Wawrinka withdraws
Top-seeded Stan Wawrinka withdrew from the Open de Moselle in Metz, France, with an ankle injury on Friday while former two-time champion Gilles Simon made it to the semifinals. The French Open champion was scheduled to face Philipp Kohlschreiber in the quarterfinals at the indoor hard-court tournament but was unable to play. Wawrinka, who has already qualified for the ATP World Tour Finals from Nov. 15-22 in London, hurt his right ankle during his 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4) victory over Dustin Brown in the second round. The second-seeded Simon, who clinched his titles in the northeastern city in 2010 and 2013, converted two of his five breakpoints and withstood 12 aces to advance past Gilles Muller 6-4, 6-4. Next up for Simon is sixth-seeded Martin Klizan, who rallied to beat fourth-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4). In the semifinals, Kohlschreiber will play third-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who beat fellow Frenchman Nicolas Mahut 6-7 (6), 6-3, 7-5.
Canada’s Milos Raonic took just 53 minutes to demolish Tommy Robredo 6-1, 6-2 and reach the semifinals of the St. Petersburg Open on Friday. Raonic, the second seed and top-ranked player left in the draw, won almost twice as many points as his fifth-seeded Spanish opponent, hitting 10 aces in a one-sided match. In today’s semifinal, Raonic will face fourth seed Roberto Bautista Agut, who earlier Friday beat France’s Lucas Pouille 6-2, 6-3. In the other semifinal, third seed Dominic Thiem will play seventh-seeded Joao Sousa after they won their respective quarterfinals earlier Friday. Thiem beat Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 6-2, 7-5, and Sousa won 7-6 (7), 7-6 (1) against Italy’s Simone Bolelli.
Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia beat defending champion Ana Ivanovic of Serbia 7-6 (5), 6-3 on Friday to reach the semifinals of the Toray Pan-Pacific Open in Tokyo. She will next face seventh-seeded Agniezka Radwanska of Poland, who beat Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-2. The other semifinal will feature top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark
and Belinda Bencic of Switzerland. Earlier, Wozniacki overcame No. 5 Angelique Kerber of Germany 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 after saving five break points in the fifth game of the deciding set. Bencic defeated third-seeded Garbine Muguruza of Spain 7-6 (1), 6-1.