OSAKA DOWNS GIORGI TO ENTER TOKYO FINAL, TO FACE PLISKOVA
TOKYO: US Open champion Naomi Osaka stormed past Italy’s Camila Giorgi 6-2, 6-3 on Saturday to reach the Pan Pacific Open final where she will face Karolina Pliskova.
Osaka’s victory in front of her home crowd was her 10th in a row and did not look in doubt from the moment the world No 7 pounded down a huge ace with her first serve of the match. The 20-year-old, who became Japan’s first Grand Slam singles champion in New York two weeks ago, hit a further eight aces to overwhelm world No 37 Giorgi.
Osaka advanced to face No 8 Pliskova in the final after the bigserving Czech outlasted Croatia’s Donna Vekic 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.
DJOKER-FEDERER LOSE
CHICAGO: Team Europe took a commanding 3-1 lead over Team World in the Laver Cup on Friday despite seeing their highprofile doubles pairing of Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic suffer the defending champions’ only defeat of the first day here. Jack Sock and Kevin Anderson combined to deliver the sole triumph for their side, overcoming the world’s second and third ranked singles players 6-7(5), 6-3, 10-6 to prevent an opening day shutout for Team Europe.
WAWRINKA GOES DOWN
STPETERSBURG: Slovakia’s Martin Klizan battled back from a set down to beat Stan Wawrinka on Saturday and reach the Saint Petersburg Open final.
Klizan, the 2012 champion here, won 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 in two hours and 16 minutes to chalk up his first win over the 33-year-old Wawrinka in their fourth headto-head meeting.
It was one of the rare off-days for Gaganjeet Bhullar as he crashed to four-over 75 and dropped to T-39 after Round 3 of the Asia-pacific Diamond Cup. Bhullar, who was T-9 after 36 holes, had three bogeys, a double and just one birdie on a day when things just did not go his way. Meanwhile, Ajeetesh Sandhu (74) and Rahil Gangjee (73) also had a disappointing day as they lied T-46 and T-51st respectively. Japan’s Yuta Ikeda put himself in contention for a 20th career victory after shooting a third round five-under-par 66. World No 98 Ikeda has won every year since 2009 and is now in position to secure his first title in 2018 after totalling 12-under-par 201.
PAKISTAN BEAT INDIA
DOHA: India settled for silver after losing to Pakistan 2-3 in the final of the Asian Team Snooker Championship here. Pankaj Advani lost to Babar Masih 2-110(81) but Malkeet Singh defeated Muhammad Asif 81(52)-47 to make it level. In doubles, Pakistan beat India 72-70 but Advani then beat Asif 107(68)-5. Finally, Malkeet lost to Babar 18-98.
DEEPAK IN FINAL
TRNAVA (SLOVAKIA): Junior Asian champion Deepak Punia on Saturday earned a shot at the world title after reaching the final of the 86kg event in the junior world wrestling championship here. In a dominating show, Punia lost only two points en route the final, where he will fight it out with Turkey’s Arif Ozen. The two points he lost was in the semi-final against Moldova’s Ivan Nedealco where he scored a 6-2 win.