SPORTS SATURDAY, MARCH 18, 2017

No ratings disaster if Woods misses Masters MIAMI: The Masters, with its famed azaleas, precisely marketing expert at Baker Street Advertising in San Now ranked 734th in the world and a creaking manicured greens and towering trees is bigger than Francisco, told Reuters. “So as long as it’s competi- shadow of his former self, Woods, who has missed the any one golfer, even Tiger Woods. With the first major tive and you’ve got a couple of big-name players in last four majors and six of the last 12, no longer strikes of the year three weeks away, Woods is still nursing an there on the weekend I think they are going to get fear in fellow golfers but still has the potential to gen- ailing back and his chances of teeing it up at Augusta solid ratings.” erate healthy ratings. “The thing is he still bumps the National, where he is a four-time winner, do not look The absence of Woods from the Masters would ratings. If he’s playing, and if he’s in the final group on promising. once have been a ratings disaster but it appears the the weekend he definitely still makes a difference,” Even if Woods does play, his chances of making the golf world, helped by some likeable players atop the said Dorfman. halfway cut and playing on the weekend appear bleak. world rankings and the continuing competitiveness of “People are maybe not expecting him to win any- But sports industry analysts say an absence of Woods gallery favorite Phil Mickelson, has grown accustomed more but there is still an excitement and hope that he from Augusta National will not have nearly as much of to him missing majors. When Woods, as world number is going to do well on one side. One the other side it’s an impact as in 2014 when, as the world’s top-ranked one, missed the 2014 Masters while recovering from ‘gee let’s watch and see what happened to this guy.’ golfer, he missed the Masters for the first time. back surgery, ratings for CBS’s weekend coverage was There’s a curiosity about how far he’s fallen off.” “Everybody knows the course. It’s just so gor- 8.6 million viewers, the lowest since 1993 when 7.9 Woods made his return to the PGA Tour in January geous and there’s so many famous holes there that million viewers in the United States tuned in before after an absence of 17 months and promptly missed people can’t wait to see,” Bob Dorfman, a sports Woods burst onto the scene. the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open. — Reuters

Carreno Busta reaches Indian Wells semi-finals

INDIAN WELLS: Three-time champion Stan Wawrinka reached the semi-finals of the ATP for the first time on Thursday with a hard-fought three-set victory over eighth-seed- ed . Switzerland’s third-seeded Wawrinka, playing his first tournament in the United States since his US Open victory last year, battled for two and a half hours to get past the rising Austrian star 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7/2) and book a meeting with Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta. Carreno Busta saved two match points en route to a 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (7/4) victory over Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas. Wawrinka, 31, posted the 450th ATP win of his career and kept alive his bid for a second elite Masters title to go with his 2014 Monte Carlo triumph. “The level was really high tonight,” Wawrinka said. “I’m really happy the way I was playing, the way I found a way to win it. “He’s a strong player, really tough to play. I think in general we played both really high level, and the match was only one, two points.” After dropping his to open the match, Wawrinka broke Thiem twice to seize the first set, but Thiem grabbed the break he needed in the third game of the second to level the match. After withstanding two break points in the first game of the third set, INDIAN WELLS: of returns a shot to during the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wawrinka broke the Austrian en route to a quick 3-0 Wells Tennis Garden. — AFP lead. But Thiem, riding high after a victory in Rio de Janeiro this season, wasn’t about to go quietly, winning the next three games. Vesnina vanquishes Venus, But Thiem was unable to convert a break chance in the ninth game, and he found himself facing a match point against his own serve in the 12th-saving it with a sets semi with Mladenovic booming forehand that Wawrinka could do nothing with as he forced a tiebreaker that Wawrinka con- trolled. “I think in the third-set tiebreak I served really INDIAN WELLS: Elena Vesnina denied Venus Williams another American had saved three match points in her second-round well,” said Wawrinka, who also beat lucky loser great escape, beating the seven-time Grand Slam champion 6- victory over Jelena Jankovic. “I was like, ‘Uh-Oh, it’s coming Yoshihito Nishioka in a third-set tiebreaker in the fourth 2, 4-6, 6-3 Thursday to reach the semi-finals at Indian Wells. As back again. I’m going to be another victim of Venus,” Vesnina round. “I was really focused to not give him anything. Williams shook off a lethargic start and began to apply some said. Williams, who ended a 15-year boycott of the event last And, again, it’s a great win for me,” he said. pressure, Vesnina kept her poise, finishing off the contest on year but lost her opening match, was in pursuit of a first Carreno Busta also battled through a tense third set her fourth match point after fending off six break points in the Indian Wells title. in which Cuevas was unable to convert match points final game. She’ll play for a place in the The 36-year-old star did indeed save three match points against the Spaniard’s serve in both the 10th and 12th final after the French player’s 3-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-2 victory over against her own serve in the eighth game of the third set-a games as they took the contest to the tiebreaker. The former world number one . game that went to deuce six times before Williams held with a drama was heightened by Cuevas’s tumble on the first “When I was up three-love in the first set she was missing blistering forehand winner. She appeared poised to pull back of those match points as he lunged for a backhand- some easy shots,” Vesnina said of Williams. “She looked tired a service break when she raced to a 0-40 lead on Vesnina’s necessitating a mid-game medical timeout for treat- and slow on the court. Then, all of a sudden, she started mov- serve in the next game, but Vesnina dug in. A lucky net cord ment on his scraped right hand after Carreno Busta had ing around, hitting great shots, winners from all over the bounce and two backhand errors from Williams got it to polished off the point with an overhead. Things stayed place. “I kind of lost my rhythm, because I didn’t know what to deuce, but she would have three more break chances before tight in the tiebreaker, Carreno Busta gaining a match expect.” After the match Williams acknowledged some physi- an ecstatic Vesnina sealed it with a forehand winner. point at 6-4 when Cuevas sent a backhand long, and cal “issues” that had troubled her throughout the tournament, “I was actually very proud of myself, how I held my nerve,” sealing it with a backhand volley to reach the first although she declined to elaborate. Vesnina said. “I was 0-40 down, but I didn’t even think about Masters semi-final of his career. “I had some issues,” said the American, who played that it’s 0-40. It was point by point, trying to create a good ral- “It’s an amazing feeling,” said Carreno Busta. “It’s Thursday with one thigh bandaged, but without the right arm ly, trying to move her around. “I stuck to this game-I was really my first time in the semi-final in a Masters 1000, but bandage she sported in previous rounds. “It’s great to know fighting like it’s the last game of my life.” Vesnina, a here in Indian Wells is-you know, for me, this tourna- that I can try to play through what I’m going through and be Wimbledon semi-finalist last year, reached the semi-finals of ment is one of the best, not just the Masters 1000, one very competitive,” she said. “I will try my best to be closer to an elite Premier Mandatory level tournament for the first time, of the best tournaments in the year and maybe one of 100 percent in the next tournament.” as did the in-form Mladenovic-whose season so far has includ- the tougher, because all the people is playing here, all Whatever her troubles, when Williams leveled the match ed a first career title in St Petersburg and a runner-up finish in the top 20.” — AFP at a set apiece, Vesnina couldn’t help recalling that the Acapulco this month. — AFP