The story appears on

Page A15

April 22, 2012

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

HomeSportsTennis

Djokovic reaches Monte Carlo final

WORLD No. 1 Novak Djokovic reached the Monte Carlo Masters final when he battled back from a set down to defeat sixth-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 yesterday.

The Serb will face either seven-time champion Rafael Nadal or France's Gilles Simon who were meeting in the second semifinal of the season's first big claycourt event.

Djokovic has been overcome by emotion at times since the death of his grandfather on Thursday and the top seed had to work hard to move past Berdych after two hours 42 minutes, advancing to his 45th ATP Tour final.

In Ostrava, Czech Republic, defending champion Czech Republic took a commanding 2-0 lead over Italy after Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova and Lucie Safarova won the opening singles matches of their Fed Cup semifinal series yesterday.

Safarova defeated Francesca Schiavone 7-6 (3), 6-1 to give the Czechs a 1-0 lead before Kvitova used her attacking play to double the advantage by beating Sara Errani 6-4, 6-3 to move the Czechs within one win from the final.

The third-ranked Kvitova converted her first match point with a drop shot to win in one hour and 21 minutes despite producing 30 unforced errors.

Earlier, the 23rd-ranked Safarova converted her first match point when Schiavone netted a backhand to improve her record over her 12th-ranked opponent to 5-3.

In Moscow, Jelena Jankovic defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4, 6-3 in the opening singles to give Serbia a 1-0 lead in the Fed Cup semifinal against Russia.

Svetlana Kuznetsova was scheduled to take on Ana Ivanovic in the second singles.

Jankovic rallied from a break down twice in the first set and won four consecutive games in the second as Pavlyuchenkova double faulted 11 times. Jankovic closed the match on her first match point.

 

Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

娌叕缃戝畨澶 31010602000204鍙

Email this to your friend