Page 19 - aruba-today-20190817

A19
SPORTS Saturday 17 auguSt 2019

Ash Barty reaches semifinals in Cincy, Osaka injured

By JOE KAY nals for the second straight was the second straight
AP Sports Writer week. day that Barty rallied af-
MASON, Ohio (AP) — Ash- Last week in Toronto, Kenin ter dropping a first set. She
leigh Barty was in the same knocked off Barty on her fought off a match point
predicament, trying to dig way to the semifinals, al- during a three-set win over
out from an ugly first set. lowing Osaka to jump Anett Kontaveit on Thurs-
The Western & Southern ahead of Barty for No. 1. day, showing poise that
Open's top seed found a Now they're in position to she'd need to draw on
way to do it again. swap spots again. again a day later.
Barty reached the semifi- Barty is feeling good about "There is certainly no pan-
nals of the tournament for her play with the U.S. Open ic, where it gets to the
the first time and moved just ahead. stage where I'm kind of
closer to regaining the No. "Still not quite there, but overwrought or can't think
1 world ranking Friday by we're getting better and straight," she said. "I'm still Ashleigh Barty, of Australia, serves to Maria Sakkari, of Greece,
beating Maria Sakkari 5-7, better each match," the able to, more times than during the Western & Southern Open tennis tournament, Friday,
6-2, 6-0. With one more French Open champion not, have the ability to re- Aug. 16, 2019, in Mason, Ohio.
win, she can move into the said. "I think that's the beau- lax and kind of stay clear Associated Press
top spot for the U.S. Open, ty of being able to stay and come back to what
taking it back from Naomi alive in the tournament is works." the second set and twice with a three-set victory
Osaka. to give myself an opportu- Barty will face Svetlana again during the final one. over Roberto Bautista Agut.
Osaka had much bigger nity to keep getting better. I Kuznetsova, who reached On the men's side, qualifier Gasquet had groin surgery
concerns after dropping think I'm still aiming to obvi- her first semifinal of the sea- Yoshihito Nishioka withdrew in January and fell to No. 68
out of her semifinal match ously do very well here, but son by beating third-seed- because of illness, sending in the ATP rankings on July
because of a knee injury. the big picture is New York ed Karolina Pliskova 3-6, 7-6 David Goffin into the semi- 29, his lowest in nine years.
After splitting sets with So- in 10 days' time." (2), 6-3. finals. Nishioka had a good He's back in an ATP Masters
fia Kenin, Osaka took a She needs some work on Kuznetsova is playing only tournament showing, beat- 1000 semifinal for the first
timeout early in the third first sets, though. her ninth event after miss- ing sixth-seeded Kei Nishi- time since 2013 in Miami.
set to have her left knee Barty got ahead 5-2 in her ing the start of the season kori — a player he called his Seven-time champion Rog-
examined and wrapped. opening set Friday and because of a knee injury. hero — and Alex De Minaur er Federer was upset Thurs-
She played only two more then got sloppy, letting it Playing on a hot, humid af- to reach the quarterfinals. day, leaving Novak Djokov-
points before retiring, send- slip away as Sakkari be- ternoon, she got treatment Goffin will face Richard ic as the only high seed left
ing Kenin into the semifi- came more aggressive. It on her upper right leg after Gasquet, who advanced in the bracket.q