The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Sharapova injured, Martina Hingis enters final

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Sharapova injured, Martina Hingis enters final

ON COURSE: Martina Hingis is one match away from winning a record fifth Pan Pacific Open crown. — Photo: AFP

TOKYO: Second-seeded Martina Hingis will face Serbia's Ana Ivanovic in the Pan Pacific Open final after top-ranked Maria Sharapova retired during the second set of her semifinal on Saturday with a hamstring injury.

After dropping the first set 6-1, Sharapova consulted with her trainer. She won the first game of the second set before retiring.

"It's disappointing to have to finish this way," Sharapova said. "I started to feel pain in the second game of the first set. I tried to go on, but you can't get away with it when you are playing against a top player."

Hingis posted a 6-4, 6-3 win over defending champion Elena Dementieva of Russia to reach Sunday's final.

Sharapova refused to blame the injury on her schedule.

"I have a simple and easy schedule compared to the other girls," she said. "There's no doubt it's difficult when you come straight from a Grand Slam. The surface here is quite different and the change in court might have something to do with it."

Sharapova said her trainer told her she would need about a week to recover.

"I didn't have pain like this during the Australian Open," added Sharapova. "This is like a sudden, sharper pain I felt when I landed on the serve."

Hingis raced out to a 3-0 lead in the first set of her semifinal and never looked back.

Great start

"It was a great start for me in the beginning," said Hingis. "I had a bad experience last year when I lost to her in the final so I was happy to get a little revenge today."

Hingis has won this tournament four times and will be looking to set a tournament record on Sunday.

"I share the record for most wins here with Lindsay Davenport and hopefully can set the record," said Hingis.

"It will be a tough match. Ana has played well all week but I'm looking forward to it."

At Delray Beach, German Tommy Haas's bid for a second straight Delray Beach title ground to a halt on Friday as he fell in the quarterfinals to Vince Spadea. Haas, seeded second and fresh from a semifinal showing in the Australian Open, was ousted by the eighth-seeded American 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.

Haas, whose trip to the final four in Melbourne boosted him into the top 10 in the world rankings for the first time in four years, had gone into the contest with a 7-1 career record against Spadea, including a semifinal victory here last year.

The 32-year-old Spadea will next face 2005 champion Xavier Malisse, whose three runner-up finishes in this event includes last year also. The third-seeded Belgian steamrolled No. 7 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain, 6-1, 6-1 in a match that lasted just 49 minutes.

Top-seeded American James Blake advanced with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over fifth-seeded German Florian Mayer.

Blake booked a semifinal clash with another German, fourth-seeded Benjamin Becker, who beat 2002 champion Davide Sanguinetti of Italy.

Tough matches

At Zagreb, the top two seeds Ivan Ljubicic and Marcos Baghdatis struggled to secure their place in the semifinals of the Zagreb Open ATP tournament.

The No. 1 seed and defending champion Ljubicic continued his rough ride to the semifinals by beating Sweden's Thomas Johansson 7-6, 6-7, 7-6.

After a difficult second round match against Austrian Stefan Koubek, the Croat home favourite had to play almost three hours and three tie-breaks to overcome the aggressive Swede.

Ljubicic will next face fourth seed Mikhail Youzhny of Russia who beat France's Marc Gicquel 7-5, 6-2. Cypriot Baghdatis sent home Arnaud Clement of France. After winning the first set easily 6-2, the second seed had to play two tie-breaks to remain in the tournament.

The results: At Tokyo (WTA Toray Pan Pacific Open): Semifinals: Ana Ivanovic bt Maria Sharapova 1-6, retd.; Martina Hingis bt Elena Dementieva 6-4, 6-3.

At Delray Beach (ATP Delray Beach International): Quarterfinals: Xavier Malisse bt Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-1, 6-1; Vincent Spadea bt Tommy Haas 6-3, 2-6, 6-4; James Blake bt Florian Mayer 6-3, 6-4; Benjamin Becker bt Davide Sanguinetti 7-6(5), 6-3.

At Zagreb (ATP PBZ Zagreb Indoors): Quarterfinals: Alexander Peva bt Michael Llodra 6-3, 6-3; Mikhail Youzhny bt Marc Gicquel 7-5, 6-2; Ivan Ljubicic bt Thomas Johansson 7-6(8), 6-7(8), 7-6(4); Marcos Baghdatis bt Arnaud Clement 6-2, 6-7(2), 7-6(5).

At Vina Del Mar (ATP Movistar Open): Quarterfinals: Luis Horna bt Igor Andreev 6-3, 6-3; Nicolas Massu bt Sergio Roitman 0-6, 7-6(3), retd.; Albert Montanes bt Fernando Gonzalez 6-3, 3-6, 6-4; Martin Vassallo Arguello bt Carlos Berlocq 3-6, 6-3, 7-5. — Agencies

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