Federer breezes into semi-finals
ROGER FEDERER stormed his way into his 11th semi-final at the BNP Paribas Open with a dominant win over Hyeon Chung. The pair faced a re-match of their Australian Open semi-final — in which Chung had retired hurt — but the South Korean failed to improve his record against the world number one. Federer, 36, toppled his 21-yearold opponent 7-5 6-1 after an hour and 23 minutes on court. The match was more competitive than their meeting in Melbourne, however, with Chung rallying to come back from 3-0 down in the opening set to tie the scores. But a focused Federer held his nerve, eventually breaking for another time to take the set. The Swiss once again raced to a 3-0 lead in the second, and this time his opponent had no answers. Federer’s win ensures he will remain in the world rankings top spot for another two weeks, extending his record reign to 308 weeks. He will now face another 21-yearold in the final four at Indian Wells — Borna Coric. The Croatian came back from a break down in the third set to beat South Africa’s Kevin Anderson 2-6 6-4 7-6 (7/3). Having double-faulted to lose his serve at a crucial point in the deciding set, Coric could easily have crumbled. But he fought on and broke straight back — despite the fact Anderson had only been broken twice in the tournament until that point. Facing match point in the thirdset tiebreak, Anderson lifted a forehand long, leaving Coric to progress to his maiden ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semifinal. Meanwhile, Maria Sharapova has withdrawn from next week’s Miami Open because of a left forearm injury. It has been a troubled season so far for the former world number one, who has not won a match since the Australian Open having lost in the opening round in Doha and last week in Indian Wells. After that defeat by Naomi Osaka, she parted ways with coach Sven Groeneveld, who had stuck with her through her 15month doping ban, while she pulled out of last month’s tournament in Dubai, also with a forearm problem. The 30-year-old Russian returned from her suspension last April but has struggled to make an impact at the top of the game since, and is currently ranked 41.