[1]Top seed Juan Martin Del Potro and US eighth seed John Isner advanced to the final of the ATP and WTA Washington Open with rain-interrupted triumphs Saturday.
Seventh-ranked Del Potro, the 2009 US Open champion from Argentina, defeated German third seed Tommy Haas 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 while Isner blasted 29 aces in a 6-7 (7/9), 6-3, 6-4 victory over Russia’s Dmitry Tursunov.
Del Potro, the 2008 and 2009 Washington winner, was down 1-4 when rain halted the first set for more than three hours, but won the next four games once play resumed.
“The rain delay helped me play much better in the second part of the match,” Del Potro said. “I came back with too much power on my forehand. It was too much for Tommy.”
Del Potro saved a set point with a second-serve ace in the 12th game and took the tie-breaker when Haas hit a backhand long.
Isner, who won last week in Atlanta, took the only break of his second set on the first point after a rain delay of more than an hour in the fourth game, hitting a forehand winner.
“It was just about getting warmed up and winning that point,”
Defending women’s champion Magdalena Rybarikova, the seventh seed from Slovakia, beat Russian third seed Ekaterina Makarova 6-2, 6-0 and will face Germany’s Andrea Petkovic, a 7-5, 6-3 winner over French fourth seed Alize Cornet.
Azarenka, Stosur to clash for Carlsbad crown
Top seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus advanced to the final of the $795,000 WTA Southern California Open, where she’ll face fifth-seeded Australian Samantha Stosur.
Azarenka, just three days past her 24th birthday, defeated seventh-seeded Serbian Ana Ivanovic 6-0, 4-6, 6-3.
Stosur battled back from a 0-4 first-set deficit en route to a 7-6 (7/2) 6-3 victory over France’s Virginie Razzano.
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