Juan Carlos Ferrero beat Paradorn Srichaphan 6-4, 6-2 Friday to reach the semifinals at the Tennis Masters Madrid and hold onto his world No. 1 ranking.
The top-seeded Spaniard broke for 4-3 and held on, taking the first set with a forehand winner.
Ferrero broke for 2-1 and 4-1 leads in the second set, winning the match when Paradorn netted a return after the French Open champion had double-faulted on his first match point.
PHOTO: AP
Had Ferrero lost, Roddick would have taken over the No. 1 ranking on Monday. Roddick leads the Champions Race, but Ferrero will close in on the American this week.
"It's very important for me to keep being No. 1 in the world and also because I'm in Spain I try to show everybody I'm in great form," Ferrero said.
"But when I get on court I try to forget I have to keep my No. 1."
Last year, Ferrero was a quarterfinalist in Spain's biggest tournament, losing to eventual champion Andre Agassi.
Ferrero has won three Tennis Masters Series in his career, Rome in 2001 and Monte Carlo in 2002 and this year.
On Saturday, he'll play Wimbledon champion Roger Federer, who came from behind to beat Feliciano Lopez 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4 in the last quarterfinal.
After splitting the first two sets, Federer broke the Spaniard at the start of the third and that was all he needed. Lopez had two chances to break back in the eighth game when the Swiss was 15-40 on serve. But Federer got back to deuce, then aced Lopez and finally held to 5-3 after a brilliant display of volleying.
Earlier, Younes El Aynaoui and Nicolas Massu both rallied from a set down to reach their first career Tennis Masters Series semifinals at the US$2.9 million tournament.
Aynaoui, at 32 the oldest player in the tournament, outlasted Sebastien Grosjean 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-2, while Massu beat his good friend Juan Ignacio Chela 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-4 in an all-South American quarterfinal between two unseeded players.
Massu, a Chilean who upset second-ranked US Open champion Roddick in the third round Thursday, will play El Aynaoui in the final four Saturday.
Massu avenged a defeat to Chela last week in the first round in Vienna, Austria.
The two baseliners, who share the same coach, Gabriel Markus, battled for nearly three hours before Massu won the match on his first match point when the Argentine's forehand went wide.
"I had lost the last two matches against Chela," Massu said. "So it was not an easy situation. For him, I think it was one of the most important matches of his life and it was the same for me. I'm really happy I won."
Grosjean had not lost a set on his way to the quarterfinals, but the sixth-seeded Frenchman was outplayed by his Moroccan opponent in the third set, after losing a tight second-set tiebreak 8-6.
"It was close," El Aynaoui said. "My serve helped me a lot in the tiebreak.
Memphis Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke, 29, has died, the NBA team said in a statement on Tuesday, while the family of Jason Collins, the first openly gay man to play in a major US pro sports league, announced the former Grizzlies and Brooklyn Nets player had died after a battle with brain cancer. “We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of Brandon Clarke,” the Grizzlies said in a statement posted on social media. “Brandon was an outstanding teammate and an even better person whose impact on the organization and the greater Memphis community will not be forgotten.” The statement did not provide
Mathys Tel was hero and villain as Tottenham drew 1-1 at home to Leeds United on Monday — a result that leaves their English Premier League future hanging in the balance. The Frenchman broke the deadlock early in the second half to ease the tension at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but then gave away a penalty with a reckless attempted clearance. In the dying minutes, Spurs were grateful to Antonin Kinsky, who produced an astonishing save to deny the visitors a win. Tottenham are now two points clear of 18th-placed West Ham United with just two games left this season. The
Houston Astros right-hander Teng Kai-wei, the only active Taiwanese pitcher in MLB, on Sunday suffered his third loss of the season, throwing a season-high 63 pitches in his second start of the year. Teng allowed three earned runs over three innings on five hits in the Astros’ 5-0 road loss to the Cincinnati Reds. He struck out one, walked one, and hit one batter among the 15 hitters he faced, raising his earned run average to 3.12. It was the Astros’ second attempt to use the 27-year-old Taiwanese as a starter, after he had established himself as a reliable bullpen
‘DONE IT ALL’: LeBron James is now out of contract with the Lakers and would head into the off season as a free agent with uncertainty swirling around his future LeBron James on Monday said he would take time to consider his future after the Los Angeles Lakers were swept out of the NBA playoffs by the Oklahoma City Thunder in what could turn out to be the final game of his career. James, 41, delivered a typically defiant performance with 24 points and 12 rebounds, but it was not enough to prevent the Lakers from falling 115-110 as the Thunder completed a 4-0 sweep in the Western Conference semi-finals series. The four-time NBA champion is now out of contract with the Lakers and would head into the off season
RSS