Paes-Chardy beat Granollers-Groth, enter semis
DELRAY BEACH (US): Leander Paes and French partner Jeremy Chardy fought off a strong challenge from Marcel Granollers and Sam Groth in the quarterfinals of the $514,065 Delray Beach Open. The Indo-French combination squandered an early lead before staging a superb comeback to carve out a 6-3, 4-6, 10-6 win and enter the semi-finals on Thursday.
Paes and Chardy will now meet the top seeded US pair of Bob and Mike Bryan.
The Austrian-French pairing of Oliver Marach and Fabrice Martin also entered the semif i nals after defeating t he American duo of Denis Kudla and Donald Young 6-4, 6-4.
NADAL IN LAST EIGHT
RIO DE JANEIRO: Rafael Nadal won through to the quarter-finals of the clay-court event in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday, beating compatriot Nicolas Almagro in straight sets 6-3, 7-5.
The troubled Mallorcan is the top seed in what is his second tournament since being humbled in the first round of the Australian Open.
Beaten in the semi-finals in Buenos Aires last weekend by Dominic Thiem, Nadal found world number 53 Almagro rather more accomodating, although he only advanced after one hour, 40 minutes on court.
It was Nadal’s 14th victory in 15 meetings with Almagro and he will face Oleksandr Dolgopolov in the next round after the Ukrainian beat another Spaniard, Inigo Cervantes-Huegun, in three sets.
ERRANI IN FINAL
DUBAI: Sara Errani reached her second final at the Dubai Tennis Championships on Friday as she defeated Ukrainian Elina Svitolina 6-4, 6-4.
Errani to face the winner from Czech Barbora Strycova and Caroline Garcia of France in the final. Errani, ranked 22nd, took almost two hours to hold off her 21st-ranked opponent, finishing with 31 unforced errors.