Fernando Verdasco edged Leonardo Mayer of Argentina 7-6 (3), 7-5 on Friday to reach the final of the Open de Nice. The second-seeded Spaniard will chase his sixth title against Frenchman Richard Gasquet, who beat Potito Starace of Italy 7-6 (1), 7-6 (6). Verdasco created two break chances in the last game and converted his second match point when a backhand from Mayer went long. In the opening set, Verdasco broke Mayer's serve at 4-4 following an unforced error from the Argentine. Mayer slammed his racket to the ground in frustration but managed to break back in the next game to force a tiebreaker. Verdasco took a 5-1 lead and won the set when Mayer hit a backhand return long. Meanwhile, Gasquet stretched his winning streak to nine matches. A former top-10 player, the Frenchman is looking to get back to his best after his career was hit by a suspension last year for testing positive for cocaine. He sealed the win when Starace netted a return. Sharapova in semifinals Maria Sharapova rallied past Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 Friday to face the unseeded German Kristina Barrois in the Strasbourg International final. The top-seeded Russian will chase her 22nd title while Barrois will play her first final on the WTA Tour after outlasting Vania King of the United States 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (6). Sharapova needed to win two matches in the same day because two quarterfinals were interrupted by rain on Thursday. Early on Friday, Sharapova beat Julia Goerges of Germany 7-6 (2), 6-1 and Medina Garrigues defeated Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden 6-2, 7-5. US to play Argentina in final In Duesseldorf, Germany, the United States will face Argentina in the final of the World Team Cup after Bob and Mike Bryan won the decisive doubles match Friday for the Americans against the Czech Republic. Sam Querrey had put the US ahead Thursday by beating Jan Hajek, but Tomas Berdych leveled the best-of-three series by beating John Isner 1-6, 6-1, 7-6 (4). The Bryan twins then rallied from a 5-2 deficit in the opening set for a 7-5, 7-5 victory over Berdych and Lukas Dlouhy. Argentina also won a decisive doubles match against France, with Juan Monaco and Horacio Zeballos outlasting Jeremy Chardy and Nicolas Mahut 7-5, 3-6, 10-8 in a champions tiebreaker. The final is Saturday. Dulgheru-Zheng Jie final Defending champion Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania will face fifth-seeded Zheng Jie of China in the $600,000 Warsaw Open final Saturday. Unseeded Dulgheru ousted third-seeded Li Na of China 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in the first semifinal Friday. Hours later, Zheng Jie beat Greta Arn of Hungary 6-4, 7-5.
