AFP
INDIAN WELLS, MARCH 14
AUSTRALIAN Open champion Li Na booked her semifinal berth at the Indian Wells hardcourt tennis tournament with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 win over Dominika Cibulkova.
China’s Li, the world number two who is the top seed in the event, reprised her triumph over Slovakia’s Cibulkova in the final in Melbourne, although she labored two hours and 36 minutes to do it.
Li was firmly in control in the opening set, breaking Cibulkova to start the match.
She dropped her own serve in the next game, but immediately broke the Slovakian again, and fended off two break points in the fourth game to stretch her advantage.
Li couldn’t convert break chances in the fifth, but pocketed the set with a break in the ninth game, sealing it with a forehand cross court winner.
But Cibulkova turned the tables in the second set as Li’s error count crept up, breaking the Chinese in the third and fifth games and holding for a 5-1 lead.
Li won the next three games, but couldn’t hold off Cibulkova any longer as the Slovakian held to force a third set.
After an exchange of breaks in the first two games, Li gained the decisive break in the eighth.
Both players struggled with their serves at times on the sunny stadium court, each coughing up eight double faults and facing double-digit break points.
Li, who successfully defended her title in Shenzhen before capturing her second career Grand Slam title in Australia, will face the winner of Thursday’s quarter-final clash between rising US talent Sloane Stephens and Italian veteran Flavia Pennetta.
Federer, Dolgopolov storm into semis
AFP
INDIAN WELLS, MARCH 14
ROGER Federer kept his bid for a fifth Indian Wells ATP Masters crown on track Thursday, cruising past South African Kevin Anderson 7-5, 6-1 to reach the semi-finals.
Federer, owner of a record 17 Grand Slam titles, arrived in California fresh from securing his first trophy in nine months in Dubai.
Seeded seventh, the 32-year-old Swiss great is seeking to add to the Indian Wells titles he captured in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2012.
Anderson had beaten third-seeded Australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka en route to the quarters, handing the Swiss his first defeat of 2014 after 13 match wins.
But he could make little headway against Federer, who saved the only break point he faced in the third game of the opening set.
Federer next faces Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov, who brushed past big-serving Canadian Milos Raonic 6-3, 6-4.
Dolgopolov, ranked 31st in the world, stunned world number one Rafael Nadal in the third round and is in the semi-finals of an ATP Masters event for the first time.
Sania-Black pair reaches final
PTI
INDIAN WELLS, MARCH 14
SANIA Mirza and Cara Black are in line to win their first title of season as they defeated Lucie Hradecka and Jie Zheng to reach the final of the BNP Paribas Open, a Premier WTA tournament.
The fifth seeded Indo-Zimbabwean pair defeated eighth seeded Czech-Chinese team 6-4, 3-6, 10-7 in an hour and 37 minutes in the semifinal of the $5,946,740 hard court event.
It will be first final of the 2014 season for Sania and Cara, who had won two back-to-back titles to end the previous season.
Before this event, in four tournaments this season, they twice suffered a first round exit and reached quarterfinals of the other two, including Australian Open.
There was not much difference between the two sides as they fared almost same in all departments of the game. Sania and Cara (71) won only five more points than their rivals.
They now await winners of the other semifinal between Su-Wei Hsieh/Shuai Peng and Svetlana Kuznetsova/Samantha Stosur.
