Nishikori advances to Japan Open quarterfinals

Kei Nishikori battled from a set down to defeat Spain's Tommy Robredo on Thursday and book a quarterfinal meeting with second seed and 2008 champion Tomas Berdych at the Japan Open.

Staying aggressive: Kei Nishikori plays a return against Tommy Robredo in the Japan Open on Thursday in Tokyo. Nishikori, the eighth seed, beat the Spaniard 5-7, 6-1, 6-0 to reach the quarterfinals. KYODO

Eighth-seeded Nishikori, who made his first semifinal finish of the season in Malaysia last weekend, prevailed 5-7, 6-1, 6-0 in front of a partisan home crowd to reach the last eight for the first time in five attempts.

Nishikori, who has fallen in the first round the past two years here, dropped his serve in the opening game and failed to capitalize on a number of chances, allowing unseeded Robredo to break again in the 11th game before holding on to take the first set at Ariake Colosseum.

But the 22-year-old stormed back, racing to a 3-0 lead and acing out to take the second set, before going on to complete victory in a little under two hours on center court.

"I am seeded in this tournament, so I am expected to come this far anyway, but I'm happy and relieved that I have got through to the next round. I am looking forward to doing better," said Nishikori.

Nishikori said defense will be the key against Berdych, who he holds a 2-1 record against but lost to in their most recent meeting in Monte Carlo.

"His play suits this surface and he has won this tournament before. He serves well and has got a flat, very effective forehand. Defense will be the key and I can't allow Berdych to find his rhythm because that would be very difficult to break."

Earlier, world No. 6 Berdych captured his 50th ATP Tour victory of the season in 80 minutes on a warm afternoon, beating Colombian Alejandro Falla 6-3, 7-5.

Winner of his seventh career title at Montpellier in February, the Czech uncorked three superb backhand winners en route to breaking Falla and taking a 4-2 lead before going on to serve out the first set.

Berdych reeled off back-to-back aces to make it 4-4 in the second set after Falla had threatened to break his serve. He got the crucial break in the 11th game with another pinpoint backhand before closing out with his ninth ace of the match.

"I was feeling much, much better physically than in my first match and I was able to profit from that," said Berdych, who opened with a 6-1, 7-6 (8-6) win over Frenchman Benoit Paire.

Looking ahead to Friday's quarterfinal, he said, "Nishikori is one for the future. He is playing at home, which is always a good advantage, and will give him extra motivation, but nothing changes for me. I will try to play my best tennis and see what happens."

Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus knocked out fourth seed Juan Monaco of Argentina 7-5, 1-6, 6-3. He will next play either Tatsuma Ito or Russian qualifier Dmitry Tursunov.

In the day's opening match on center court, third-seeded Serbian Janko Tipsarevic disposed of Swiss qualifier Marco Chiudinelli 6-4, 6-2.

Tipsarevic will play sixth seed Milos Raonic of Canada in the next round. Raonic won his match against Viktor Troicki after the Serb retired at 3-0 down in the first set with a calf injury.

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Morita advances Pan Pacific Open

Japanese wildcard Ayumi Morita pulled off a dramatic three-set victory over Sorana Cirstea of Romania to reach the second round of the Pan Pacific Open on Sunday.

On a rainy and dreary day at Tokyo's Ariake Tennis Forest Park where only the retractable roof-covered center court was left open for play, Morita brightened the home crowd with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 win over the 30th-ranked Cirstea.

It was the first time Morita had beaten the Romanian in three meetings, dating back to Birmingham in 2008. The 22-year-old will face world No. 6 Angelique Kerber of Germany, the fifth seed, in her next match.

"Today I was really able to play without the bad parts of my game coming out," said Morita. "I was very aggressive and this really helps with my confidence."

Morita, who had been struggling with lower back and right shoulder injuries as of late, dominated to break Cirstea twice in the first set before running into problems with the Romanian's speedy serves in the second.

But frustration began to set in for Cirstea, who challenged the chair umpire's decision on what she thought was an ace but lost before Morita broke to go up 2-0 in the third set, and she later slammed her racket to the court after sending a forehand into the net as the Japanese went ahead 3-0.

Cirstea came back from a 3-0 deficit to win the fourth and sixth games, but Morita was too quick on the baseline and more composed, holding serve in the seventh game and breaking again in the eighth as she finished off her opponent with a backhand cross volley.

Asked about the condition of her back, which she first injured during the U.S. Open, Morita said the injury is getting better day by day.

"Today I didn't feel any pain at all, and I think that the condition is improving. Of course I have to continue with rehab, but no problems."

In the day's first match 14th-seed Roberta Vinci of Italy outlasted Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, while 12th seed Dominika Cibulova of Slovakia defeated Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) in the second match.

Former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia came back from a break down in the second set to beat Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium 6-3, 6-3.

World No. 2 Maria Sharapova, who won the Pan Pacific title in 2005 and 2009, has a bye into the second round as the second seed here.

"This place brings back so many memories. It's where I won some of my first big titles and one of my favorite stops of the year. Last year, it was sad to leave with an injury (left ankle), but I'm back this year in good form," Sharapova said.

World No. 1 and top seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, who won this year's Australian Open and a gold medal in mixed doubles at the London Olympics, said her main focus is to remain at the top of the WTA rankings as long as possible.

"I feel like without winning titles you can't remain No. 1. The ranking itself will only follow with my results," she said.

Noticeably missing from this year's tournament is world No. 4 Serena Williams, who won this year's U.S. Open women's singles and a gold medal at the London Games.

Kimiko Date-Krumm, who won the event back in 1995 and turns 42 on Thursday, will play Monday along with Japanese qualifier Kurumi Nara. Eighteen of the top 20 players in the latest world rankings are competing at the Tokyo meet.

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Japan tops Qatar, advances to FIBA Asia Cup final

Entering the FIBA Asia Cup, Team Japan set a goal of advancing to the semifinals. Well, the last four is good, but at the same time it sounds like a compromising goal.

Why not the final two?

Despite struggling early on, the Japan men's national basketball team clicked from the second period on, thanks to its young prospects' outstanding performances, as it defeated Qatar 73-66 in the semifinals of the fourth FIBA Asia Cup at Ota City General Gymnasium on Friday night.

Japan, which finished runnerup in the third tourney (called Stankovic Cup back then) in 2010, will face Iran in Saturday's final.

Forward Kosuke Takeuchi again guided Japan on both ends of the court with an 18-point, nine-rebound performance, and guard Takatoshi Furukawa and forward J.R. Sakuragi contributed 15 and 12 points, respectively.

"I feel so happy that we've reached the final now," Takeuchi said. "Both teams played good defense and we had tough times scoring in the first half. But overall we took the momentum as we kept our cool throughout the game. So today's win means so much to the Japanese team."

Japan shot only 19 percent from the field in the first quarter and trailed 12-9 at the end of the period. But it came through from the second period on and extended its lead to as many as 14 points at the beginning of the final quarter.

Qatar rallied in the closing minutes, but its comeback fell short.

Collegiate guard Makoto Hiejima made some big baskets to give Hayabusa Japan a boost. The 22-year-old Aoyama Gakuin University student was 4-for-6 from inside the 3-point arc and scored 11 points.

"As the tournament wore on, I felt like I was getting a better touch, so I was just going to play as hard as I could today," Hiejima said with a smile.

Japan head coach Kimikazu Suzuki said that he and his staff made extra efforts on scouting Qatar because the Middle East team's coach is ex-Japan floor boss Thomas Wisman and he was quite familiar with his Friday opponent.

"Obviously, Tom knows about us more than any other coaches in this tournament," Suzuki said. "Such as how our players play and how I would mange. So I thought I need to work real hard on scouting on them. I thought we wouldn't be able to end the game on top otherwise."

Wisman started former NBA player Clinton "Trey" Johnson III, who had 28 points in the quarterfinals against Lebanon on Thursday, but Japan defended him well, holding the guard to 10 points on 2-for-14 shooting.

Johnson didn't play in Qatar's first game against Japan on the first day of the group league.

"We succeeded in keeping No. 12 (Johnson) away from scoring very well," Takeuchi said.

For Qatar, center Mohd Yousuf Mohmmed had 22 points and seven rebounds, followed by Erfan Ali Saeed, who had 15 points.

In Friday's earlier semifinal, Iran cruised past the Philippines 77-60.

On Saturday, Japan and Iran will play for the second time in the tournament. Japan lost 71-65 in their first meeting in the group stage.

"We've come all the way here, but it's not over yet. We lost to (Iran) in the preliminary round," Suzuki said. "So we'll play looking for revenge against them."

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Surging Yokohama continues amazing season, advances to Final Four

Storming the lane: Yokohama's Draelon Burns drives on Akita's Kazuhiro Shoji in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference playoff series on Thursday night at Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium. Yokohama won the series 2-1. KAZ NAGATSUKA

YOKOHAMA — Self-assurance has been a recurring theme for the Yokohama B-Corsairs throughout their inaugural season.

They fought the two-time defending champion Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix to a season-opening loss in overtime back in October, and came back the next day and earned a series split.

They hovered around the .500 mark for several weeks before finding their stride, getting a big boost from key acquisition Draelon Burns and closing the regular season with 22 wins in their last 30 games to post a 31-21 record and earn the Eastern Conference's No. 2 seed for the bj-league playoffs.

And, after outlasting the Akita Northern Happinets on Friday night, they have advanced to next weekend's Final Four at Ariake Colosseum.

It's a stunning accomplishment for a first-year franchise in the 19-team league.

Now they await the winner of the Hamamatsu-Niigata Albirex BB series, which was scheduled to begin on Saturday.

"I am confident in my team, and we are preparing to give ourselves a fighting chance at winning a championship," Yokohama coach Reggie Geary said recently.

"Obviously, we are very happy," Geary said in a crammed press room. "This is a historic day for the B-Corsairs organization."

Akita defeated Yokohama 82-69 in Game 2 of the high-stakes series before a rowdy crowd of 2,120 at Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium to force a mini-game tiebreaker: two 5-minute periods after a 20-minute intermission. The mini-game ended this way: Yokohama 18, Akita 15.

In Game 2, the Happinets, playing fierce and focused, were led by 22-year-old shooting guard Shigehiro Taguchi's 20-point outburst, four 3s and 8-for-14 shooting from the field. Akita star Ricky Woods had 18 points and nine rebounds as Yokohama's 10-game winning streak ended.

Power forward Justin Burrell, the 2011-12 MVP as a rookie, paced the B-Corsairs with 21 points and 17 rebounds.

Like he had done a week earlier after a two-point loss to the Sendai 89ers in the series opener, the Northern Happinets' wily bench boss, Kazuo Nakamura, got his players to bounce back in a must-win rematch the next day.

(Akita blitzed Sendai, using an 18-0 run to start the second game and force the tiebreaker.)

Against Yokohama, Akita led 18-16 after one quarter, and held a one-point edge at halftime. The hot-shooting Happinets erupted for 28 third-quarter points, running disciplined sets and moving the offense with precision. Despite trimming the deficit to single digits on a couple occasions late, the hosts fell short.

Burrell, the team's go-to player all season, wouldn't let it happen again. He scored the team's first nine points of the mini-game. In a signature moment highlighting the team's trust in its top scorer, center Chas McFarland's lob to his frontcourt mate earned Burrell a trip to the foul line, and he calmly sank two free throws to make it 9-5.

"From day one, when we started practice, I knew JB was an excellent player," McFarland said, citing what he had learned about Burrell's college career at St. John's. "He's really led by example and worked hard every day in practice."

More important, McFarland noted, "he doesn't let (success) go to his head."

But as always, the rapid-fire Happinets still had a shot. A Woods layup cut it to 9-7, but B-Corsairs captain Masayuki Kabaya's runner pushed the lead back to four, and moments later Burrell completed a layup-and-one to give Yokohama a 15-9.

Happinets forward Lionel Green's 3-pointer pulled them within 15-12 before Kenji Yamada and Burns sank free throws down the stretch for the hosts, the latter's two foul shots coming after gunner Kyle Swanston's 3-ball pulled Akita within one in the closing seconds.

Burns' free throws represented the final points of the series, with Green's 3 off the mark at the buzzer.

Yokohama secured the mini-game win at the charity stripe, taking 15 free throws (making 10, including Burrell's 6-for-9) to Akita's zero.

"Sometimes the ball just doesn't go in for us," Burrell said, describing his team's somewhat tense demeanor in Game 2. "But you have just got to keep doing the other things — defense. . ."

This included Burns' 4-for-13 shooting, Burrell's 7-for-16, Marcus Simmons' 1-for-6 and Kenji Yamada's 2-for-6.

"I'm so proud of this group of players. They fought through adversity," added Burrell, with McFarland, Kabaya and Kenji Yamada sitting beside him in the interview area.

Lumping Game 2 and the mini-game together, Burrell described it as "the most physical and exhausting game we've played all year."

Before the mini-game, Geary kept his message simple as his team returned to the court to face the pesky Happinets, who were 0-4 against the B-Corsairs in the regular season.

He penciled in the names of Burns, Kabaya and Yamada in the backcourt and Burrell and McFarland for the mini-game lineup, sticking with the starting five that has worked so effectively during the team's improbable run to the Final Four.

"I just relied on these guys to get the job done," Geary said.

It worked. And Yokohama's season resumes next weekend with a golden opportunity for the team to establish a greater fan base throughout Kanagawa Prefecture.

"Japanese fans are very loyal and supportive, and once the people of Yokohama and Japan become more exposed to the sport, it will only grow," Geary said.

"Our very first road game we had a traveling party of one fan. In the final regular-season games of the year that were on the road, we had a traveling party of 40 vociferous fans. . . . We still have some work to go to get more fans, but the future is bright."

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