French Open champion Ana Ivanovic produced a maddeningly inconsistent display as she was stunned by Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 at the Italian Open WTA on Wednesday.
World No. 1 Dinara Safina almost joined Ivanovic on the scrap-heap, but she fought back from a double break down in the third set to beat Chinese 14th seed Zheng Jie 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (7/3).
Fifth seed Ivanovic had a disastrous start but she regrouped and seemed to be cruising into the quarter-finals at 4-0 up in the third set after a run of winning 10 out of 13 games.
PHOTO: EPA
But just as her first set play had been terribly inconsistent, so her demons returned and 10th seed Radwanska reeled off the final six games to clinch the match.
Ivanovic, who has struggled with injury and form since her success at Roland Garros last June, has not won a tournament this year and reached only one final.
And this performance was typical of her erratic recent form, poor to begin with, then back in the swing of things before losing her touch again at the end.
PHOTO: EPA
Radwanska will face fourth seed Venus Williams in the last eight after the American labored to a 6-0, 6-7 (8/10), 6-4 win over unseeded Russian Anna Chakvetadze in two hours, 20 minutes.
The first set lasted only 23 minutes and world No. 5 Venus looked like she would stroll through, but Chakvetadze is a former world No. 5 herself and she gritted her teeth and fought back to take the five-time Wimbledon champion to the brink.
Safina, meanwhile, struggled to victory in two-and-a-half hours but came close to losing a see-saw match. She was broken four times in the first set before romping away with the second.
She was broken again in the opening game of the decider and when she was broken again for the seventh time in the match to go down 5-2, it looked as if an upset was on the cards.
But the top seeded Russian knuckled down and ground her way back into the match to force a tie-break.
Reigning two-time champion Jelena Jankovic barely had to break sweat as she coasted into the quarter-finals when Kateryna Bondarenko retired with an illness with the Serbian leading 6-1, 1-0.
■ESTORIL OPEN
AFP, ESTORIL, PORTUGAL
American James Blake gained a much-needed boost to his clay court campaign on Wednesday at the Estoril Open as he won his first match on the surface this season.
The world No. 16 defeated Portugal’s No. 1 player Federico Gil, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, requiring a comeback and nearly two hours to bring his record for this year on the dirt to 1-2 as he reached the second round.
Nikolay Davydenko, the second seed, won his second match in as many days, defeating ailing former clay court master Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-5, 6-2.
Spaniard Oscar Hernandez knocked out struggling third seed David Ferrer 6-2, 6-4.
In women’s WTA play, Slovak Jarmila Groth upset top seed Iveta Benesova 7-5, 6-4, while defending champion Maria Kirilenko, the No. 2, stayed in the chase for another title, reaching the last eight with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Argentine Maria Salerni. The five other seeds on court all won their matches into the last eight.
■BMW OPEN
AP, MUNICH
Marin Cilic of Croatia won the first eight games and swept past Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-0, 6-4 on Wednesday to reach the quarter-finals of the BMW Open.
Mikhail Youzhny of Russia upset third-seeded Nicolas Almagro of Spain 7-6 (2), 6-4.
Sixth-seeded Nicolas Kiefer of Germany was also upset, losing to Jeremy Chardy of France 6-4, 7-6 (8).
■SERBIA OPEN
AP, BELGRADE, SERBIA
Top-seeded Novak Djokovic beat fellow Serb Janko Tipsarevic 6-2, 4-6, 6-0 on Wednesday to advance to the quarter-finals of the Serbia Open, the country’s first ever ATP Tour event.
Djokovic will next face another Serb in fifth-seeded Victor Troicki, who beat Marcel Granollers of Spain 6-3, 6-4.
Luka Doncic on Monday produced a 46-point masterpiece as the Los Angeles Lakers snapped the Chicago Bulls’ four-game winning streak with a 129-118 victory on the road. Doncic rattled in eight three-pointers on 15-of-25 shooting from the field, finishing with seven rebounds and 11 assists to lead an impressive Lakers effort at the United Center. LeBron James chipped in with 24 points, five rebounds and three assists, while Rui Hachimura delivered an eye-catching cameo off the bench with 23 points from nine-of-11 shooting. The win was another encouraging result for the Lakers after a 116-110 defeat of the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday. “We did
Nottingham Forest FC are to go into the Europa League play-off round after a 4-0 win over Ferencvaros TC on Thursday, while Celtic FC secured their place in the knockout phase with a victory over FC Utrecht. Aston Villa FC finished second in the league phase after recovering from two goals down to beat FC Red Bull Salzburg 3-2 with their spot in the last 16 already assured. Forest stood an outside chance of climbing into the top eight going into the final round of matches, but needed to beat Robbie Keane’s Ferencvaros and rely on other results going their way. Sean Dyche’s
The Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo on Friday said that he will probably be out for an extended period after hurting his right calf again after a similar injury caused him to miss eight games earlier this season. Antetokounmpo had his right calf wrapped in the first half of their 102-100 loss to the Denver Nuggets. He did not appear comfortable the rest of the night and left for good with 34 seconds remaining. “At the end, I could not move no more, so I had to stop playing,” Antetokounmpo said. The two-time NBA Most Valuable Player said he expected to undergo an MRI
Juventus on Sunday dealt a huge blow to SSC Napoli’s Serie A title defense with a 3-0 win in Turin which left the reigning champions nine points behind league leaders Inter, who are pulling away from the chasing pack. Jonathan David, Kenan Yildiz and Filip Kostic netted in Turin as Juve, a revitalized team under Luciano Spalletti, moved into fourth with a statement win. Juve are fifth and one point behind both Napoli and AS Roma, who lifted themselves into third with a 1-1 draw with second-placed AC Milan in Rome. “We played really well and had fun ... today we were great,”
RSS