Page 17 - atoday

SPORTS A17
Halep, Dimitrov Win at Australian Open Tune-Up in Sydney
Simona Halep of Romania plays a shot to Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic during their match at the Sydney International tennis tournament in Sydney, Aus-
tralia, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2016.
SYDNEY (AP) — Top-seed-
ed Simona Halep has
booked a semifinal berth at
the Sydney International,
while fourth-seeded Grigor
Dimitrov advanced to the
men’s quarterfinals of the
Australian Open tune-up
event.
Halep beat last year’s Syd-
ney runner-up Karolina
Pliskova 6-4, 7-5 and will
next play two-time Grand
Slam champion Svetlana
Kuznetsova, who defeated
Sara Errani of Italy 7-6 (1),
6-0 on Wednesday.
Dimitrov advanced with
a 7-6 (2), 6-4 win over Uru- Kyrgios, who led Australia
guay’s Pablo Cuevas. Join-
ing him in the men’s quar-
terfinals are Nicolas Mahut
of France, who beat An-
dreas Seppi 6-3, 1-6, 6-3,
and Gilles Muller of Lux-
embourg, who advanced
when second-seeded
Dominic Thiem of Austria
retired with an injury while
trailing 7-6 (2) 2-2.
At the Kooyong Classic ex-
hibition tournament in Mel-
bourne, Nick Kyrgios also
retired with a foot injury
Up Down Under
from his match against Da-
vid Goffin of Belgium.
to the Hopman Cup team
event title last week, won
the first set 7-6 (7-5) and was the 10th time in 11 appear-
trailing 3-2 in the second
when he said he couldn’t
continue. The Australian
Open begins Monday in
Melbourne.
“Hate withdrawing, so sorry
to everyone ...” Kyrgios said
on Twitter. “I just have to
make sure I’m right for next
week & I will be.”
In New Zealand, four-time
champion David Ferrer
beat Australian qualifier
Matthew Barton 6-2, 6-4 to
reach the quarterfinals of
Auckland’s ASB Classic for
ances.
Fourth-seeded South Afri-
can Kevin Anderson beat
another qualifier, Robin
Haase of the Netherlands,
7-6 (8), 7-6 (5). Eighth-seed- she didn’t just give it to
ed Roberto Bautista Agut
of Spain defeated Ameri-
can Donald Young 6-4, 7-6
(3).
At the WTA’s Hobart Inter-
Thursday 14 January 2016
(AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
national, former Australian
Open finalist Dominika Cib-
ulkova defeated Kimberly
Birrell 6-1, 6-0 and 2012 Ho-
bart champion Mona Bar-
thel of Germany beat Nao-
mi Osaka 7-6 (2), 6-2.
“Today it was just like a lit-
tle present to go on to the
quarterfinals, but I still had
to be there and play well,
me,” Cibulkova said.
On Thursday, she’ll play
Dutch qualifier Kiki Bertens,
who beat Annika Beck of
Germany 6-3, 6-1.q