Mason, Ohio – Roger Federer moved within a victory of his 50th career title by beating Lleyton Hewitt 6-3, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (1) in the semifinals of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters on Saturday.
Federer, who won the event in 2005, will face James Blake today. Blake beat Nikolay Davydenko 6-4, 6-2 in the late semifinal match.
Federer is 6-0 against Blake. A win would make him the fifth-youngest player to win 50 titles, at 26 years, 11 days. Bjorn Borg won his 50th at 23 years, 7 months.
Blake, who has never lost to Davydenko in six matches, has improved with each match during the tournament, after having to withdraw from the event in Montreal last week because of a pulled stomach muscle.
He capped the seventh game of the second set with a 132 mph ace, and broke Davydenko in the next game with a cross-court smash for match point.
“I know Roger’s game. We’ve all watched him many, many times in many finals,” Blake said. “I know what he’s going to do and how effective he can be. But I feel like I’m playing as well as I have in a long time.”
TENNIS
Henin routs Yan in Rogers Cup
Top-ranked Justine Henin ended the surprising run of qualifier Yan Zi 6-3, 6-0 in the Rogers Cup semifinals in Toronto.
Yan, ranked 169th from China, was the first qualifier to reach the semifinals at the tournament in 11 years.
Henin will face No. 2 seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, who defeated 12th-seeded Tatiana Golovin of France 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 in the late semifinal. Henin has won all six meetings against Jankovic, the most recent in the French Open semifinals.
HORSE RACING
Alabama Stakes goes to Lady Joanne
Lady Joanne fought off Octave and Lear’s Princess in a tough stretch run to win the $500,000 Alabama Stakes at Saratoga Race Course in New York.
Ridden by Calvin Borel and trained by Carl Nafzger, Lady Joanne held off the closing Lear’s Princess and a late run from Octave, who could not get up in time on the rail.
After ducking in toward the rail just as the gates opened, Lady Joanne settled down and rated just behind the leaders in fourth as the field passed the clubhouse for the first time. She moved up to a perfect stalking position in third as Tough Tiz’s Sis set the pace, and remained there up the backside while Folk and Octave were second and fourth.
COLLEGES
Center sidelined at Georgia Tech
Georgia Tech will play the first part of the basketball season without senior center Ra’Sean Dickey, who was ruled academically ineligible for the fall semester.
Dickey will have to get his grades up if he hopes to rejoin the team after the end of the semester in mid-
December, men’s coach Paul Hewitt said.
The Yellow Jackets did get some good news as junior guard Lewis Clinch was ruled eligible to rejoin the team. He sat out most of last season for violating the school’s honor code.
The 6-foot-9 Dickey started 23 games last season. He was Georgia Tech’s fourth-leading scorer (8.1 points per game) and second-leading rebounder (5.3 per game) while tying for the team lead in field-goal percentage (.596).
FOOTNOTES
Voigt wins Tour of Germany again
Jens Voigt became the first rider to win consecutive Tour of Germany events, finishing 1 minute, 57 seconds ahead of American rider Levi Leipheimer of the Discovery Channel in Hanover, Germany.
The 35-year-old German, who rides for the CSC team, won Friday’s time trial to make the ninth and final 89-mile stage from Einbeck to Hanover a formality.
Unbeaten Arthur Abraham (24-0, 19 knockouts) knocked out Khoren Gevor (27-3, 15 KOs) in the 11th round in Berlin, retaining his IBF middleweight title.
Olympic snowboarding champion Shaun White remained perfect this year in AST Dew Tour competition, winning the skateboard vert event in the Vans Invitational in Portland, Ore., for his third victory of the season.
