Maria Sharapova reached the semifinals of the WTA Finals and sent US Open champion Flavia Pennetta into retirement by beating the Italian 7-5, 6-1 Thursday. The 33-year-old Pennetta was eliminated with the loss and was playing in her last career tournament, having announced at the US Open she would retire at the end of the season. Agnieszka Radwanska also reached the semifinals by beating top-seeded Simona Halep 7-6 (5), 6-1 earlier. Sharapova completed the round-robin stage 3-0, while Radwanska, Pennetta and Halep all finished at 1-2. Radwanska advanced because of more sets won, as Pennetta had to win at least one set against Sharapova to reach the semifinals. Pennetta led 3-1 in the first set but Sharapova broke back in the eighth game and took control of the match. Halep reached the finals in her first WTA appearance last year but became the first player to be eliminated. "I go home," Halep said. "I go to the holiday. It's OK. I think I had a good year this year." Radwanska trailed 3-1 in the first set and then 5-1 in the tiebreaker before turning the match around. In the second set, Halep saved a break point to hold serve in the first game but won only one point in three more service games. "I was done," Halep said of the first set. "No energy anymore. I was tired. I felt that I lost the chance to win the first set and probably I lost the chance to win the match in that moment." Nadal gets past Dimitrov In Switzerland, Rafael Nadal was pushed to three sets again at the Swiss Indoors before beating Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in the second round Wednesday. Third-seeded Nadal struggled past Lukas Rosol Monday, and had his serve broken in each set by Dimitrov before lifting his career record to 7-0 against the 28th-ranked Bulgarian. Second-seeded Stan Wawrinka's longer-standing problems on the indoor hard courts at Basel resurfaced Wednesday. The French Open champion from Switzerland exited in the first round for the fourth straight year, beaten by Ivo Karlovic of Croatia 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4. Karlovic fired 21 aces in rallying from a set and a service break down in the second. Marin Cilic, the seventh-seeded Croatian, beat Marco Chiudinelli of Switzerland, 6-3, 7-6 (3) and could meet Nadal in the quarterfinals Friday. Cilic first plays Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia, who beat Leonardo Mayer of Argentina, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4. In another first round match, fourth-seeded Kevin Anderson of South Africa cruised to a 6-3, 6-2 win over Borna Coric of Croatia. Jack Sock won an all-American first-round match against Denis Kudla, 6-4, 6-2, to set up another in the next round. Sock will play John Isner, his doubles partner this week, Thursday. David Goffin, the eighth-seeded Belgian, also advanced to the quarterfinals by beating Adrian Mannarino of France, 6-4, 6-3. — Agencies
