Wozniacki upsets Muguruza to reach final of Pan Pacific Open

Defending champion Caroline Wozniacki upset top-ranked Garbine Muguruza 6-2, 6-0 to advance to the final of the Pan Pacific Open yesterday.

Wozniacki, a champion here in 2010 and 2016, converted six of seven break points to reach her seventh final of 2017.

Playing in her first tournament since earning the WTA’s top ranking, Wimbledon champion Muguruza had 29 unforced errors to drop the final 10 games of the match.

“I didn’t feel that fresh,” Muguruza said. “In the long rallies, I was struggling a little bit. I felt my energy was a little bit low, but I think she just had a good match. I didn’t make the important shots in the important moments so the match went to her side very fast.”

Sixth-ranked Wozniacki will face Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in Sunday’s final. Pavlyuchenkova rallied from being down 3-0 in the final set to beat former No. 1 Angelique Kerber 6-0, 6-7 (4), 6-4.

Pavlyuchenkova, who is aiming for her third title of 2017, broke serve seven times and won six of the final seven games.

Pavlyuchenkova admitted her slow start in the final set had her thinking about the next tournament in China.

“I was already thinking about going to Wuhan,” Pavlyuchenkova said. “In my head I was booking flights. But at the same time, I always fight to the last point.”

Fognini, Dzumhur reach final of St. Petersburg Open

Fabio Fognini will play for his second ATP title of the year and Damir Dzumhur for the first of his career in the final of the St. Pe- tersburg Open.

The third-seeded Fognini eliminated top-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain 2-6, 7-6 (7), 7-5 (5) in 2 1/2 hours in the semifinals on Saturday. The Italian broke Bautista Agut only once, in the second set.

Fognini also beat Bautista Agut in July at Gstaad, where he won his fourth career title, all on clay. St. Petersburg, where he was a finalist in 2012, is on an indoor hard-court.

The unseeded Dzumhur defeated eighth-seeded Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany 6-3, 7-5. In a match of vulnerable servers, Struff was the least effective in winning less than 30 percent of his second serves and losing his serves five times.

“I was making him play more, because he likes fast points,” Dzumhur said. “I won because I didn’t give him easy balls that he likes.”

Dzumhur, of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is at a career-high ranking of 55 after reaching his first career final last month in Winston-Salem. He has a 0-2 win record against Fognini.

Paire faces qualifier Gojowczyk in Moselle Open final

Benoit Paire reached his first final of the year at the Moselle Open on Saturday, defeating Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia 61, 7-6 (5). The seventh-seeded Frenchman, who had lost his four previous semifinals this year, faces German qualifier Peter Gojowczyk on Sunday.

Paire hit 17 aces and needed just one hour to advance while 95thranked Gojowczyk spent less than 30 minutes on the indoor court. Gojowczyk was up 6-3, 1-0 against Mischa Zverev when the fifth-seeded German retired.

According to the ATP, the last qualifier to win a title on the main tour is Frenchman Nicolas Mahut, at ‘s-Hertogenbosch in 2015. Paire, who defeated secondseeded David Goffin in the previous round after saving a match point, dropped just five points on his first serve and fended off all four break points he faced. The Frenchman had lost all eight semifinals he had played since October 2015 and will chase a second ATP title after claiming his maiden trophy in Bastad two years ago.

Players are starstruck by Federer and Nadal at Laver Cup

They are some of the top upand-comers in men’s tennis, but younger players like Denis Shapovalov, Dominic Thiem, Frances Tiafoe, and Alexander Zverev couldn’t help being starstruck as they opened play at the Laver Cup.

Though they were the ones on court, some of the game’s biggest legends, including Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg, and John McEnroe were watching from the sidelines.

“It was a special match today because I was playing in front of guys like Rod Laver and Roger, Rafa and all of them sitting there and watching me,” said Shapovalov. “It was unbelievable to be on the court.

While Federer and Nadal are competing in the event, Borg and McEnroe are coaches of the two teams. Shapovalov had McEnroe on court with him in his encounter aganst Zverev, saying, “On the court with Johnny Mac today, he gave me a lot of little feedbacks I’m gonna try and implement.”