Tennis

PARIS: Austrian Dominic Thiem´s rise to the top continued when he ended unheralded Italian Marco Cecchinato´s run to reach the final of the French Open with a 7-5 7-6(10) 6-1 win on Friday. The seventh seed, the first Austrian man to reach a Grand Slam final since Thomas Muster triumphed at Roland Garros in 1995, will take on either Argentine ...

World number one Simona Halep has another chance to finally land her first Grand Slam title after beating Garbine Muguruza in the French Open semi-finals. The Romanian, 26, won 6-1 6-4 against the Spanish third seed. She will meet either US Open champion Sloane Stephens or her fellow American Madison Keys in Saturday’s final. Halep has lost three previous Grand ...

Five Armenians have been charged in Belgium with corruption, money laundering and other crimes as part of an international investigation into match-fixing in tennis, prosecutors said Wednesday. They were among 13 people held in Belgium on Tuesday as simultaneous raids were carried out in the United States, Germany, France, Bulgaria, Slovakia and the Netherlands. An investigating judge in Belgium then ...

PARIS: Argentina´s Juan Martin Del Potro came through a clash of the titans against Marin Cilic to reach his first French Open semi-final for nine years on Thursday, winning a rain-delayed duel 7-6(5), 5-7, 6-3, 7-5. The 29-year-old powerhouse´s eighth successive defeat of Cilic set up a clash with 10-times champion Rafael Nadal. Play resumed on a sunny Court Suzanne ...

PARIS: Garbine Muguruza roared into the French Open semi-finals with a 6-2, 6-1 demolition job of Maria Sharapova on Wednesday. The predicted battle royal between the two former champions never materialised on a muggy Court Philippe Chatrier as Spaniard Muguruza dominated from start to finish. Sharapova looked nervous from the beginning and was never allowed to settle as Muguruza posted ...

Novak Djokovic is out of the French Open after Italy’s Marco Cecchinato beat him to reach the semi-finals in a huge shock in Paris. Djokovic, 31, saved three match points and missed three set points before the world number 72 finally won 6-3 7-6 (7-4) 1-6 7-6 (13-11). Cecchinato, 25, had never won a main-draw match at a Grand Slam ...

Ten-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal moved into the 2018 quarter-finals with a 6-3 6-2 7-6 (7-4) victory over Germany’s Maximilian Marterer. Nadal, 32, lost his opening service game and trailed 2-0 in the first set in Paris before recovering well. He broke Marterer’s serve early in the second set and fought back from 3-1 down in the third for ...

PARIS: American Serena Williams withdrew from the French Open on Monday, shortly before she was due on court to face Maria Sharapova in a much-anticipated fourth round showdown. The 36-year-old 23-times Grand Slam champion, making a comeback after a maternity break, told a news conference she had a pectoral muscle injury. “Unfortunately I´m having some issues with my pec muscle. ...

PARIS: Maria Sharapova admitted on Saturday that “numbers don´t lie” as she prepared to face bitter rival Serena Williams, who she has lost to 18 times in a row, in the French Open fourth round. Sharapova, who thrashed Karolina Pliskova in the third round, will face Williams for the 22nd time in the last 16 on Monday, after the American ...

PARIS: Ten-time champion Rafael Nadal breezed into the French Open third round and a clash against childhood friend Richard Gasquet on Thursday, as Maria Sharapova closed in on a potential reunion with longtime rival Serena Williams. Top seed and world number one Nadal, chasing an 11th title, swept past Argentinian Guido Pella 6-2, 6-1, 6-1, showing no signs of the ...