Nadal, djokovic and murray in to rome semis

ROME: Rafael Nadal showed no signs of the fever that has been troubling him this week as he strolled into the Rome Masters semi-finals with a 6-1, 6-3 demolition of Marin Cilic on Friday.
World number two Novak Djokovic beat fifth seed Robin Soderling 6-3, 6-0 to maintain his undefeated start to the year while Andy Murray became the first British man to reach the Rome semis in the Open era after a 1-6, 6-1, 6-1 victory against Florian Mayer.
Having been totally off colour on Wednesday in a laboured three-set victory over Italian qualifier Paolo Lorenzi, Nadal proved he was back to his best against Cilic.
“I improved more than a little bit, I played better. First of all, to win a tournament you have to play well every day,” said Nadal.
“I’m in the semis now. I’ve played three finals in a row on clay, I won two and lost one and now I’m in the semis again and that’s very positive for me.
“Tomorrow will be a difficult match, I will have to play well another time, a little better than today.”
Nadal will play Roger Federer’s conqueror Richard Gasquet in the semi-final after the 16th seed came back from a set down to beat seventh seed Tomas Berdych 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.
Djokovic, who took his unbeaten run since the start of the year to 35 matches, seemed to be in a battle royale until 3-3 in the first set when he then reeled off nine games in a row against Soderling.
He faces a semi-final against Murray, who became the first British man since George ‘Pat’ Hughes in 1932 to get this far in Rome.
“It is important, it’s nice to do well in tournaments abroad and this tournament has been around a long, long time,” said Murray.
“There’s a lot of history, it’s always had great fields. Every year I’ve been here when you walk to the practice courts there’s a list of winners down a wall that has a lot of great players.”
The world number four was completely out of sorts in the first set but then went on to win 11 of the last 12 games as Mayer crumbled.
Murray had never even reached the quarters here until this year but after a poor start riddled with unforced errors, he found his form on his least favourite surface, finishing with twice as many winners as his opponent.
In the women’s event, world number one Caroline Wozniacki reached the semis after a three-set thriller that lasted almost two and a half hours.
The Dane survived a mid-match collapse to edge past twice former winner Jelena Jankovic 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 and will next face Maria Sharapova who went through when Victoria Azarenka retired injured.
The Belarusian was leading 6-4, 0-3 when she was forced to call it quits.
Azarenka later tweeted an apology over an outburst on court, insisting that her anger was aimed at herself and not Sharapova.
Li Na of China made the semi-finals after completing a quick 6-3, 6-1 victory over Hungarian Greta Arn.
Li will face Australian Samantha Stosur next as she upset home hopes and gained revenge for her French Open final defeat last year by beating Francesca Schiavone 6-2, 6-4.


news covered by dawn sports

williams and safina pull out of french open

PARIS: Former world number one Serena Williams on Thursday was forced to pull out of the French Open, the tournament she won in 2002, after failing to recover from a long-term foot injury while former World No. 1 Dinara Safina announced that she was taking an indefinite break.

Williams, a 13-time Grand Slam singles champion, has not played a top-level match since winning last year’s Wimbledon title after cutting her right foot on broken glass last July, an injury that required two operations.
“While I am making good progress, unfortunately I won’t be able to compete in Roland Garros as I am continuing to rehab my foot and recover from the pulmonary embolism,” 29-year-old Williams said in a statement issued through her agent.
“I am grateful for every moment I have and the fact that I have returned to the court. I am hopeful that I will be back competing this summer. Thank you all for your continued prayers.”
As well as her foot injury, Williams suffered a pulmonary embolism in February that led to an emergency operation to remove a blood clot from her lung, a health concern she called the scariest moment of her life.
Serena’s sister Venus, a seven-time Grand Slam champion with five Wimbledon titles, is also a doubt for the French Open.
She has not played since she pulled out of the Australian Open in January with abdominal pain and a sore right hip.
Safina, the three times a losing grand slam finalist, suffered another setback on her return from a serious back injury when she abandoned her quarter-final against Victoria Azarenka at the Andalucia Tennis Championships last month.
“I don’t know how long my time out (from the game) is going to last because I don’t want to torture myself and my body anymore,” Safina was quoted as saying by Russian media.
“I’m just tired of hearing constant questions from my coach during training ‘How is your back? Can you do this exercise?’ I’m just tired of fighting with myself,” said the younger sister of former men’s world number one Marat Safin.
“At the moment I can’t do anything tennis-wise. When I can do certain moves without feeling lots of pain, then I would consider resuming my training,” she added.
The lanky Muscovite reached the top of the rankings in April 2009, spending a total of 26 weeks as world number one but then plummeted to 108th after being troubled by her back.
She has been criticised for reaching the top without winning a grand slam title, losing all three of her major finals (French Open in 2008 and 2009 and 2009 Australian Open).
After missing much of last year, she made a comeback at the Australian Open in January but suffered an embarrassing 6-0 6-0 defeat by Kim Clijsters in the opening round and soon after contemplated quitting.
“Right now I don’t care when I might return – this summer during the American hardcourt series, towards the end of the season or next year,” Safina said.
“I’ll take as much time as I need.”
Argentina’s David Nalbandian, who has been struggling with a hip injury, will also miss the French Open which starts on May 22.
Meanwhile, Australian duo Bernard Tomic and Casey Dellacqua were both handed French Open wild cards on Thursday under a reciprocal agreement between the French and Australian tennis federations.

PTF hints at axing of officials

Seven office-bearers of the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) will be fired by the end of this week, allegedly for not delivering, senior vice-president of the federation Irshad Bhatti said.
“I can’t disclose the names of the seven officials, but a report has been finalised and in next week they will be removed from their posts as they are burden on the federation and doing nothing,” he said.
The news covered by dawn news paper .