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Rublev Beats Top-seeded Defending Champion Sinner to Reach Montreal Semifinals

MONTREAL, CANADA - AUGUST 10: Andrey Rublev celebrates a 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 victory against Jannik Sinner of Italy in the Men's Singles quarterfinals round match during Day Five of the ATP Masters 1000 National Bank Open at Stade IGA on August 10, 2024 in Montreal, Canada. Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images/AFP
MONTREAL, CANADA - AUGUST 10: Andrey Rublev celebrates a 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 victory against Jannik Sinner of Italy in the Men's Singles quarterfinals round match during Day Five of the ATP Masters 1000 National Bank Open at Stade IGA on August 10, 2024 in Montreal, Canada. Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images/AFP
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Rublev Beats Top-seeded Defending Champion Sinner to Reach Montreal Semifinals

MONTREAL, CANADA - AUGUST 10: Andrey Rublev celebrates a 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 victory against Jannik Sinner of Italy in the Men's Singles quarterfinals round match during Day Five of the ATP Masters 1000 National Bank Open at Stade IGA on August 10, 2024 in Montreal, Canada. Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images/AFP
MONTREAL, CANADA - AUGUST 10: Andrey Rublev celebrates a 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 victory against Jannik Sinner of Italy in the Men's Singles quarterfinals round match during Day Five of the ATP Masters 1000 National Bank Open at Stade IGA on August 10, 2024 in Montreal, Canada. Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images/AFP

Fifth-seeded Andrey Rublev outlasted top-seeded defending champion Jannik Sinner 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 on Saturday night to reach the semifinals in the rain-delayed National Bank Open, The Associated Press reported.
Rublev beat Brandon Nakashima 6-2, 6-2 earlier Saturday, while Sinner also was playing his second match of the day after topping beat Alejandro Tabilo 6-4, 6-3 in the afternoon.
Rain washed out play Thursday night and all of Friday as remnants of Tropical Storm Debby rolled through, putting the event set to end Monday behind schedule.
Sinner missed the Olympics because of tonsillitis after a quarterfinal loss at Wimbledon. In January, the Italian star won the Australian Open final for his first Grand Slam title.
Rublev has victories this year in Madrid and Hong Kong. The 26-year-old Russian will face Matteo Arnaldi in the semifinals. Arnaldi beat Kei Nishikori 6-4, 7-5 in the late match.
The other two quarterfinals were pushed back to Sunday. Second-seeded Alexander Zverev was set to face Sebastian Korda, the winner last week in Washington, while fourth-seeded Hubert Hurkacz was scheduled to play Alexei Popyrin.
Zverev beat 13th-seeded Holger Rune 6-3, 7-6 (5).
Korda topped ninth-seeded Taylor Fritz 6-4, 7-6 (4) in a second-round match that was originally scheduled for Thursday night, then moved on after sixth-seeded Casper Ruud withdrew because of illness.
Popyrin beat seventh-seeded Grigor Dimitrov 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3. Hurkacz beat Thanasi Kokkinakis 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (6) in the second round, then topped Arthur Rinderknech 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

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Al Rajhi Takes over Dakar Rally Lead after Miserable Stage for Lategan

Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)
Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)
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Al Rajhi Takes over Dakar Rally Lead after Miserable Stage for Lategan

Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)
Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)

Local driver Yazeed Al Rajhi took advantage of a miserable stage by South Africa's Henk Lategan to grab the Dakar Rally lead in the Saudi Arabia desert on Tuesday.

Lategan led the Dakar for the past week, but errors and bad luck on the 357-kilometer ninth stage from Riyadh south-east to Haradh turned his overall lead of more than five minutes over Al Rajhi into a potentially decisive seven-minute deficit.

The rally has effectively two days and 400 kilometers remaining in the dunes of the Empty Quarter. The last day, Friday, is a ceremonial drive to the finish line in Shubaytah.

Al Rajhi, like Lategan, has never won the Dakar. This is the Saudi's 11th attempt with a best finish of third in 2022. He'd been lying second since last Wednesday. The title race appears to be between only them.

Third-placed Mattias Ekström of Sweden and five-time champion Nasser Al-Attiyah of Qatar were about 25 minutes behind.

“It's a bit of disaster to be honest,” Lategan said. “About 13 kilometers in we got lost. We thought we missed the waypoint but we actually had it. When we got lost we got one puncture and then towards the end we got another one and the wheel is actually flat. So, it was a messy, messy, messy day for us but it's not the end of the world, we're still in it.”

Lategan and navigator Brett Cummings were 11th on the stage and Al Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk third.

“We did a great job like we planned to,” Al Rajhi said. “We pushed well. We enjoyed it, that's the most important. I hope everything goes well the next two or three days to win the Dakar ... I will fight to win. It won't be easy.”

Al-Attiyah won the stage ahead of Belgium’s Guillaume de Mévius in under three hours to rise to one minute off third place overall.

His 49th car stage win, and first in the Dakar for Romanian manufacturer Dacia, lifted him to only one behind the record jointly held by Finland's Ari Vatanen and France's Stephane Peterhansel.

Sanders cushions motorbike lead Australian rider Daniel Sanders bolstered his motorbike lead to nearly 15 minutes when closest challenger, Spain's Tosha Schareina, crashed early.

The back wheel of Schareina's Honda hit a rock and sent him flying only 20 kilometers in. He resumed racing but the nearly four minutes he finished behind Sanders dropped him in the general standings.

Schareina's teammate Adrien van Beveren of France remained third, more than 20 minutes behind, while Sanders' KTM teammate Luciano Benavides of Argentina strengthened his position in fourth place by winning his second successive stage.

Benavides, thanks to collecting time bonuses of nearly five minutes by opening the way, beat Van Beveren by nearly two minutes, and repeated his win into Haradh two years ago. Sanders was third after leading until about 70 kilometers from the end.

“I only got lost a couple of times ... and lost a little bit of time,” Sanders said. “I could have pushed and made some more (time) but it's not too bad.”