Garcia to face Vekic in final
MONTERREY (Mexico), March 5: World No.5 Caroline Garcia advanced to her second final of the season by defeating No.4 seed Belgian Elise Mertens 6-3, 6-4 in the Monterrey Open semifinal, setting up a summit clash with Croatian Donna Vekic, who advanced to her first final of 2023 with a win over Chinese Zhu Lin, here.Bidding to capture her 12th WTA Tour title, Garcia will look to level her head-to-head record against Vekic. The Croatian has won five of their nine duels, with their last meeting coming at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. She has enjoyed a flawless march towards her second Monterrey final. (IANS)
Etcheverry and Jarry through to Chile Open final
SANTIAGO, Marchww 5: Home-crowd favorite Nicolas Jarry and Argentina’s Tomas Martin Etcheverry have advanced to the final of the Chile Open on Saturday.Jarry beat Spain’s Jaume Munar 1-6, 7-6 (4), 6-1 to play his second professional final, the first since his doping suspension in April 2020.Earlier, Etcheverry won his all-Argentine semifinal against third-seeded Sebastian Baez 7-5, 6-3 to advance to his first tour final.Jarry and Etcheverry have met only once previously, in the first round at Cordoba last year, which the Argentine won in three sets. (PTI)
WTT Goa: Korea win first title; three Chinese in singles final
PANAJI, March 5: The Republic of Korea, took the first title of the first-ever WTT Star Contender Goa when their mixed doubles pair of Jang Woojin and Jeon Jihee defeated Japan’s Shunsuke Togami and Miwa Harimoto 3-1 in the final here on Saturday.China booked places in three of the four singles finals that will be played on Sunday. The first to get there was world No. 7, Liang Jingkun, a winner of two world championship singles medals, who made the men’s singles final, taking out crowd favourite Tomakazu Harimoto of Japan in four games (11-9,11-6,8-11,11-5). Then Wang Yidi, the women’s singles top seed and world number four, defeated Tomokazu’s 14-year-old sister Miwa Harimoto in an excitement-filled five games. Just when it looked like there would be no Chinese in the women’s singles final, Wang reverted back to percentages and remained unflappable till the end as the youngster’s unforced error count kept going up. The Chinese took the final two games at nine and eight respectively, to seal her final spot. In the final, she meets one of the stories of the tournament, Cheng-I-Ching (#31) of Chinese Taipei.(IANS)
Roberto Firmino set to leave Liverpool this summer
LIVERPOOL, March 5: Roberto Firmino is set to leave Liverpool when his contract expires at the end of the season, bringing an end to an eight-year career at Anfield.The 31-year-old has decided to leave the Reds on a free transfer rather than extending his contract.Firmino, who has scored 102 goals in 352 appearances for the club, was fundamental to Liverpool’s rise back to the top of the English and European game under Jurgen Klopp.He has won several major honours in the Champions League, Premier League, Club World Cup and FA Cup since joining from Hoffenheim in 2015.The Brazilian, however, has fallen down the pecking order in recent seasons due to the arrival of Diogo Jota, Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo at Anfield. Firmino is one of five Liverpool players out of contract in the post season ahead of a major rebuild. Midfielders Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain also expected to leave. The futures of 37-year-old James Milner and third-choice goalkeeper Adrian remain unclear.(Agencies)