Canadian, partner roll into semis at French Open; Williams exits
Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski is two wins away from capturing her second Grand Slam mixed doubles title in a row. The top-seeded team of Dabrowski, from Ottawa, and Mate Pavic of Croatia beat Demi Schuurs and Matwe Middelkoop of the Netherlands 6-4, 6-4 in a French Open quarter-final on Monday. Dabrowski and Pavic, who teamed up to win the Australian Open title earlier this year, will square off with Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia and Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico in a semifinal. Earlier Monday, Dabrowski’s run in the French Open women’s doubles draw came to a close. The Canadian and partner Yifan Xu of China lost 6-1, 6-2 to Eri Hozumi and Makoto Ninomiya of Japan in a third-round match. Meanwhile, Serena Williams called off her Grand Slam comeback because of a chest muscle injury on Monday, pulling out of the French Open shortly before she was supposed to play Maria Sharapova in the fourth round. “It’s extremely disappointing,” Williams said. “But I made a promise to myself and to my coach and to my team that, if I’m not at least 60 per cent or 50 per cent, then I probably shouldn’t play.”
The 36-year-old American was competing at a major tournament for the first time in 16 months. Meanwhile, on the men’s side, it was another French Open victory and more career milestones for Rafael Nadal. With a 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (4) win over Germany’s Maximilian Marterer, Nadal moved into the quarter-finals, passing Jimmy Connors on the all-time list of match winners at majors. Connors won 233. Nadal has 234.