Australian Samantha Stosur advanced to her second straight final by beating her doubles partner Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia 6-2, 6-4 in the semi-finals of the Kremlin Cup yesterday.
Kuznetsova was unable to hold serve at all in the first set, winning just six of 23 points when serving, while Stosur was broken twice as well. Stosur took a 5-1 lead in the second, but then failed to serve out the match twice.
“At the start we were both struggling to hold serve and she had love-40 again on me and my second service again and I was able to get out of that,” Stosur said. “And I think that gave me a little bit of a head up and to win that first set 6-2 was good. It was still pretty tight all the way through with who was going to hold.”
Photo: AFP
Stosur sealed the victory on her second match point when the Russian sent a shot wide.
“We know each other’s games pretty well. So I guess you’ve got to take your opportunities when you get them,” she said.
Stosur will face fifth-seeded Simona Halep in today’s final after the Romanian beat unseeded local favorite Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 6-1 yesterday.
In the men’s event, French top seed Richard Gasquet was due to meet Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic in one semi-final while the other was to be contested by Andreas Seppi of Italy and Russia’s Mikhail Kukushkin.
Gasquet advanced to the semis with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Russian wild-card Teymuraz Gabashvili in the quarter-finals on Friday.
Additional reporting by staff writer
SEESAW CONTEST: The Pistons remain top of the Eastern Conference after battling to a win over the Hawks in a game that saw the lead change 27 times The Phoenix Suns on Monday shrugged off an injury to Devin Booker to end the Los Angeles Lakers’ seven-game winning streak with an emphatic 125-108 victory on the road. Booker exited in the first quarter, but the loss of the star point guard did little to halt the flow of Phoenix points over the remainder of the game. Dillon Brooks led the Phoenix scoring with 33 points, while Collin Gillespie added 28 — including eight three-pointers — as the Suns romped to victory. The Lakers were left ruing a colossal 22 turnovers — at a cost of 32 Suns points — on a
IN-HOUSE BUSINESS: LA Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said that the reason for the team’s poor form was not due to Paul, but the player was not a good fit for them Chris Paul’s return stint with the Los Angeles Clippers has come to an abrupt and stunning end, with the franchise parting ways with one of its greatest players in a late-night meeting on Wednesday that adds another layer of drama to the team’s terrible start this season. The news was delivered in a meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, that ended at about 2am, Clippers basketball operations president Lawrence Frank said. Frank said he made the decision to sever ties with Paul on Sunday then told the franchise’s career assist leader that he needed to see him on Tuesday in Atlanta. Frank did not confirm
Kylian Mbappe on Wednesday scored twice and had an assist as Real Madrid beat Athletic Bilbao 3-0 to end a three-match winless streak in La Liga. Eduardo Camavinga also found the net for Madrid as they moved back within one point of Barcelona, who beat Atletico Madrid 3-1 on Tuesday. Both 19th-round matches were moved forward because Real Madrid, Barcelona, Athletic Club and Atletico Madrid are to play in the Supercopa de Espana semi-finals in Saudi Arabia next month. Real Madrid were coming off league draws against Girona, Elche and Rayo Vallecano. It was their second win in their past six matches in
New Zealand yesterday reached 231-9 at stumps on a first day of the first Test against the West Indies shortened by rain after Justin Greaves triggered a middle-order collapse with the wicket of Kane Williamson. New Zealand tumbled from 94-1 to 148-6 on a bowler-friendly wicket after Williamson was dismissed for 52, his 38th Test half-century. Michael Bracewell and Nathan Smith arrested the slide with a 52-run stand for the seventh wicket. Smith eventually fell for 23 and Bracewell for 47. After Matt Henry went for 8, Zak Foulkes and Jacob Duffy were both on 4 when bad light stopped play after 70
RSS