SHANGHAI — Rafael Nadal advanced to the Shanghai Masters final Saturday after Feliciano Lopez became the ninth player to retire from the tournament.
The unseeded Lopez said he woke up with a right foot infection, and then twisted his right ankle on the last point of the first set. He was trailing 6-1, 3-0 when he retired.
The top-seeded Nadal will play in today’s final against sixth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko, who outlasted second-seeded Novak Djokovic 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (1).
• Australian Samantha Stosur won the Japan Women’s Open today for her first WTA singles title, beating Italy’s Francesca Schiavone 7-5, 6-1.
Stosur, seeded third and ranked 15th in the world, broke the fourth- seeded Schiavone’s serve to go up 3-1 in the second set and dominated the rest of the way to close out the match in one hour, eight minutes.
Marbury taking off season.
NEW YORK — Stephon Marbury said he has “shut everything down” and has no plans to play this season, but expects to return to the NBA in 2010-11, the New York Post reported.
Marbury turned down a $1.3 million offer from the Boston Celtics and will sit out this season.
“I’m resting, doing what Michael Jordan did, enjoy life, do things I haven’t done in 16 years, keep building my empire,” Marbury said. “I wasn’t going to Boston for that money. It was a prudent business decision to take off this year.”
Jordan set to rejoin Illini
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Junior guard Jeff Jordan, son of NBA great Michael Jordan, will rejoin the Illinois basketball team after leaving after last season to focus on school.
The 6-foot-1 Jordan was given a scholarship before the 2009 spring semester. In all, he appeared in 59 games, totaling 58 points, 42 assists and 24 rebounds.
“There are conditions Jeff must meet to fully earn his way back,” Illini coach Bruce Weber said. “At this time, his focus needs to be on his academic work and catching up to his teammates in practice.”
Footnotes.
Arthur Abraham (31-0, 25 KOs) knocked out Jermain Taylor (28-4-1) with six seconds left in the 12th round of a super middleweight bout in Berlin.
• Carl Froch (26-0, 20 KOs) retained his World Boxing Council super middleweight title with a split- decision victory over Andre Dirrell (18-1) in Nottingham, England.
• Filly Hot Cha Cha, with James Graham aboard, pulled away down the stretch to easily win the $500,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., and earn a first Grade 1 victory for longtime trainer Phil Sims.
• Olympic gold medal skeleton hopeful Katie Uhlaender, recovering from a shattered left kneecap that needed three surgeries in the last six months, was awarded a spot on this season’s World Cup team.
• World champion Kim Yu-na of South Korea captured the Trophee Bompard, winning the free skate with a flawless performance to finish ahead of Japanese skaters Mao Asada and Yukari Nakano in Paris. American Caroline Zhang, the 2007 world junior champion, finished fourth.
