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SPORTS SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 2014 Nishikori makes his way into ATP showdown with Gasquet

WASHINGTON: Japan’s Kei Nishikori battled through a second the next three games only to have Nishikori raise his game and challenging three-set test Thursday to reach an ATP Washington break him to claim the match, his second three-set triumph in a Open quarter-final against a foe he has never beaten, Frenchman row. . Fourth-seeded Nishikori outlasted Slovakian “It’s a positive for me to win in three sets two matches in a Lukas Lacko 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 while sixth seed Gasquet downed row,” Nishikori said, noting that he wanted matches to build con- American Tim Smyczek 6-3, 6-2. fidence after a three-week layoff since Wimbledon. Nishikori, 24, That will send two of the three top remaining seeds in the $1.9 is seeking his sixth career ATP title and third of the season after million (1.4 million euro) hardcourt event against each other to defending a crown at Memphis and collecting a clay-court title at decide a semi-final berth. “I’m sure it’s going to be the toughest Barcelona. He also won in 2008 at Delray Beach and at Tokyo in match this week,” Nishikori said. “I’ve never beaten him so it’s 2012. going to be a big challenge.” Gasquet, 28, seeks his 11th career ATP crown and first on US Gasquet, ranked 14th is 4-0 all-time against 11th-ranked soil after taking titles last year at , Moscow and Montpelier, Nishikori, having dropped only one set to him. But this will be the where he was runner-up this year. He was also a finalist at nearest to a final they have met. Gasquet won their first meeting Eastbourne this season. Gasquet, who made a semi-final run at at Tokyo in 2008, again at Queen’s in 2010 and twice last year at last year’s US Open to match his best showing from Montreal and Paris ATP Masters series events. Wimbledon in 2007, played two weeks ago at Bogota and suf- “He has a great , strong and and he’s fered a right arm injury that forced him out of last week’s event in very talented,” Nishikori said. “I have to serve better than I did Atlanta. today.” Nishikori fired eight aces but made six double faults and “I couldn’t even serve a ball,” Gasquet said. “For three days connected on only 53 percent of his first serves against Lacko. here I didn’t serve. Now it feels fine.” That gives him hope of “It was tough,” Nishikori said. “The second set he began play- duplicating his success in Flushing Meadows when the US Open ing much better. Maybe I lost concentration but I fought through begins on August 25. “There are a lot of big matches to come for it in the third set.” Nishikori jumped ahead 4-0 before Lacko won me,” Gasquet said. — AFP

Wozniacki to run NYC STANFORD: of the Unites States of America celebrates against Victoria Azarenka of during Day 4 Marathon of the Bank of the West Classic at the Taube Family Stadium on , 2014 in California. — AFP NEW YORK: always feels confident she can outrun her opponent on Venus topples birthday the . The former No. 1 player fig- ures that with a bit more training, she can cov- girl Azarenka er 26.2 miles. Wozniacki plans to play a full tournament schedule this fall while fitting in STANFORD: Seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams oust- time to train for the New York City Marathon. ed fourth-seeded birthday girl Victoria Azarenka in straight sets She typically runs for 30-40 minutes a day as Thursday to reach the quarter-finals of the WTA hardcourt tourna- part of workouts for tennis and hopes that ment at Stanford. The 6-4, 7-6 (7/1) triumph kept Williams on course one longer session per week of an hour or for a possible semi-final showdown with her sister Serena, the world more can get her through the Nov 2 race. number one and top seed who will take on in the quar- And, no, she’s not seeking this challenge in an ter-finals on Friday. “Williams-Williams tomorrow, hopefully,” Venus attempt to distract herself from her personal told the crowd at the campus of Stanford University, where she came life, Wozniacki insisted. Golfer Rory McIlroy WASHINGTON: Vasek Pospisil of Canada returns a shot to Tomas Berdych of out on top in a hard-fought, physical duel with Azarenka that lasted broke off their engagement in late May, less Czech Republic (unseen) during the Citi Open at the William HG FitzGerald an hour and 42 minutes. “It’s never easy to play Victoria. We’ve than a month before Wozniacki decided to Tennis Center on July 31, 2014. — AFP always had extremely tough matches, so I expected that tonight as prepare for a marathon when she would have well,” said Williams, who acknowledged that Azarenka may have been preparing for a wedding. Pospisil dumps been at a disadvantage after having a first-round bye. That meant “Tennis helped me just get through the the match was the Belarussian’s first since her second-round exit at tough times,” Wozniacki said Thursday. “Now Wimbledon. I’m just feeling happy and I wanted to do top seed Berdych It was a disappointing result on her 25th birthday for Azarenka, something good for others. I think that this who came into the week ranked 10th in the world but needed to had nothing really to do with my personal life. WASHINGTON: Czech top seed Tomas Slam champion’s break chances at the reach the semi-finals to stay in the top 10. A left foot injury sidelined It was something I was passionate about.” The Berdych was ousted from the ATP and $1.9 million (1.4m euro) hardcourt her for three months this year before she returned to action at the 24-year-old Dane had long wanted to run a WTA Washington Open on Thursday, warm-up event for the US Open. Wimbledon tuneup event at Eastbourne.The former world number marathon, and looking at this year’s tourna- falling 6-2, 6-4 to Canada’s Vasek “I did a lot of good things, especially one, who owns two titles, didn’t go quietly. ment schedule, she determined it was doable. Pospisil in a third-round match. Pospisil, the way I fought through the important She gamely fought off two match points in the 12th game of the About a week before Wimbledon, she asked who at 36th in the rankings was 31 games,” Raonic said. “In those key second set to force the tiebreaker, but from there it was all Williams. her manager to look up charities she could spots beneath Berdych, collected his moments, my attitude got me The 34-year-old American won the first point of the tiebreaker on her raise money for. Wozniacki will represent third career victory over a top-10 foe, through.” Raonic, who also won his own serve, then fired two forehand winners to take the next two Team for Kids, which helps fund NYC his first coming over Berdych 51 weeks opener over American in two points on Azarenka’s serve and never looked back.Azarenka double Marathon organizer New York Road Runners’ ago in the round of 16 at Canada. tie-breakers, will face US giant-killer faulted to give Williams a 6-1 lead, and the American held on to win youth programs. “That was not one of my best,” Steve Johnson for a spot in the last the next point-firing over a running forehand that Azarenka could “People ask me, ‘Why don’t you just run a Berdych said. “It’s something that four. Johnson dumped ATP aces leader only belt back into the net. 5K or 10K?’ I’m like, ‘Well, I do that all the time, needs to be dealt with and go on. I Ivo Karlovic 3-6, 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (9/7) Williams had come on strong late in the opening set as well, seal- so it wouldn’t really be a challenge,’” she said. need to move on and work even hard- despite 27 aces by the Croatian ninth ing the frame with a service break in the final game. Williams next “This is really something I need to put my er.” In the quarter-finals for the second seed a day after beating US fifth seed faces eighth-seeded German , who booked her quar- mind to.” Wozniacki was in Manhattan on week in a row, Pospisil will face John Isner, who ranks second in aces ter-final berth on Wednesday. Earlier Thursday, fifth-seeded Ivanovic Thursday with Meb Keflezighi, the reigning Santiago Giraldo, who beat Victor and fired 29 past Johnson. cruised past Canadian qualifier 6-1, 6-1 in just 54 minutes to book her Boston Marathon champ who will also raise Estrella Burgos 6-2, 6-0. “He’s a guy who “He couldn’t have had any better third meeting this year with . money for Team for Kids at the New York race, likes to play big matches,” Berdych said preparation to face me,” said Raonic, Ivanovic, a former world number one herself, downed the which he won in 2009. “There’s no turning of Pospisil, who will be seeking his sec- who ranks third in ATP aces. “It’s going American at the Australian Open, a defeat that Serena avenged in back now,” she said with a laugh of announc- ond semi-final of the season after to be very difficult. “Compared to the Rome. The two have never played each other this many times in one ing her plans to the world. She’ll be back in Chennai. previous two he got, I think I control season. “It’s a good sign,” Ivanovic said. “It means we’re getting fur- the city in three weeks for the US Open, Wimbledon semi-finalist Milos the center of the court and move a little ther into the tournaments to play each other.” In other matches on which, she hopes, takes her through Sept 7. Raonic reached the quarter-finals with a better. Hopefully that will get me Thursday, third-seeded of Germany got past Then it’s a week off before three weeks play- 7-6 (7/1), 7-6 (7/3) victory over through.” In each win, Johnson benefit- American Coco Vandeweghe 7-6 (7/4), 0-6, 6-2 to book a quarter-final ing in Asia, another week off, and a tourna- Australian Lleyton Hewitt. The second- ted from a double fault by his rival on with rising Spanish talent Garbine Muguruza-a 6-4, 6-4 winner over ment in Moscow. — AP seeded Canadian fired 27 aces and the penultimate point to win a third-set Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova 6-4, 6-4. — AFP denied all four of the two-time Grand tie-breaker. — AFP