Brian Dabul of Argentina defeated Dustin Brown of Jamaica 6-4, 6-4 at the Hall of Fame Championships to advance to his first ATP semi-final on Thursday.
Dabul broke serve in the third game of the opening set and held serve for the entire match.
Dabul will next face fourth seed Olivier Rochus after the Belgian beat qualifier Raven Klaasen of South Africa 6-1, 6-3.
In the first match, Brown yelled at himself and a line judge as he continually hit shots long or into the net. He even walked toward his chair as Dabul served at 40-love in the final game of the first set.
“I saw he was walking away,” Dabul said. “I was saying [to myself], I’m going to serve to the T.”
Brown said he was trying to get off to a good start in the second set.
“It was 40-love. I might as well finish the first set and concentrate on the second,” Brown said. “It just didn’t go any better. My head was all over the place and Brian played a great game.”
■SWEDISH OPEN
AP, BASTAD, SWEDEN
Flavia Pennetta of Italy led the top four seeds into the semi-finals of the Swedish Open after beating Jill Craybas of the US 6-4, 6-4 on Thursday.
Between rain delays, the veteran Craybas provided Pennetta with her toughest match of the tournament, matching the top seed game for game until Pennetta broke her serve at 3-3. In the second, Craybas rescued three match points before Pennetta served out the match.
Pennetta will face fourth-seeded Gisela Dulko of Argentina, who advanced when Croatian Ana Vrljic retired during the first set with a thigh injury. Dulko was leading 5-0.
Second-seeded Aravane Rezai of France beat Arantxa Parra Santonja of Spain 6-1, 6-4, and will meet third-seeded Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic in the semi-finals.
Fifth-seeded Parra Santonja looked to have recovered from a poor first set when she broke Rezai’s serve in the first game of the second, but Rezai immediately broke back and went on to win.
Rezai will meet third-seeded Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic next, after she beat compatriot Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 6-4, 7-6 (4).
■BUDAPEST GRAND PRIX
AP, BUDAPEST
Alize Cornet of France ousted third-seeded Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland 6-0, 6-4 on Thursday to set up a quarter-final with defending champ Agnes Szavay of Hungary.
Szavay beat Austria’s Yvonne Meusburger 7-5, 6-3 in the second round.
Zuzana Ondraskova of the Czech Republic defeated sixth-seeded Roberta Vinci of Italy 6-4, 6-0, while second-seeded Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania beat Anna Chakvetadze of Russia 7-6 (5), 1-6, 6-2.
Shohei Ohtani on Wednesday homered for the fifth consecutive game, tying a Los Angeles Dodgers franchise record. Yankees star Aaron Judge was the last player to homer in five consecutive games, accomplishing that feat last year. Ohtani, who leads the National League with 37 home runs, homered in the first inning off Minnesota Twins starter Chris Paddack. He hit a slow curveball 134m to center. He carried the bat midway down the first-base line and then did a bat flip. He did not hit a home run later in the game with the Dodgers trailing, but his presence was felt. With two outs
US top seed Taylor Fritz dropped an early yesterday morning marathon to Alejandro Davidovich-Fokina of Spain, while the UK’s Emma Raducanu and Canada’s Leylah Fernandez reached the semi-finals of the ATP and WTA DC Open. World number four Fritz, two points from victory in the ninth game, dropped the last five games in falling to the 26th-ranked Spaniard 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 7-5 after three hours and five minutes in a match ending just before 2am. Davidovich-Fokina advanced to the semi-final against US fourth seed Ben Shelton, who beat sixth-seeded hometown hero Frances Tiafoe 7-6 (7/2), 6-4. Fritz, who had 20 aces and six
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