TENNIS in DEPTH.

Sharapova recovered from a poor start to beat fellow Russian and world number two Vera Zvonareva 2-6 6-3 6-3 while Jankovic beat Germany’s Andrea Petkovic 7-6 6-1. ”It is going to be a tough match, she is playing very well,” Jankovic said of Sharapova, who holds a 5-1 record in their career meetings. ”I feel good the way I am playing though and I hope I can play like that again in the final.” Sharapova, who is currently ranked seventh in the world, had to fight back after dropping the opening set against Zvonareva. ”I had a slow start, to say the least,” Sharapova said. “I needed to get my energy back and when I did that I started to make some shots and was able to turn it around.” Zvonareva said she had lost her concentration after dominating the opening set. ”In the second and third my concentration level dropped a bit in some moments and I had a few more double faults, that gave her some confidence and I also gave her some more chances,” she said. ”It was tough because if you give Maria chances, she is going to take them.”

Jankovic, who won in Cincinnati two years ago, also struggled in the first set against Petkovic, who played with one leg heavily strapped. The Serb made some odd shot selections as well as unforced errors, but after winning the tie-break 7-4 she never looked back and Petkovic was never in the second set. The German later revealed that she had spent much of the day undergoing scans on what she feared was an anterior cruciate ligament injury but which turned out to be a mildly torn meniscus. ”It was a very draining day emotionally…I cried enough for the next 20 years,” said Petkovic, who said her parents had tried to stop her playing.

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Andy Murray booked his place in the final of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati for the second time in his career thanks to a gritty win over Mardy Fish, but the British number one did raise concerns over his fitness ahead of the US Open. With Flushing Meadows just over a week away, the Scot often reached for the back of his left leg during a gruelling 6-3 7-6 (10/8) win over the American, in a match that was littered with errors and missed chances from both players.

Murray will now play Novak Djokovic who spent just 35 minutes on court as Tomas Berdych retired after losing the first set 7-5.

“I was struggling physically in the second set, it was hot but that’s not an excuse,” Murray told Sky Sports. ”My legs were feeling tired. It (any pain) was the conditions. I need to get stronger. This is the first tough match I’ve played for five or six weeks. I need to get some more endurance in me before the US Open.” Having found his form late on during Friday’s win over Gilles Simon, Murray was eager to carry it into the early stages of Saturday’s clash and he served out the first game with ease, starting with an ace. Serve held through to the fourth game when Murray broke at the fifth time of asking. Some impressive ground strokes saw him run Fish off his feet, with the home favourite cutting his knee as he fell to the floor to try and retrieve a short-range forehand. But it was not until his fifth break point that he was able to move 3-1 ahead, Fish doing his job for him, hitting long and losing serve for the first time this week. The Scot saved a break point to cement his lead at 4-1, before squandering two more chances to win against the serve in the sixth game. He got through to 5-3 on his serve and did well to save a break point after squandering a chance to take the set, before taking the opener 6-3. His serving statistics were impressive, winning 76% of the points on his first and just over half those on his second, while he impressed against Fish’s serve at the start of the second. Again he needed more than one chance to win against the feed, taking the third chance he had, only for Fish to break straight back. Serve held out to the fifth game, with Murray holding to love impressively in the fourth and, when Fish hit hard and wide trying to save two break points, Murray was 3-2 ahead. That signalled the start of a manic period, during which Fish broke, Murray broke and then Fish broke again, with Murray’s second-serve percentages down to 25. The duo finally got their serve back on track heading in to a tie-break, although Murray could have changed all that had he taken any of the five break points that came his way during the 11th game of the set. He also staved off two set points in the 12th game, before taking a gripping tie-break, which featured three match points and two set points.

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Kim Clijsters has withdrawn from the upcoming US Open, where she has won three times – 2005, 2009 and 2010. She is currently ranked No.3. ”Unfortunately, I will not be able to defend my US Open title this year because of a stomach muscle injury,” the 28-year-old commented. “Two weeks of rehab was not enough to heal this injury. Obviously I’m very disappointed. I trained very hard this summer and felt in a good shape to play the US Open. ”Now there is nothing else I can do than to rest and have treatment every day. If a gradual approach is not taken, I will relapse in the same injury, and therefore I have also no other possibility than to withdraw from Tokyo and Beijing.”

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Roger Federer and number two seed Rafael Nadal both crashed out at the quarter-final stage of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, while world number one Novak Djokovic had to come from behind to beat Gael Monfils. Federer, a four-time champion and unbeaten at the tournament since 2008, slumped to a 6-2 7-6 (7-3) defeat to eighth seed Tomas Berdych in a match lasting just over 90 minutes. The defeat was a significant blow to Federer’s US Open preparations, and came against an opponent whom he had beaten in nine of 12 previous meetings, though to whom he lost in last year’s Wimbledon semi-final. Federer was not able to fashion a single break point opportunity on the booming Berdych serve, and was broken twice himself in the first set. Berdych held firm in the second before skating through the tie-break.

Berdych will play Djokovic in the semi-final after seeing off Monfils in three sets. Djokovic surrendered the first set 3-6 but took the next two 6-4 and 6-3 to progress.

Nadal was beaten 6-3 6-4 by improving American Mardy Fish, aiming to reach his second straight Cincinnati final, who sent down 10 aces en route to what was his first win over the Spaniard. Nadal, who had come through a marathon battle with Fernando Verdasco in the previous round, was playing with two fingers heavily bandaged after a freak accident in a restaurant. Fish will next face fourth seed Andy Murray, who avoided the travails of his two big-name rivals as he eased to a 6-3 6-3 win over Frenchman Gilles Simon. Murray broke the Frenchman four times to reach the last four.

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Caroline Wozniacki has dropped her father Piotr as coach in a dramatic attempt to halt a worrying slump in form just 11 days before the start of the US Open. ”I am no longer her coach. Who will be the new one? I promised I wouldn’t say,” Piotr Wozniacki told the Ekstra Bladet newspaper. The pair agreed to make the change, he said, after Wozniacki’s third consective fourth-round exit at Wimbledon earlier this year. Since then, she has lost both her opening matches at the Toronto and Cincinnati events, the traditional tune-ups before the US Open, the season’s final Grand Slam event, which gets underway on August 29.

Maria Sharapova eased past fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova to move into the quarter-finals of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati. The fourth seed came through 6-2 6-3 with the minimum of fuss to earn a date with 10th-ranked Samantha Stosur. The Australian was the first player into the last eight as she surprised French Open champion Li Na 6-4 3-6 6-4 for a second successive week. Stosur, who walked into the last 16 when Serena Williams withdrew from their match with a toe injury, was beating Li for the third time this season. ”It’s a great lead up to the US Open, and I’m really pleased with the way I’ve been able to continue on from last week and still have a good one here,” said the Aussie, who lost in the final of the Rogers Cup on Sunday. ”Last year was my best US Open I have ever had. Having been playing the way that I’m playing now, I would like to think that I can at least make it to the second week.”

Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova is also through after beating eighth-seeded Marion Bartoli 6-3 5-7 6-3. Second seed Vera Zvonareva awaits in the next round after beating Petra Martic of Croatia 6-2 6-2.

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Nadal survived a three-set, three-tiebreaker match against fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco on Thursday, advancing to the quarterfinals with a 7-6 (5), 6-7 (4), 7-6 (9) victory that kept him on court for 3 hours, 38 minutes. Nadal arrived hoping to get a lot of on-court time this week. He missed a month after hurting his left foot at Wimbledon, where he reached the finals and lost to Novak Djokovic. He had a setback before his first match in Cincinnati. Nadal burned the tips of his index and middle fingers on his right hand when he touched a hot plate at a local restaurant. The left-handed Nadal had the fingers bandaged again on Thursday for protection. Playing on a sunny, mid-80s afternoon, the second-ranked Nadal finished it by converting his fifth match point. It was only the second best-of-three matches in Nadal’s career that featured three tiebreakers. The second-ranked Nadal improved to 12-0 in his career against the unseeded Verdasco. “You enjoy always a good match,” Verdasco said. “But when you lose in this way, of course it’s not easy to lose. You have it so close. Tennis is like that.” In the quarterfinals, Nadal will play seventh-seeded Mardy Fish, who beat Richard Gasquet 7-5, 7-5. No. 4 Andy Murray also advanced with a 6-2, 7-5 win over American qualifier Alex Bogomolov Jr.

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Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal were among the players to progress at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati on Wednesday. The top seeds in the men’s draw had a relatively easy time of things, number one Djokovic easing past second-round opponent Ryan Harrison 6-2 6-4 and number two Nadal also easing to a 6-4 7-5 win over Julien Benneteau to help erase memories of his shock loss to Ivan Dodig in Montreal last week.

David Ferrer was taken to three sets before seeing off Grigor Dimitrov 4-6 6-1 7-5. Dodig was forced to retire when he trailed 4-6 6-3 4-0 to sixth seed Gael Monfils, while other seeded winners included Mardy Fish, Richard Gasquet and Nicolas Almagro. Qualifier Radek Stepanek continued his fine recent form by beating Andrey Golubev in straight sets and there were also wins for Philipp Kohlschreiber, Alex Bogomolov Jr and Fernando Verdasco.

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Jo-Wilfried Tsonga suffered a surprise defeat to qualifier Alex Bogomolov while Spain’s Rafa Nadal and Britain’s Andy Murray passed their second-round tests at the Cincinnati Open Wednesday. Bogomolov, yet to win on the ATP Tour and ranked 50th, made a name for himself this year with a surprise win over Murray in Miami and he now gets another shot at the Briton.

Both Murray and Nadal suffered early exits at the Montreal Masters last week but there was little hint of a hangover in their latest matches. Murray, the fourth seed, overcame a sluggish start to record a 6-4 6-1 win over Argentine David Nalbandian, setting up a third-round match against Bogomolov. World number two Nadal also put last week’s setback aside as he beat French qualifier Julien Benneteau 6-4 7-5 in just over 90 minutes. The Spaniard won all three break points he gained in a comfortable display and will now face compatriot Fernando Verdasco, who beat France’s Michael Llodra 6-4 6-4. Nadal was forced to play with bandages on two fingers on his right hand which he said were the result of handling a hot plate at a restaurant and suffering blisters.

Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber, continued his run here, following up his first round win over Andy Roddick with a 6-1 6-4 win over Spain’s 25th ranked Feliciano Lopez.

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