Venus Williams defeated fifth seed Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia 6-4, 6-0 on Thursday to reach the semi-finals of the Brazil Cup.
The top seed broke Rybarikova’s serve at 5-4 to win the first set and quickly took control of the second to clinch the victory in 1 hour, 25 minutes on the hard courts in southern Brazil.
Williams faced nine break points to world No. 52 Rybarikova, but was broken only twice.
World No. 20 Williams is playing in her first tournament since losing to Maria Sharapova in the third round of the Australian Open in January.
Williams next faces Olga Puchkova of Russia, who cruised past Jana Cepelova of Slovakia 6-1, 6-1, despite eight double faults.
World No. 109 Puchkova, who upset third seed Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium in the first round, is trying to reach her first final since 2006.
Earlier, seventh seed Kristina Mladenovic of France defeated Melinda Czink of Hungary 6-4, 6-3 to set up the other semi-final against Monica Niculescu of Romania.
World No. 58 Mladenovic, yet to lose a set, broke Czink’s serve four times and saved eight break points to win the match.
Czink eliminated second seed Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan in the first round and crowd-favorite Bia Haddad Maia in the second.
Niculescu reached the semis by beating Timea Babos of Hungary 6-3, 6-2.
Eugenie Bouchard already has her own signature pickleball paddle. She is No. 17 in the pickleball rankings and constantly appears on the main court at events because she is always a big draw. However, just to be absolutely clear, she is not retired from tennis. The 2014 Wimbledon finalist still practices on the tennis court, still competes at tennis events and still has a Women’s Tennis Association ranking (No. 1,288). The Canadian standout just has a new sport that has caught her attention. Bouchard is one of several familiar tennis names — like Jack Sock and Donald Young — crossing over to
Starting with three fights in the first nine seconds and ending with a celebration and a spot in the 4 Nations Face-Off final, the US on Saturday delivered exactly what Matthew Tkachuk hoped for by beating Canada. “We needed to send a message,” Tkachuk said. “The message we wanted to send is ‘It’s our time.’” Tkachuk fought Brandon Hagel off the opening faceoff, brother Brady tussled with Sam Bennett the next time the puck dropped, J.T. Miller dropped the gloves with Colton Parayko next and the Americans followed those fisticuffs with a 3-1 victory over their biggest rival. “That was one of the
Shaquille O’Neal is staying with TNT Sports on a new contract worth more than US$15 million per year, Front Office Sports reported on Friday. The news means the cast of Inside the NBA is staying together even as TNT is set to license out the show to ESPN starting next season. TNT was the odd network out in the NBA’s recent TV rights negotiations, as NBC and Amazon joined previous rightsholder ESPN in inking deals for basketball games. That left TNT without a need for pregame and postgame NBA shows. In a trade with ESPN, TNT is licensing Inside the NBA to the
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,
RSS