Tommy Haas of Germany rallied to beat defending champion Marcel Granollers of Spain 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 on Thursday in the second round of the US Men’s Clay Court Championships.
Granollers’ loss left the tournament without a seeded player in the quarter-finals, which hadn’t happened in the clay court tournament since pro tennis went to the open era in 1968.
Earlier, Evgeny Korolev of Russia fought through rough wind and a comeback try by Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain for a 6-3, 7-6 (4) victory in the second round.
PHOTO: AP
Bjorn Phau of Germany, who eliminated second-seeded Mardy Fish in the first round, also needed a tiebreaker to beat Scoville Jenkins of the US 6-4, 7-6 (2) in another second-round match.
Guillermo Canas of Argentina defeated American Taylor Dent 6-2, 6-2 to grab the final quarter-final spot in the last match of the evening.
■ANDALUCIA CHAMPIONSHIPS
REUTERS, MADRID
World No. 4 Jelena Jankovic eased into the quarter-finals of the Andalucia Tennis Championships with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Tunisia’s Selima Sfar on Thursday.
The Serbian second seed, by far the highest-ranked player left in the tournament after Wednesday’s shock exit of world No. 1 Serena Williams, converted five of her 11 break points on the clay in Marbella and was broken just once.
■MPS GROUP CHAMPIONSHIPS
AP, PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA
Second-seeded Caroline Wozniacki moved into the quarter-finals of The MPS Group Championships by beating France’s Virginie Razzano 6-3, 7-5 on Thursday.
Wozniacki’s sixth quarter-final in seven tournaments this year will be against Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova, who beat No. 8 Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the US 6-3, 7-5 in the late match.
Fifth-seeded Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada fought off Germany’s Sabine Lisicki to win 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4 and claim consecutive matches for the first time this year. Next up will be Austria’s Tamira Paszek, who reached her first tour quarter-finals since September with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over Varvara Lepchenko of the US, who replaced a fatigued Jelena Dokic in the draw.
The top-seeded doubles team of American Lisa Raymond and Kveta Peschke will meet Wozniacki and Strycova in the semis after beating American Carly Gullickson and Taiwan’s Chan Chin-wei 6-0, 7-5.
The second-seeds, China’s Peng Shuai and Yan Zi lost to American Angela Haynes and Liga Dekmeijere 7-6 (3), 6-4.
Aaliyah Edwards on Monday pulled off the stunner of the opening round of the Unrivaled one-on-one tournament, beating top-seeded Breanna Stewart 12-0. The tournament to be played over three days featured 23 of the WNBA’s 36 players. A few had other commitments and a couple others were out with injuries. Stewart got the ball first against Edwards and missed a contested layup. Edwards then hit a three-pointer from the corner and a jumper from the elbow to go up 5-0. The player who scores keeps the basketball. Edwards hit two layups and a three-pointer to seal the win. Stewart, a two-time WNBA Most Valuable Player,
The Philippines curling team has been rocking it in Harbin, claiming the tropical nation’s first Asian Winter Games medal yesterday with a victory in the men’s final against South Korea. The team of Marc Pfister, Alan Frei, Christian Haller, Enrico Pfister and alternate Benjo Delarmente took gold with a 5-3 win at Harbin Pingfang Curling Arena. The Philippines Olympic Committee was quick to celebrate with a post on Instagram to mark the historic gold. “This is the first-ever medal for the Philippines at the Asian Winter Games, and the highest achievement for a Southeast Asian athlete in the Games’ history! What an incredible
Taiwan’s Lin Yun-ju and Kao Cheng-jui were defeated by their Chinese counterparts 3-0 on Saturday in the men’s doubles final at the World Table Tennis (WTT) Singapore Smash. Lin and Kao received their silver medals after being defeated by third-seeded duo Lin Shidong and Wang Chuqin of China 2-11, 4-11, 11-13. The Taiwan pair were left playing catch-up early in the match after the Chinese duo proved unstoppable in the first and second game. Although Lin and Kao picked up their pace in the third game and at one point took a 10-8 lead, they were crucially unable to take
Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien on Tuesday dumped compatriot and second seed Hsieh Su-wei out of the women’s doubles at the Qatar Open to set up another potential Taiwanese showdown, while world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka suffered a shock defeat in the second round. Wu and partner Jiang Xinyu, who earlier this year won the ASB Classic in Auckland and the Hobart International, defeated Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-2, 6-7 (3/7), 10-5 in 1 hour, 29 minutes on Grandstand Court 3 at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex. Wu and Jiang on Sunday advanced to the round-of-16 with a 7-6 (7/7),