Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Medina Garrigues reaches Fez quarters

FEZ, Morocco (AP) -Top-seeded Anabel Medina Garrigues defeated Sesil Karatantcheva 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-1 Wednesday, advancing to the quarterfinals of the Grand Prix SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem.

Second-seeded Argentine Gisela Dulko advanced to the second round, defeating Maria Elena Camerin, 6-1, 6-1. Fourth-seeded Aravane Rezai stopped American Vania King, 6-2, 6-4.

In other second-round play, Greta Arn topped third-seed Tathiana Garbin 6-4, 7-5; eighth-seeded Ekaterina Makarova fell to Olga Savchuk 7-6 (4), 6-4 and fifth-seeded Timea Bacsinszky lost to Petra Cetkovska 6-1, 7-5.

Pliskova, Vinci advance to Prague Open quarterfinals

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) -Czech wild card Karolina Pliskova rallied to beat eighth-seeded Kaia Kanepi of Estonia 1-6, 6-3, 7-5 Wednesday and advance to the quarterfinals of the Prague Open.

The 16-year-old Pliskova, who beat Alicia Molik 6-4, 6-4 Tuesday for her first victory on the WTA tour, will now play third-seeded Victoria Azarenka or Tatiana Poutchek, both of Belarus.

Azarenka beat Petra Kvitova 6-3, 6-4 in a first-round match suspended from Tuesday due to rain.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Wimbledon winners to get $1.49 million each

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) -The Wimbledon champions will each receive $1.49 million this year, an increase of 5.8 percent.

The All England Club said Tuesday the total prize money for the championships will increase 3.4 percent to $23.46 million.

Last year marked the first time women earned equal prize money at the grass-court Grand Slam.


The weak dollar and fluctuating exchange rates means Wimbledon winners will earn less than the French Open champions, who will get $1.56 million at the clay-court tournament in June. The U.S. Open usually pays the highest prize money of the four majors.

Gonzalez wins at BMW Open; Kohlschreiber out

MUNICH, Germany (AP) -Second-seeded Fernando Gonzalez cruised into the second round of the BMW Open by beating Dudi Sela 6-3, 6-4 on Tuesday.

Fourth-seeded Igor Andreev also advanced, beating Gael Monfils 6-3, 6-4.

But defending champion Philipp Kohlschreiber pulled out after falling ill shortly before his opening match.


Kohlschreiber, seeded third, dropped out with the flu, tournament director Patrik Kuehnen said.

His place in the main draw was taken by Julio Silva of Brazil, who beat German wild card Matthias Bachinger 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.