Paes-Begemann make it to final of Winston-Salem open

WINSTON-SALEM (USA): Veteran Leander Paes brushed off the disappointment of Rio Olympics as he and his German partner Andre Begemann made it to the final of the

WINSTON-SALEM (USA): Veteran Leander Paes brushed off the disappointment of Rio Olympics as he and his German partner Andre Begemann made it to the final of the ATP Winston-Salem Open beating Swede Robert Lindstedt and Pakistan’s Aisam-ul Haq Qureshi in a close encounter.

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The Indo-German pair won 1-6 7-6 10-4 courtesy super tiebreak. The duo will be meeting Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Finland’s Henri Kontinen. The Spanish-Finn pair beat had an easy outing in the semifinals beating Croatia’s Mate Pavic and New Zealand’s Michael Venus 7-6 6-3. Paes will be playing his first final of the season on ATP Tour. The 43-year-old legend, who has had to play a number of Challenger level tournaments this season, has seen his ranking plummet to 72. He won two titles — Biella (Italy) and Busan (Korea) — on the Challenger circuit.

BAUTISTA AGUT BATTLES PAST TROICKI

WINSTON-SALEM (USA): Roberto Bautista Agut will meet fellow Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta in Winston-Salem Open final after he outplayed Serbian Viktor Troicki 7-5 6-7(2) 6-2 in a dramatic semi-final that lasted more than two hours in steamy afternoon heat. Bautista Agut appeared to be cruising after taking the first set and racing to 5-0 in the second. In a sudden transformation, Troicki started going for his shots, hitting winner after winner as he reeled off five straight games and dominated the tiebreak to even the match at a set apiece. A short break between sets seemed to help Bautista Agut, who steadied the ship and served strongly in the final set to move within sight of his fourth title of the year.

RADWANSKA EASES INTO CONNECTICUT FINAL

CONNECTICUT: Top seed Agnieszka Radwanska put on a dominant performance against double defending champion Petra Kvitova to ease into the final of the Connecticut Open with a 6-1 6-1 triumph on Friday. Kvitova, who also won the event in 2012, was looking to join Venus Williams and Caroline Wozniacki as four-time winners of the tournament but the sixth-seeded Czech was completely overwhelmed by the Polish world number four. The two-time Wimbledon champion committed 17 unforced errors in the first set and never got into the match, which was completed in 77 minutes. The Pole advances to face Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, who overcame Johanna Larsson 6-4 6-2 to reach the final.