Barty regroups to win, but Osaka retires with injury

(Reuters) - Top seed Ash Barty rallied from a set down to make the Cincinnati Masters semi-finals but world number one Naomi Osaka withdrew from her quarterfinal with an apparent knee injury yesterday.

Osaka was trailing American Sofia Kenin in the third set when the Japanese player sought treatment on her left knee.

After briefly returning to play, Osaka retired. Kenin was leading 6-4 1-6 2-0.

The withdrawal comes less than two weeks before the start of the U.S. Open, where Osaka is the defending champion.

“This isn’t the way I wanted to win,” Kenin said in a courtside interview.

“I wish Naomi a speedy recovery so she can get ready for the U.S. Open. She’s a great player and I have a lot of respect for her.”

Australian Barty, the number two ranked player, rallied for a 5-7 6-2 6-0 victory over Greek Maria Sakkari.

Barty will face Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova in Saturday’s semi-finals and a victory would return her to top of the world rankings.

Kuznetsova outlasted Czech third seed Karolina Pliskova 3-6 7-6(2) 6-3, striking 30 winners and breaking Pliskova three times.

The 34-year-old Kuznetsova was down a set with her Czech opponent serving for the match but found a way to turn things around.

Barty also needed a comeback. The Australian surged to a 4-1 advantage over Sakkari in their first set and appeared on her way to an easy triumph.

But Sakkari had other ideas. The Greek, using a variety of backhand winners that resulted in mounting unforced errors by Barty, wrestled control to take the set.

In explaining the turnaround, Barty said, “I started the match well and I went away from what was working. Maria took some risks that paid off.”

The second saw a reversal of form with Barty cleaning up her errors and effectively employing a backhand slice that deserted her in the opener.

“It was important for me at the start of the second set to go back to basics and what worked before,” the 23-year-old Barty said. “I had to serve well, and not give her too many looks at second serves. I tried to bring in my slice to change the tempo of the match.”

With 11 winners and just four unforced errors she easily took the set.

Sakkari was no match in the third as Barty raced through for the win. BILBAO, (Reuters) - La Liga champions Barcelona fell to their first opening day defeat of the season in 11 years when they were beaten 1-0 at Athletic Bilbao yesterday thanks to a sensational late overhead kick from veteran striker Aritz Aduriz.

The 38-year-old came off the bench late in the game and soon made Barca pay for squandering several chances by acrobatically lashing an unstoppable shot into the net in the 89th minute. The Catalans were without injured captain Lionel Messi but lined up with 200 million euros of new talent in France forward Antoine Griezmann and Dutch midfielder Frenkie de Jong.

However, they lacked sparkle against an energetic Bilbao side who had the better run of play for the first half even though Barca came closest to scoring before the interval.

Luis Suarez struck the near post in the first half when presented with a terrible back pass from Athletic’s Unai Lopez and was soon forced off with a calf injury, while substitute Rafinha rattled the crossbar after coming on. Barca improved after the break as coach Ernesto Valverde replaced young midfielder Carles Alena with the more experienced Ivan Rakitic and spent most of the second period in the home side’s area.

Rakitic and Rafinha each came close to scoring for the visitors but they were outdone by one of Spanish football’s best loved players in Aduriz, who has announced that he will retire at the end of the season.

“Sometimes football is so beautiful and when you least expect it a ball like that comes to your feet and goes into the net,” Aduriz told reporters.

“Barcelona are the best team around and it’s very difficult to last a whole game taking them on and matching them for space but we knew exactly how to manage our energy.”

It was the first time Barca have lost their opening game of the season since 2008, when they were beaten 1-0 by Numancia in Pep Guardiola’s debut game in charge, although they swiftly recovered from that setback and went on to win the treble.