The story appears on

Page A15

May 14, 2016

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

HomeSportsTennis

Murray into Rome semis

WITH the French Open rapidly approaching, Andy Murray is getting more and more comfortable on clay.

The Scot overcame some trouble on his service games to beat 12th-seeded David Goffin 6-1, 7-5 yesterday to reach the Italian Open semifinals in Rome and improve to 27-3 on clay this year and last.

Murray hasn’t dropped a set this week and was a finalist at last week’s Madrid Masters. With Roland Garros nine days away, Murray will return to No. 2 in rankings ahead of Roger Federer on Monday.

His next opponent at the Foro Italico will be French qualifier Lucas Pouille, who advanced when Argentine opponent Juan Monaco withdrew because of injury.

Organizers said Monaco, who upset fourth seed Stan Wawrinka on Thursday, had a problem with his left knee.

In the women’s quarterfinals, Wimbledon finalist Garbine Muguruza beat 11th-seeded Timea Bacsinszky 7-5, 6-2.

The 52nd-ranked Pouille gained a spot in the tournament as a lucky loser after Jo-Wilfried Tsonga withdrew because of an injury. He beat ninth-seeded David Ferrer in the third round to reach the quarterfinals, already a career-best result.

It’s been quite a two-week stretch for the 22-year-old Pouille. After qualifying for the Madrid Masters, he saved four match points to win his debut over Goffin in a third-set tiebreaker before losing in the second round to Sam Querrey.

Next week, Pouille will move into the top 32 of the rankings, making him a seeded player for the French Open.


 

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