Seventeen-time Fed Cup winners the US were locked in a semi-final dogfight with Russia on Saturday, while defending champions Italy looked on course to reach a fourth final in five seasons.
Elena Dementieva downed Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-4, 6-3 in Birmingham, Alabama, to lift Russia into a 1-1 tie with the US, who were once again missing both Williams sisters, in their semi-final.
Melanie Oudin had earlier defeated Alla Kudryavtseva 6-3, 6-3, smacking 18 winners and taking advantage of 39 unforced errors by Kudryavtseva to win in 78 minutes.
PHOTO: AFP
“I wanted to get out to 1-0 for my team. It’s really nice to win, I didn’t feel too much pressure,” said Oudin, who played in the US team that lost last year’s final to Italy.
The indoor hardcourt matchup was to be decided yesterday, when Dementieva was scheduled to meet Oudin and Mattek-Sands was to face Kudryavtseva. A closing doubles match would settle the outcome if the US and Russia split the singles once again.
In Rome, champions Italy took control of their semi-final against the Czech Republic to lead 2-0.
Italy’s Flavia Pennetta ground out a 6-4, 7-5 victory against Lucie Hradecka, before Francesca Schiavone thrashed Czech No. 1 Lucie Safarova 6-0, 6-2 on the Roman clay.
Pennetta, who won her first title of the year on clay in Marbella two weeks ago, took her time to get going and slumped to a 4-1 first-set deficit, before turning it around with five games on the trot.
The second set followed an almost identical pattern, with world No. 15 Pennetta again going down 4-1, before hitting back to win 7-5.
The second singles rubber was a stroll for the experienced Schiavone, two places below her compatriot in the world rankings, as world No. 38 Safarova offered little resistance.
“We followed all the tactics and now we can enjoy this beautiful point,” Schiavone said.
The pair were scheduled to swap opponents yesterday and if the Czechs could mount an unlikely comeback, a doubles rubber would be needed, in which Italy could field Roberta Vinci, who has never lost a Fed Cup doubles match.
BARCELONA OPEN
Reuters, BARCELONA, Spain
Fernando Verdasco found the strength to haul his way back from a set and a break down to reach the final of the Barcelona Open with a 6-7 (3/7), 7-5, 6-1 win over fellow Spaniard David Ferrer on Saturday.
Under hot sun at the Real Club de Tennis, Verdasco initially appeared to be feeling the effects of his run to the final at last week’s Monte Carlo Masters, but he dug deep to set up a clash with French Open runner-up Robin Soderling.
The second-seeded Swede showed no mercy to unseeded Dutchman Thiemo de Bakker, who upset Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarter-finals on Friday, ousting the 21-year-old former junior world No. 1 6-1, 6-4 on the Catalan clay.
Verdasco and Soderling both look in fine fettle in the build-up to the French Open, although Rafael Nadal was in blistering form in Monte Carlo, thrashing Verdasco 6-0, 6-1 in the final, and will be the clear favorite.
“My legs felt a bit heavy in the first set and I was late to a lot of balls,” Verdasco said in a courtside TV interview.
Ferrer, a white headband holding back his sweaty locks, shrugged off a warning for angrily whacking the ball out of court early in the first set and his superior work rate gave him the edge during some attritional rallies.
He was a break up in the second, before Verdasco battled back to level the match and Ferrer smashed his racket furiously on the ground before fading badly in the decider.
‘AWFUL PERFORMANCE’: Golden State were always chasing the game after failing to threaten from long range, making just eight of 33 three-point attempts Aaron Gordon on Monday scored 38 points as the Denver Nuggets shrugged off the absence of Nikola Jokic to halt the Golden State Warriors’ seven-game winning streak with a 114-105 victory over their Western Conference rivals. A dazzling display from Gordon inspired what was ultimately a comfortable win for Denver, who were missing regular starters Jokic and Jamal Murray from their lineup. The absentees were barely felt by Denver, who startled the Warriors early at San Francisco’s Chase Center and led for most of the game. The Warriors threatened to stage a late rally after slashing the Nuggets’ fourth-quarter lead from 15 points
Barcelona’s Ferran Torres scored twice on Sunday to help secure a late 4-2 comeback win at Atletico Madrid in a pulsating La Liga clash that took the Catalan side back to the top of the table. Barca have 60 points and a game in hand after last week’s postponement of their home game with CA Osasuna. They are level on points with Real Madrid, who won 2-1 at Villarreal on Saturday. “I am happy and proud of this team,” Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick told a news conference. “They never give up... It’s a great three points and we are happy to
Paolo Banchero on Sunday scored 24 points as the Orlando Magic overturned a 13-point deficit to end the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 16-game unbeaten streak with a gutsy 108-103 road victory. Cleveland, the runaway Eastern Conference leaders, had looked poised to extend their franchise-record winning run after surging clear of Orlando early in the third quarter, but after a season where they have staged hefty winning comebacks of their own, the tables turned on Cleveland in the face of a furious burst of Orlando scoring. The Magic outscored Cleveland 35-23 in the third quarter, with Franz Wagner leading the charge with nine points and
Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday held their nerve to beat Liverpool 4-1 on penalties and reach the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals after their tie finished one-apiece on aggregate, while Bayern Munich saw off Bayer 04 Leverkusen to complete a 5-0 win over both legs. Lamine Yamal and Raphinha fired Barcelona into the next round as the Catalans bested SL Benfica 3-1, and Inter booked a last-eight meeting with Bayern by seeing off Feyenoord 2-1. At Anfield, Ousmane Dembele netted the only goal of the night as PSG bounced back from Liverpool’s late winner last week to force the tie to extra-time and penalties. Maligned
RSS