Nole ends 12-month drought to reach Queen’s showpiece

Federer chases 99th title, faces Coric in Halle final

LONDON, June 23, (AFP): Novak Djokovic ended his final drought as the former world number one reached his first title match for a year with a 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 win against Jeremy Chardy at Queen’s Club on Saturday.

Djokovic will play top seed Marin Cilic on Sunday in the Serb’s first final since he won the grass-court tournament at Eastbourne 12 months ago.

It will be Djokovic’s first appearance in the Queen’s title match since he was beaten by Rafael Nadal in his only previous final at the Wimbledon warm-up event in 2008.

The 31-year-old’s 99th career final offers him the chance to move above Stefan Edberg into sole possession of ninth place in the all-time match wins list on 802.

Asked how he would cope with Cilic’s power serves, Djokovic joked: “I will play with two racquets! One in the right hand and one in the left hand!”

After such a turbulent period since he was forced to withdraw from Wimbledon with an elbow injury last year, Djokovic may be rounding into form just in time for his return to the All England Club.

Maintaining his domination of Chardy, Djokovic set up another so far one-sided match-up against Cilic, who has lost 14 of their 15 meetings. Cilic slugged his way into a fourth Queen’s final as the Croatian won the battle of the big servers with a 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/4) victory over Nick Kyrgios.

Cilic, 29, is bidding to win Queen’s for the second time after lifting the trophy in 2012 and finishing as runner-up in 2013 and 2017.

It will be Cilic’s second final of 2018 following his defeat against Roger Federer at the Australian Open in January. The world number six, who was also beaten by Federer in last year’s Wimbledon final, lost the ace race against Kyrgios, with the Australian hitting 16 to Cilic’s 11.

But former US Open champion Cilic held his nerve in two tie-breaks and punished a handful of key errors from

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic returns to France’s Jeremy Chardy during their men’s singles semifinals match at the ATP

Queen’s Club Championships tennis tournament in west London on June 23. (AFP)

Scott took the triple jump at 57 feet.

Christian Taylor, who was expected to win the triple jump after taking first at worlds in 2017, didn’t register a qualified jump before dropping out. Taylor’s performance came shortly after he barely failed to advance in the 400. “My legs were heavy after the 400,” Taylor said. “I mean, there is so much to lose and little to gain in that.”

Ziemek, who was seventh in the Rio Olympics, cruised to the win by posting the best score by an American in 2018. Ziemek also beat two-time Olympic champion Ashton Eaton’s stadium record by just three points in winning his first national title.

Rudy Winkler won the event for the second time in three years, finishing first with a toss of 242 feet — less than two feet further than runner-up Alex Young.

World record holder Kendra Harrison advanced in the 100 hurdles with a season-best time of 12.46 in a preliminary heat. ... Michael Rodgers, who ran a world-leading time of 9.89 seconds in the first round of the 100 on Thursday, pulled out of the meet for unspecified reasons. ... Chris Bernard was second in the triple jump at 56-10, followed by KeAndre Bates at 56-3-3/4.

Also: KINGSTON, Jamaica:

Olympic 100 metres champion Elaine Thompson left

Noah Lyles runs to victory in the men’s 100-meter final during day 2 of the 2018 USATF Outdoor Championships at Drake Stadium on June

22, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AFP)

it late before coming through in the closing stages to run down a fast-starting Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and win the Jamaican championships title on Friday.

Thompson, who had a poor start crossed the line in 11.01 seconds, while three-time world champion Fraser-Pryce faded to a season-best 11.09 and Olympic 400m bronze medalist Shericka Jackson came third with career-best 11.13.

The 25-year-old Thompson was pleased with the win after an injury-hit start to the season.

The 11.09 was Fraser-Pryce’s best time in 22 months after returning to competition last month following the birth of her first child in 2017.

In the absence of former world champion Yohan Blake, Tyquendo Tracey produced a career best 10.07 seconds to win his first national 100m title. Kenroy Anderson was second in 10.24, while Nesta Carter was third in 10.31.

Blake was disqualified in the semifinals after running under protest, having been charged with a false start.

World championship semifinalist Julian Forte pulled up injured around 60 metres into the final.

Earlier, Commonwealth Games gold medalist Janieve Russell led from start to finish to win the 400m hurdles in 54.18, as Olympic finalist Annsert Whyte won the men’s equivalent from lane eight in 48.80.