Halep makes it to Shenzhen final, Federer eases through
Print Edition
TOP seed Simona Halep sailed into the Shenzhen Open final yesterday and will face Timea Bacsinszky after the Swiss world No. 47 upset double Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova.
Romanian Halep, ranked third in the world and last year’s French Open runner-up, disposed of unseeded home player Zheng Saisai in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3. Czech Kvitova, the world No. 4 and second seed at the US$500,000 tournament, was favorite to go through in the other semifinal. But she was broken in the third game and although the 2011 and 2014 Wimbledon champion saved five set points, Bacsinszky finally clinched the first set.
In the second set Kvitova had three break points in a long fourth game, but the 25-year-old Swiss, who had not reached a WTA final since 2010, held on and showed no nerves on match point, seizing her first opportunity to seal victory.
In Australia, Roger Federer disposed off Australian wild card James Duckworth in 39 minutes to move into the Brisbane International semifinals.
Top-seeded Federer dropped only six points in a 16-minute first set, and won 6-0, 6-1 without really breaking a sweat against No. 125-ranked Duckworth — a vast contrast to his rusty, three-set opening win over John Millman the previous night.
The 17-time major winner will next meet No. 4-seeded Grigor Dimitrov, who advanced a 6-3, 6-4 winner over Martin Klizan of Slovakia.
No. 2-seeded Kei Nishikori and No. 3 Milos Raonic will meet in the other semifinal after beating Australians. Nishikori, the US Open finalist, breezed past Bernard Tomic 6-0, 6-4, while Raonic had more of a struggle against big-serving Sam Groth, winning 7-6 (3), 3-6, 7-6 (2).
The top two players in the women’s draw will meet in the final after No. 1-seeded Maria Sharapova beat Elina Svitolina 6-1, 6-3, and No. 2 Ana Ivanovic had a 7-6 (2), 6-4 win over Varvara Lepchenko.
Sharapova wasted four match points in the eighth game of the second set before dropping serve, but converted her fifth match point in the next game to see off Svitolina.
Ivanovic had some wobbles, too, after leading Lepchenko 5-1 in the second set and needing seven match points before she finally finished it off on her serve.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
