Tennis Capsules: Sharapova reaches Open GDF Suez quarterfinals
PARIS (AP) — Maria Sharapova beat Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa 6-3, 6-1 on Wednesday to reach the quarterfinals of the Open GDF Suez.
The top-seeded Russian said the court was faster than expected after she hit 19 winners to 10 for Scheepers, who struggled with her serve and had eight double-faults.
"It's just faster than what we played on the last couple of months. In Fed Cup, it was fairly slow," said Sharapova, who won her singles match in Russia's 3-2 win over Spain last weekend.
"I just did all right. Just a couple of breaks back to back in the beginning of the first set, but after that I felt like I started playing much better."
Sharapova hit a forehand winner to take a first set in which Scheepers dropped serve four times. She then broke twice in the second, clinching victory when Scheepers sent a backhand into the net.
Sharapova is set to rise to No. 2 in the world when the WTA releases the rankings Monday, after current No. 2 player Petra Kvitova failed to return to defend her Paris title.
"It's a goal of mine to get to No. 1," Sharapova said. "But having been in that position before, I think my main goal is more the Grand Slams."
Julia Goerges also moved into the quarterfinals by defeating Petra Cetkovska of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-4.
In first-round matches, American qualifier Bethanie Mattek-Sands finished off Kristina Barrois of Germany with her 10th ace to clinch a 7-6 (3), 6-2 win.
Mattek-Sands will next play seventh-seeded Roberta Vinci, who beat Simona Halep of Romania 6-4, 6-4.
Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic and Monica Niculescu of Romania also advanced, along with French wild card Pauline Parmentier and American teenager Christina McHale.
Niculescu outlasted Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 in an erratic match with 14 service breaks.
Zakopalova cruised past French wild card Alize Cornet 6-3, 6-1 by winning eight straight games to lead 5-0 in the second set.
McHale beat lucky loser Varvara Lepchenko 6-4, 7-5 in an all-American match and will face Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium.
Wickmayer led 6-1 in her first-round match when American veteran Jill Craybas retired because of a right leg injury.
Spanish federation to sue French TV for Nadal skit
MADRID (AP) — The Spanish tennis federation said it plans to sue a French TV channel for using its logo in a video that poked fun at Rafael Nadal.
In the video skit on the satirical program called The Puppets, a life-size cartoon figure of Nadal is shown urinating into a gas tank before racing off and being pulled over by police for speeding.
A message of "Spanish athletes. They don't win by chance" flashes across the screen, surrounded by the logos of the tennis federation and cycling and soccer federations.
The video on Canal Plus France on Monday came hours after the Court of Arbitration for Sport issued a two-year ban against Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador for doping.
"This time they have gone way too far," tennis federation president Jose Luis Escanuela said in the statement Wednesday. "We at the tennis federation cannot tolerate the slander and damage to the prestige of our athletes."
Nadal has won six French Open titles since 2005.
Nadal's coach and uncle Toni Nadal downplayed the sketch.
"Rafa hasn't given it any importance," Nadal was reported telling SER radio by sports daily AS. "It's a comedy show, we don't care. Rafa isn't affected by it."
However, Nadal angrily reacted in November after former French tennis star Yannick Noah wrote a newspaper column accusing Spanish athletes of widespread doping.
Nadal suggested Noah should be banned from commenting in the media and called his remarks "completely stupid."
The tennis federation said it will provide details of the lawsuit on Saturday during the Davis Cup match between Spain and Kazakhstan.
The federation said it will demand that Canal Plus France withdraw the video, abstain from using the logo and request compensation for its improper use.
It plans to seek the support of other federations in the suit.
The tennis federation received support from the International Tennis Federation, which viewed the joke about Nadal as an attack on its anti-doping program.
ITF President Francesco Ricci Bitti said in a statement that the TV channel should remove the video and "issue an apology to all Spanish tennis players, who have been unfairly implicated."
-- Ciaran Giles
Sanchez Vicario says $60M in career winnings gone
MADRID (AP) — Former tennis star Arantxa Sanchez Vicario said in a book published Tuesday that her parents lost an estimated $60 million in career earnings through mismanagement.
The 40-year-old Sanchez Vicario said her parents were obsessed with her tennis career and controlled most aspects of it. She said she's estranged from her parents and brothers Emilio and Javier, former tennis players.
The four-time Grand Slam singles champion said she got a monthly payment from her father and trusted him to invest the rest.
"I never doubted that my father would manage my assets in the most efficient and beneficial way," she wrote.
She retired in 2002, and after "breaking free" of her parents' influence, "the surprise came. Then, the disappointment. The surprise of finding myself without resources after a career full of successes and therefore winnings."
She added: "They left me with nothing and I owe the tax authorities.
"How can it be that everything I achieved has vanished, that it does not exist?"
Sanchez Vicario's mother, Marisa, responded in an open letter to Spanish media on Monday that she and her husband were devastated by their daughter's accusations.
Lengthy excerpts of the book ran in the newspaper El Mundo over the weekend.
Marisa Vicario Rubio insisted "we never took advantage of Arantxa and under no circumstances is she broke."
She said her 75-year-old husband, Emilio, has a weak heart, intestinal cancer and Alzheimer's disease.
Sanchez Vicario won three French Open titles and the U.S. Open. She added 10 more Grand Slam doubles or mixed doubles titles.
She helped Spain win the Fed Cup five times, and was the first Spanish woman elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2007.
In December, she became Spain's Fed Cup captain.
Former No. 1 Venus Williams to play in Charleston
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Former world No. 1 Venus Williams said she's playing in the Family Circle Cup on Daniel Island in April.
Wiliiams won the clay-court tournament on Daniel Island in 2004. This will be her first appearance at the tournament since she reached the third round in 2009.
Williams returned from a five-month layoff caused by an autoimmune disease last weekend, playing doubles for the United States in Fed Cup competition.
Williams said she was returning to Charleston in part because of the celebration surrounding the 40th anniversary of the event when founding women tennis players who began the WTA took part in the first women's-only tournament.
Zvonareva reaches Pattaya quarterfinals
PATTAYA, Thailand (AP) — Vera Zvonareva of Russia cruised into the quarterfinals of the Pattaya Open on Wednesday with a 6-3 6-3 victory over Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan.
Zvonareva is looking for her third Pattaya title and led 5-1 in the second set before being broken when she tried to serve out the match. However, she broke right back to clinch the victory. The eighth-ranked Zvonareva will play Sorana Cirstea of Romania, who beat Japan's Misaki Doi 6-2 6-2.
Thai veteran Tamarine Tanasugarn also advanced after saving three set points in the first-set tiebreaker to beat Chang Kai-chen of Taiwan 7-6 (7) 6-3.
Germany's Kohlschreiber out of Davis Cup
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Philipp Kohlschreiber has pulled out of Germany's Davis Cup match against Argentina in Bamberg this weekend because of the stomach flu.
Kohlschreiber is Germany's No. 2 player after Florian Mayer. Captain Patrik Kuehnen has not said who will replace Kohlschreiber. Veteran Tommy Haas could take his spot in singles.
