Novak Djokovic on Friday took his place in the Internazionali BNL d’Italia semi-finals with a 7-5, 7-6 (7/1) win over Felix Auger-Aliassime, which guaranteed that he would remain world No. 1 for a 370th week, while in the women’s singles Iga Swiatek stretched her winning streak to 27 matches and Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated in the women’s doubles.
Top seed Djokovic is chasing a sixth title in Rome ahead of Roland Garros later this month and needed more than two hours win a match that featured some magnificent tennis from big-hitting Auger-Aliassime.
Auger-Aliassime of Canada crashed in serves topping 200kph, hitting 11 aces, and showed a wide range of bold shots in his first match against the 20-time Grand Slam winner.
Photo: Reuters
The 21-year-old, who won his first ATP tournament in Rotterdam in February, even went toe-to-toe in rallies with Djokovic, drawing applause from the Serb early in the match with one particularly deft drop-shot.
Djokovic showed touches of class, exemplified by a lob at the end of a rally that broke Auger-Aliassime’s serve in game 6 of the second set to move the 35-year-old 4-2 ahead.
Auger-Aliassime brought the crowd to their feet by fighting back to take the set to a tie-break, where his brave resistance finally met its end.
Photo: AFP
Djokovic was to play Casper Ruud in the semis after press time last night.
Stefanos Tsitsipas made the semis by beating local hero Jannick Sinner 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 in a clash that was stopped for more than 10 minutes at match point after a spectator fell ill.
Tsitsipas was to play Alexander Zverev.
Photo: Reuters
Earlier, Swiatek beat Bianca Andreescu, 7-6 (7/2), 6-0 before winning 6-2, 6-1 in her semi-final yesterday against Aryna Sabalenka, who reached the last-four with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 win against Amanda Anisimova.
Ons Jabeur was to play Daria Kasatkina after press time.
In her quarter-final, she bounced back from being a game away from defeat to beat Maria Sakkari 1-6, 7-5, 6-1.
Kasatkina had an easier time after Jil Tiechmann retired injured while the Russian was leading 6-4, 3-2.
In the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles, Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and Giuliana Olmos of Mexico defeated Chan and Japanese partner Shuko Aoyama 7-5, 2-6, 10-5.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) yesterday beat Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon in their women’s singles semi-final match to advance to today’s final at the Thailand Open. The top-seeded Tai overcame a 10-21 first-game loss to seventh seed and former world champion Ratchanok to dominate the final two games 21-13, 21-19 in 58 minutes of play at the Impact Arena in Bangkok. World No. 2 Tai is today to face world No. 4 Chen Yufei of China. Chen yesterday bested Pusarla Venkata Sindhu 21-17, 21-16 to secure her spot in the final of the Super 500 tournament. On Friday, Tai overpowered China’s He Bingjiao 21-10,
Wimbledon, widely regarded as the world’s most prestigious tennis tournament, was on Friday stripped of ranking points by the sport’s main tours in a move that threatens to reduce the Grand Slam to the status of a high-profile exhibition event. The decision by the ATP and WTA was in response to Wimbledon banning Russian and Belarusian players following the invasion of Ukraine. “It is with great regret and reluctance that we see no option but to remove ATP Ranking points from Wimbledon for 2022,” an ATP statement said. “Our rules and agreements exist in order to protect the rights of players as a
Defending champions Taichung Blue Whale thrashed Taoyuan Mars 6-0 in Taiwanese women’s soccer over the weekend, while Hualien City rolled on with their fourth win to sit atop the league table. While Thai fullback Pitsamai Sornsai partnered with compatriot goalkeeper Nattaruja Muthtanawech on defense, Japanese midfielder Maho Tanaka opened the scoring for Blue Whale in Saturday’s match, kicking a screamer on a volley from outside the penalty box — her first goal of the season. The match remained 1-0 heading into the break, although Taoyuan Mars striker Ho Chia-huan, a student at Hsing Wu High School in New Taipei City, had good
Faced with a machete, a fighter leaps and locks his legs around another man’s neck, bringing him crashing down to a cacophony of cheers. This is vovinam, Vietnam’s acrobatic martial art with roots dating back to the country’s struggle for independence, and it is showing at the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games for the first time since 2013. Proponents are trained to use not only their hands and legs to grapple a rival to the ground, but also fend off assailants armed with blades. Short for “Vo Viet Nam” (literally “Vietnamese martial arts”) it was inspired by nationalists who sought an end to the
RSS