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| March 2, 2003 | Sunday | Zul Hijjah 28, 1423 |
Zabaleta hands Kuerten another semifinal defeat
ACAPULCO (Mexico), March 1: Unseeded Argentine Mariano Zabaleta handed former world number one Gustavo Kuerten his second semifinal defeat in a week at the Mexican Open on Friday.
Zabaleta, who reached his first final for three-and-a-half years, celebrated his 25th birthday with a 7-6 6-7 7-5 win over the six-seeded Brazilian in just under three hours.
He will now meet Argentine Agustin Calleri, who beat Spain’s Felix Mantilla 6-2 6-2 in the other semi-final, to set up a final involving two unseeded players in the $690,000 tournament.
Kuerten’s defeat followed his semi-final loss to Spain’s Carlos Moya in Buenos Aires the previous Saturday.
“This is one of the happiest days of my life,” said Zabaleta, whose last final was in St Poelten in 1999 and whose only title was in Bogota the year before.
“I’ve beaten Kuerten, it’s my birthday and I’m in a final for the first time in three-and-a-half years.”
In the women’s quarterfinals, Japan’s Shinobu Asagoe, second-round conquerer of topseed Elena Dementieva, continued her impressive run by beating Spain’s Cristina Torrens Valero 6-4 5-7 7-5.
MEN:
Semifinal results (prefix number denotes seeding):
Agustin Calleri bt Felix Mantilla 6-2 6-2; Mariano Zabaleta bt 6-Gustavo Kuerten 7-6 (7-4) 6-7 (3-7) 7-5.
WOMEN
Quarterfinal results (prefix number indicates seeding):
Shinobu Asagoe beat Cristina Torrens Valero 6-4 5-7 7-5, Mariana Oliva-Diaz bt Alena Vaskova 6-3 4-6 7-6 (7-3), Emilie Loit bt Petra Mandula 3-6 6-2 6-1.—Reuters
SCOTTSDALE (Arizona): Unseeded Ai Sugiyama, Meghann Shaughnessy and Alexandra Stevenson joined number two Kim Clijsters in the semifinals of the rain-soaked Scottsdale tennis tournament on Friday.
Forced to play two singles matches because of the rain that has plagued the tournament all week, Clijsters first beat Cara Black of Zimbabwe 6-2 6-3 and then came back two hours later to defeat American Laura Granville 6-3 6-3.
Clijsters will face her former doubles partner Meghann Shaughnessy, who wiped out Italy’s Francesca Schiavone 6-2 6-1, while the unseeded Stevenson upended number eight Nathalie Dechy of France 6-3 6-4.
The third-ranked Clijsters will play the winner of the quarterfinal between Meghann Shaughnessy and Francesca Schiavone.
Stevenson, meanwhile, employed a big first serve and huge groundstrokes against the 19th-ranked Dechy, who was unable to upset her foe with sharply angled shots.
Stevenson steamrollered the Frenchwoman in the first set, winning it when she powered a 108-mph ace.
The American jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second set, but Dechy began to find her range on her forehand and clawed her way back to 3-3.
But troubled by a swirling wind, Dechy was unable to hold and was broken to 3-4. Stevenson held to 3-5 and held her first match point with Dechy serving, but missed a crosscourt backhand passing shot. Dechy then held to 4-5.
Stevenson missed another backhand pass on her second match point but on her third, she ripped a service winner.
Stevenson will meet Japan’s Ai Sugiyama, who came back from a 2-5 deficit in the second set to beat Greece’s Eleni Daniilidou 7-5 7-5.—Reuters
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