Around the globe: Rafa through, Stan out

At the Rio Open, Rafael Nadal has advanced to the semifinals without hitting a shot. The top seed moved on after his quarterfinal opponent, Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine, withdrew before the claycourt match with a shoulder injury. Guido Pella of Argentina reached the semis after beating Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain 5-7 6-1 7-5, while Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay ousted Federico Delbonis in a rain-affected quarterfinal. Later, Dominic Thiem, a winner last week in Buenos Aires, stunned second seed David Ferrer in straight sets.

In the concurrent women’s event, Sorana Cirstea and Francesca Schiavone made welcome returns to the business end of a WTA tournament. Cirstea, a former world No.21 who this week is a wildcard ranked 199th, upended No.3 seed Danka Kovinic in straight sets to reach her first tour-level semifinal since Toronto 2013. Schiavone, the French Open champion in 2010 who is now ranked No.132, reached her first semifinal since 2014 with a gritty three-set victory over Dutchwoman Cindy Burger.

In Marseille, top-seeded Stan Wawrinka lost to eighth-seeded Benoit Paire of France 6-4 1-6 7-5 their quarterfinal. Paire had 12 aces against the Australian Open 2014 champion, and next meets fourth-seeded Marin Cilic, who reached his first semi of the season by beating Russian Andrey Kuznetsov 6-3 6-4. Nick Kyrgios booked a semifinal match-up against No.2 seed Tomas Berdych with a dominant 6-0 6-4 victory over Richard Gasquet. Kyrgios, who is ranked 41st, fired 17 aces and dropped only two points on his serve in the second set. He racked up a perfect 100 per cent of points on his first serve and smacked three aces in the final service game. “He played like a top-10 player for sure,” Gasquet said. “He’ll get there one day, there’s no doubt about that.”

On Friday at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, tour veterans Sara Errani and Barbora Strycova booked an unlikely final after stopping the runs of rising stars Elina Svitolina and Caroline Garcia respectively. In a draw devoid of all eight seeds, Errani emerged a 6-4 6-4 winner over Svitolina while Strycova stopped Garcia in three.