuznetsova, who beat third seed Karolina Pliskova 3-6, 7-6 (7/2), 6-3 to end the Czech’s chances of claiming the No. 1 ranking next week.
“I tried to play every point and stay in there,” Kuznetsova said. “She served amazing. She aced me almost every time I had a break point.”
Barty said a potential return to No. 1 would not be her focus this weekend.
“I’m in the semis for the first time here,” she said. “I’m not thinking of the ranking at all... I’m playing one match at a time. If I can win matches, the ranking will take care of itself.”
Elsewhere in the men’s draw, France’s Richard Gasquet earned his first Masters 1000 quarter-final victory in six years, defeating Roberto Bautista Agut 7-6 (7/2), 3-6, 6-2.
Gasquet won his last contest at this level in Miami in 2013 and had since lost seven Masters quarter-finals.
He is to play for a place in the final against 16th seed David Goffin, who advanced in a walkover against Japanese qualifier Yoshihito Nishioka, who could not take the court due to illness.
“It’s crazy for me to reach my first semi-final at this age,” added Gasquet, who at 33 finally made it to the semis in his 13th appearance.
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