Tennis: Radwanska, Cibulkova reach New Haven semis

Top seeds Agnieszka Radwanska and Dominika Cibulkova booked their semi-final berths Thursday at the WTA hardcourt tournament in New Haven, the final tuneup for the US Open.

Poland's Radwanska, the defending champion, defeated eighth-seeded Peng Shuai of China 7-5, 6-3 to advance to the final four.

Second-seeded Cibulkova, of Slovakia, beat sixth-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia 7-5, 6-4.

Peng and Radwanska had split six prior encounters, with Peng taking their most recent meeting at Indian Wells in March.

But Radwanska, still seeking her first title of the year, emerged with a victory in just under two hours to set up a semi-final meeting with Australian Daria Gavrilova.

Gavrilova defeated Belgian qualifier Kirsten Flipkens 6-2, 6-4.

It was the third meeting of the year between Cibulkova and Pavlyuchenkova, who had split two prior contests in 2017.

Having narrowly won the opening set, Cibulkova powered to a 5-0 lead in the second, then turned back a furious rally from the Russian to win in just over two hours.

"She made it extremely tough for me in the end," Cibulkova said. "I was playing very well in the whole second set, but then she started playing even better.

"I had four match points, and she hit an ace every time so I couldn't do much about it. But I just kept fighting and I said to myself, 'OK, this one's going to be yours.'"

Cibulkova next faces Belgian qualifier Elise Mertens, who reached the semi-finals on a walkover when China's Zhang Shuai withdrew with a right arm injury.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Ruthless Kerber sets up final with Cibulkova

SINGAPORE - Angelique Kerber continued her relentless march towards a maiden WTA Finals crown with a comprehensive 6-2 6-1 victory over defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska on Saturday to set up a title showdown against Dominika Cibulkova.

The German enjoyed a breakthrough campaign with victories at the Australian and U.S. Opens to usurp Serena Williams at the top of the world rankings and after another dominant display, she will be favoured to cap her season with the Singapore title on Sunday.

"I was trying to be focused on every single point because playing against her is so tough, so I just made sure I played my game and was aggressive," Kerber said. "It's amazing to think that I will be in the final in Singapore."

Both players are renowned for their exemplary defence and supreme athleticism but, with serving not considered their strongest suit, it was hardly surprising to see the contest start with three straight breaks in favour of the German.

Kerber gave her Polish opponent no free points, got everything back and forced Radwanska into playing an extra shot on every rally, the constant pressure leading to another break in the seventh game, enough for the German to claim the opener.

Radwanska struggled to come up with any answers as the alarmingly consistent Kerber ran away with the contest against her dispirited opponent with four more breaks of serve.

In the first semi-final, Cibulkova continued her dream debut at the elite eight-woman event with a thrilling 1-6 7-6(2) 6-4 victory over Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in an absorbing encounter.


INTENSITY LEVELS

The 27-year-old Slovakian, who had won their last five encounters, enjoyed a bright opening and threatened on Kuznetsova's first service game but some booming forehands bailed out the Russian, who edged ahead when she broke in the third game.

Kuznetsova was now firing on all cylinders, pushing Cibulkova all around the court and forcing her into errors and the rampant Russian secured two more breaks to complete a run of six straight games to wrap up the opener.

Cibulkova responded by stepping up her intensity levels in the second set and, as the tension mounted, neither player was capable of holding serve and four consecutive breaks from the ninth game sent it to a tiebreaker.

Cibulkova maintained her aggression in the tiebreak, sprinting 6-2 ahead as Kuznetsova struggled to keep pace and the Slovakian sent the contest into a decider when she rifled a backhand winner past her static opponent.

The third set was punctuated by several swings in momentum before Cibulkova followed up a gutsy hold from 15-40 in the ninth game to seal victory with another break.

"This is my first time here and it's one of my dreams come true, just incredible," world number eight Cibulkova said.

The final is a rematch of their opening round-robin match last Sunday in which Kerber beat the Slovakian 7-6(5) 2-6 6-3, the only contest of the week when the German lost a set.

(Editing by Clare Fallon)

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Murray, Radwanska claim titles at China Open

 

BEIJING, China -- Andy Murray claimed the title at the China Open Sunday, taking a step toward unseating world number one Novak Djokovic, as Agnieszka Radwanska won her second Beijing crown.

Both romped to victory in straight sets on a chilly night in the Chinese capital, neither of them having dropped a set in the tournament.

Murray's 6-4, 7-6 (7/2) win over unseeded Grigor Dimitrov is his fifth title of the year and 40th of his career, while third-ranked Radwanska sealed her win 6-4, 6-2 over Briton Johanna Konta with an ace.

The Scot's victory moves him 1,000 points closer to long-reigning world number one Djokovic, with the chance of taking the top spot by year-end and capping off a career-best season.

"It was probably my best match of the week," said Murray.

"Considering the conditions were fairly cold, I was still serving over a hundred miles an hour on some second serves. I felt using good variation on that shot, so I didn't give him a chance to really attack me there and that was probably the thing that I did best tonight."

Murray broke Dimitrov's serve in the opening game, putting the 15th-ranked Bulgarian on the defensive as he made 21 unforced errors in the opening set.

In the second, both held their serve through the first four games until Murray broke Dimitrov at 3-2.

It looked like the Scot would serve for the championship but Dimitrov -- who beat Rafael Nadal en route to the final -- won the next 11 points, breaking Murray to love.

Pushed to a tiebreak, the three-time Grand Slam champion immediately seized back control, storming through the decider to claim his first title in the Chinese capital.

Dimitrov had received a free pass through the semi-finals after Canadian Milos Raonic pulled out with an ankle injury, but was left overwhelmed by the Scot.

"I just didn't feel that I had another gear," Dimitrov told reporters.

Murray is the 16th player in the Open era to win at least 40 titles and the fourth active player to accomplish the feat, joining Djokovic, Nadal and Roger Federer.

- The Magician -

Radwanska's victory was the 20th of her career but there was more on the line for Konta, 25, who was making a bid in the Chinese capital for what would have been her second and biggest title.

Despite the loss, by reaching the Beijing final Konta has amassed enough points to break into the top 10 -- the first British woman to do so since Jo Durie in 1984.

When the new leaderboards are released Monday it will be the first time since computerised rankings were introduced that a British man (Murray) and woman are ranked in the top 10 at the same time.

Konta claimed two top 10 scalps en route to the final, sixth-ranked Karoline Pliskova and number eight Madison Keys, but Radwanska managed to unsettle her on Sunday.

The Briton, usually a solid baseliner, repeatedly pushed to the net as she tried to shift the match momentum in her favour, but it was a risky strategy that cost her 29 unforced errors.

"Against a player like Agnieszka, who is basically a human wall, you definitely do try to look to get the upper hand in any way possible," Konta told reporters after the match.

After dropping her serve twice in each set, Konta made a bid to even the scoreline in the second, pushing Radwanska to two break points in the sixth game.

But the Pole -- nicknamed "The Magician" for her ability to conjure up shots -- blasted a forehand down the line to save her service game.

The world number three served for the title, firing her only ace of the match.

"I think that was a perfect timing," Radwanska said of the ace.

It was the second time the pair have met after Radwanska beat the Briton in a two-hour, three-set battle in Cincinnati in August.

They may meet again in Singapore at the end of the month for the WTA Finals.

Radwanska has already qualified for the eight-player season finale, which follows a round-robin format, while the Briton is still chasing points to guarantee her maiden appearance.

Konta is in eighth position but could be nudged out by Wuhan Open finalist Dominika Cibulkova, who is just 10 points behind her in the so-called Race to Singapore.

The Briton is playing in Hong Kong next week, hoping to rack up enough qualification points.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Radwanska crushes Kvitova to ease into Connecticut final

Top seed Agnieszka Radwanska put on a dominant performance against double defending champion Petra Kvitova to ease into the final of the Connecticut Open with a 6-1 6-1 triumph on Friday.

Kvitova, who also won the event in 2012, was looking to join Venus Williams and Caroline Wozniacki as four-time winners of the tournament but the sixth-seeded Czech was completely overwhelmed by the Polish world number four.

The two-time Wimbledon champion committed 17 unforced errors in the first set and never got into the match, which was completed in 77 minutes.

The fast-starting Radwanska won the first five games of the match and then reeled off the opening four of the second set to stay in control throughout.

The Pole advances to face Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, who overcame Johanna Larsson 6-4 6-2 to reach the final.

Larsson enjoyed an improbable run in the tournament after reaching the main draw when other players withdrew, the Swede upsetting Italy's Roberta Vinci in the quarter-finals before coming up short against the 21-year-old Svitolina.

The 10th-seeded Svitolina shocked Serena Williams on her way to a quarter-finals at the Rio Olympics and a victory in this warm-up event for next week's U.S. Open would be her second of the year after she triumphed in Malaysia in May. (Writing by Jahmal Corner in Los Angeles; Editing by John O'Brien)

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French Open organizers under fire as backlog grows

PARIS - Fans spent more time looking at the murky Parisian sky than watching tennis on Tuesday as French Open organizers were accused of "not caring about the players" after the event was disrupted by more rain following the previous day's washout.

Czech seventh seed Tomas Berdych summed up everyone's frustration on a day when nine hours of play was lost by tweeting: "Hey @AustralianOpen can you send us one roof here to Paris?! You have 3 down there."

Hey @AustralianOpen can you send us one roof here to paris?! You have 3down there #fedexmakeithappen #now 🤔🌧🙏🏻✔️

— Tomáš Berdych (@tomasberdych) May 31, 2016

The inability to play under cover, with Roland Garros being the only one of the four grand slam venues that does not have a court with a retractable roof, certainly proved costly for Agnieszka Radwanska and Simona Halep -- fourth-round losers in the only two matches that were completed on day 10.


With the fixture list piling up, the women in top seed Serena Williams' half of the draw would now need to play on four successive days to win the title if the final takes place on Saturday as scheduled -- though more rain is forecast.

World number one Novak Djokovic and the men in his half of the draw, including Berdych, can also forget about enjoying the traditional rest days between each round as they would have to play on four of the next five days to contest Sunday's final.

Radwanska, the world number two, and 2014 runner-up Halep --who both started their last-16 matches on Sunday -- were forced to play in misty rain on Tuesday as organisers made a desperate attempt to clear the huge backlog.

"No one cares about the players in my opinion," sixth seed Halep said after she was beaten 7-6(0) 6-3 by Australian Sam Stosur in a battle of former finalists.

"It was impossible to play. To play tennis matches during the rain is a bit too much. I was close to getting injured with my back... but no one cares."

Radwanska had been leading Bulgaria's Tsvetana Pironkova 6-2 3-0 when rain halted play on Sunday.

When the match resumed more than 40 hours later, the Polish second seed suffered a monumental meltdown as she lost 10 successive games in a 2-6 6-3 6-3 defeat by an opponent ranked 100 places below her.

"I'm just so surprised and angry that we have to play in the rain. I mean, it's not a $10,000 tournament. It's a grand slam," said Radwanska, the highest seed to exit the tournament.

"How can you allow players to play in the rain? I cannot play in that condition. They really don't care what we think."

BACK TO THE LOCKER ROOM

Ernests Gulbis and David Goffin did get on court for their fourth round showdown but took matters into their own hands by marching back into the locker room even before organisers had a chance to make a call.

It was a decision that Halep welcomed. "Good. Well done to them," the Romanian said as she gave them a thumbs-up.

While matches at the three other majors -- Wimbledon (grass), Australian and U.S. Opens (both hardcourts) -- are halted at the first sight of any raindrops, the brittle claycourt surface at Roland Garros means competitors are often told to play on in drizzle.

Roger Federer did just that in the 2009 men's final when he beat Robin Soderling to win his solitary French Open trophy.

Unsurprisingly, Pironkova did not think Tuesday's conditions were unplayable, though she acknowledged they were far from ideal.

"Well, it's happened before, of course. We have played in all sorts of conditions," said the Bulgarian, a semi-finalist at Wimbledon in 2010.

"Usually if the court is not fit for play, like if it's slippery, they would cancel the match right away. But today the court was still hanging in, it was okay. We could have played, and so we did."

Radwanska and Halep's exit meant that at least five of the top eight women's seeds failed to make their allotted quarter-final spots.

Only two of 10 scheduled matches were completed as the claycourt major suffered its sixth day of showers, with Djokovic -- leading Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut 3-6 6-4 4-1 -- one of 16 players still stranded in the fourth round.

(Reporting by Pritha Sarkar, editing by John Stonestreet)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Serena demolishes Radwanska to make final in Australia

MELBOURNE - Serena Williams underlined the difference in class and power between her and the rest of the women's field with a 6-0 6-4 demolition of fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska on Thursday to reach her seventh Australian Open final.

Every time the American has made the final at Melbourne Park she has gone on to win the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup.

Victory in Saturday's final against either seventh seed Angelique Kerber or unseeded Briton Johanna Konta, would give her a 22nd grand slam title, moving her to a tie with Steffi Graf for the most in the Open era.


Williams romped through the first set in just 20 minutes before Radwanska showed some fight in the second but she was unable to stop the momentum of the American, who clinched her place in the final in 64 minutes.

"I'm really excited to be in another final. It blows my mind right now," Williams said in a courtside interview. "I just feel like I'm being the best I can and I can't believe I'm in another final.

"She started really well in the second set and making some great shots and hitting it deep and I just thought that I had to be aggressive."

Williams began in ominous fashion breaking the Pole's serve in the first game with Radwanska's lack of power highlighted by the blistering nature of the American's returns.

Radwanska's fastest serve in the first game reached just 140 kph. Williams was returning the ball at over 130.

The fourth seed appeared resigned to defeat in the first set by the fourth game. She barely got a backhand return to a Williams serve then stood, with slumping shoulders, and watched as the 34-year-old put the overhead smash away.

Williams cleaned up the first set in just 20 minutes before Radwanska elicited the largest cheer of the match at that time when she held serve in the first game of the second set, avoiding an embarrassing potential 'double bagel' 6-0 6-0 score.

The crowd on Rod Laver Arena, which had its roof closed due to heavy rain in Melbourne, however managed to almost open it in the sixth game with a decibel-rising roar of support for Radwanska when she broke Williams to level it at 3-3.

Williams, however, broke again in the ninth game and then served out with three aces to seal a match in which she belted 42 winners to Radwanska's four.

Radwanska, who had been bidding to reach her second grand slam final after Wimbledon in 2012, also heavily lost her only other semi-final appearance at Melbourne Park when she was beaten 6-1 6-2 by Dominika Cibulkova in 2014.

(Reporting by Greg Stutchbury; Editing by Amlan Chakraborty)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

WORLD SPORTS: D-day looms for NFL teams eyeing LA move

D-day looms for NFL teams eyeing LA move

Agence France-Presse

The fate of three NFL teams hoping to relocate to Los Angeles is expected to be decided this week as team owners meet for a crucial vote which could end the sport's two-decade absence from the city.

Three teams -- the St Louis Rams, the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders -- are all hoping to persuade the 32 owners of the NFL to vote in favour of their applications to move to Los Angeles.

The most popular sport in America has been a notable absentee from the nation's second biggest media market since 1994, when the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Raiders played their last games in the city.

How the NFL owners vote when they meet in Houston on Tuesday and Wednesday remains shrouded in mystery.

However a report issued to all 32 NFL teams on Saturday by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell increased the probability that one or more teams will be heading to the City of Angels in time for next season.

For a move to be approved, bidding teams need to obtain 24 votes from the 32 owners to be successful.

If there is a deadlock a decision could still be postponed for up to a year, but analysts believe that is unlikely.

Trump brands NFL football 'soft'

Agence France-Presse

The National Football League's efforts to tone down some of the game's violence in a bid to protect player health has made gridiron "soft", US presidential hopeful Donald Trump said Sunday.

Trump who leads the polls for the Republican nomination for the White House, said in Reno, Nevada, that too many penalty flags were ruining the NFL.

"You used to see these tackles and it was incredible to watch," Trump said. "Now they tackle -- 'Oh, head-on-head collision, 15 yard (penalty)'.

"The whole game is all screwed up. You say, 'Wow, what a tackle.' Bing. Flag.

"Football's become soft. Football has become soft."

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Korean star Oh signs with Cardinals

Agence France-Presse
South Korean pitcher Oh Seung-Hwan has signed for the St Louis Cardinals on a one-year contract, the Major League Baseball club announced on Monday.

The 33-year-old right-hander joins the Cardinals from the Hanshin Tigers professional team in Japan.

Terms of Oh's deal have not been revealed although the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported the contract, which has a club option for 2017, was potentially worth $5 million.

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Spieth bolsters number one position

Agence France-Presse

Jordan Spieth's seventh PGA title win in Hawaii on Sunday has put some distance between himself and rivals Jason Day and Rory McIlroy at the top of the world rankings.

The three young players are currently the toast of golf and all eyes are on their rivalries over the course of the year.

Spieth, at 21 the youngest of the three, took the number one spot back from Day late last year and he looks set to hold on to it through to April and the Masters, the first of the year's four majors, where he will be the defending champion.

Day and McIlroy have yet to start their seasons.

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Rawdanska up to fourth in world rankings

Agence France-Presse

In-form Agnieszka Radwanska is up to fourth in the WTA world rankings thanks to her tournament win in Shenzhen.

The Polish player moved ahead of Maria Sharapova, who was forced to pull out in Brisbane due to an arm injury.

Biggest mover of the week was former Australian Open champion Viktoria Azarenka, who climbed six places to 16th on the back of her impressive win in Brisbane.

Serena Williams, who will be the defending champion at the Australian Open later this month, remained well clear at the top despite skipping the Hopman Cup in Perth because of a knee injury.

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Kerber survives 'extreme heat' test in Sydney

Agence France-Presse

Germany's Angelique Kerber overcame the loss of the first set on a day of extreme heat in Sydney as she maintained her build-up to next week's Australian Open on Monday.

The fourth seed, one of the few members of the women's world top 10 not to be hit by injury in the lead-up to the year's first Grand Slam, came from a set down to oust Ukraine's Elina Svitolina 4-6, 6-0, 6-3 in Sydney International's first round.

Kerber, who lost to Victoria Azarenka in Saturday's Brisbane International final, is looking for more matches to hone her form leading into the Australian Open in Melbourne.

Australia's Samantha Stosur fought back from a set and a service break down to overcome defeat Italy's Roberta Vinci 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 in two hours 30 minutes.

Among other first-round winners on Monday were Italy's world number 19 Sara Errani, over Spanish seventh seed Carla Suarez 6-3, 6-3, and German Sabine Lisicki, who eased past Slovenia's Polona Hercog 6-4, 6-3.

In the men's draw, Italian fifth seed Andreas Seppi eliminated Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in three sets, but Seppi's compatriot Simone Bolelli went out to American qualifier Alexander Sarkissian 6-2, 7-6 (7/5).

In the evening match, experienced Spaniard Tommy Robredo was too strong for Australia's John Millman 7-6 (7/3), 6-3.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com