Vera Zvonareva came from 5-3 down in the deciding set to beat Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia 7-5, 6-7 (5), 7-5 in a thrilling quarter-final of the Qatar Ladies Open on Thursday.
Zvonareva lined up a semi-final against familiar foe Jelena Jankovic, who defeated Czech Klara Zakopalova 6-2, 6-4.
Top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki won 12 straight games to beat Flavia Pennetta of Italy 6-2, 6-0 and set up a semi-final against Marion Bartoli of France.
Photo: Reuters
Hantuchova had beaten Zvonareva in the Pattaya Open semi-finals this month and looked set for an encore. However, the Russian rallied to break back in the 10th and 12th games to end the three-hour and 10-minute match.
Wozniacki extended her winning streak to eight matches.
She wore a Liverpool soccer shirt with Steven Gerrard’s name on the back during the warmup.
“I’m a big fan of Liverpool,” Wozniacki said. “Since Liverpool is playing tonight [against Sparta Prague], I thought it would be nice and even the fans liked it.”
Wozniacki made just seven unforced errors against Pennetta, who appeared to lose heart after dropping serve in a 12-minute fourth game. The top-seeded Wozniacki finally won it with one of her trademark backhand returns to draw level at 2-2.
Pennetta fared no better in the second set, committing 21 unforced errors.
Bartoli ended Peng Shuai’s challenge in just 71 minutes with a 6-2, 6-2 victory.
In the doubles’ Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan and Zheng Jie of China needed only 49 minutes to defeat Sania Mirza of India and Elena Vesnina of Russia 6-2, 6-0.
The No. 3 seeds faced second-seeded Liezel Huber of the US and Nadia Petrova of Russia yesterday for a place in the final.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
DUBAI CHAMPIONSHIPS
AP, DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, winners of six of the previous eight Dubai Championships, remained on course to meet in the final with quarter-final wins on Thursday.
Federer beat Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine 6-3, 6-4, while Djokovic beat Florian Mayer 7-5, 6-4.
Federer will play Richard Gasquet, who overcame Gilles Simon 5-7, 6-2, 6-4. Djokovic will next meet Tomas Berdych.
Berdych beat Phillip Petzschner of Germany 7-5, 6-4.
DELRAY BEACH
AFP, DELRAY BEACH, FLORIDA
Colombian qualifier Alejandro Falla upset French eighth seed Adrian Mannarino 6-3, 6-2 on Thursday to reach the quarter-finals of the ATP Delray Beach International Championships.
The 119th-ranked South American opened with a break and closed out the match in 77 minutes with another break to win the battle of the left-handers and oust the 61st-ranked Mannarino from the US$442,500 event.
Falla was to try to qualify yesterday for only his second ATP semi-final, his first since 2007 in Lyon, when he faced US second seed Mardy Fish, who beat Brazil’s Ricardo Mello 6-2, 6-1.
In the night match, Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina crushed Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia 6-1, 6-1.
Del Potro will play fifth-seeded South African Kevin Anderson in the quarter-finals after Anderson easily defeated Florent Serra of France 6-1, 6-4 in the other late match.
Rangers on Wednesday bowed out of the UEFA Champions League playoffs with a humiliating 6-0 defeat at the hands of Club Brugge which piles further pressure on head coach Russell Martin, while SL Benfica secured a place in the competition proper at the expense of Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce. The Glasgow giants traveled to Belgium right up against it after losing 3-1 at home in last week’s first leg, when they conceded three times in the opening 20 minutes. They never looked like turning the tie around as Club Brugge took the lead inside five minutes at the Jan Breydelstadion through Nicolo Tresoldi
Australian Alex de Minaur reached the second week of the US Open for the third year in a row with little fanfare on Saturday and said he intended to keep winning until the tournament organizers were forced to give him better billing. Despite being the eighth seed and a quarter-finalist last year at Flushing Meadows, De Minaur’s third-round match against German Daniel Altmaier was scheduled for Court 17 — the smallest of the four stadium venues in the precinct. “It is a little bit of a headscratcher for me. I’m not gonna lie,” he told reporters after progressing 6-7 (9/7), 6-3, 6-4,
Noah Lyles on Thursday warmed up for the upcoming athletics world championships by chasing down Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo to win the 200m at the Diamond League final. Lyles trailed Tebogo at the start, but gradually erased the deficit over the final 100m and pipped the Botswana sprinter to the line by centimeters. Lyles, the Olympic 100m champion and reigning world champion in both the 100m and 200m, clocked 19.74 seconds in a slight headwind. Tebogo was 0.02 seconds behind. It was Lyles’ sixth Diamond League title, a record for track athletes. “Six, that’s a big number,” Lyles said. “Shoot, that’s another record on
Brentford striker Yoane Wissa says he wants to leave the English Premier League club and that it is “unduly standing in my way.” A day before the end of soccer’s summer transfer period, Wissa posted a lengthy statement on social media yesterday criticizing Brentford for rejecting an apparent offer from another Premier League club despite his willingness to switch between the teams. Wissa, a reported target for Newcastle, is yet to play for Brentford this season and had already removed any association with the club from his Instagram account. Yesterday, the 28-year-old DR Congo international took it a step further on the social
RSS