Former world number one Maria Sharapova may never play again following her failed drugs test, the president of the Russian Tennis Federation says.
The Russian, 29, tested positive for meldonium at January’s Australian Open.
When asked if Sharapova would play any more tournaments, Shamil Tarpishchev told R-Sport news agency it was “very doubtful” and added the five-time Grand Slam winner was in a “bad situation”.
In March, Sharapova said she was “determined to play tennis again”.
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) provisionally suspended Sharapova on 12 March.
She is waiting to hear the full extent of her punishment, which could be as much as a four-year ban, although experts say a six-month or 12-month suspension is more likely.
That is because the World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) admitted in April that scientists were unsure how long meldonium stayed in the system.
It even suggested athletes who tested positive for the substance before 1 March could avoid bans, provided they had stopped taking it before 1 January.
However, Sharapova has already admitted she continued taking meldonium past that date, saying she was unaware it had been added to the banned list as she knew it by another name – mildronate.
In the women’s singles, top seed Serena Williams will face Madison Keys on Sunday in an all-American final.
Murray makes swift progress despite rain
World number three Murray, who will be 29 on Sunday, broke serve four times as he won in 59 minutes.
The first semi-final was delayed by an hour because of heavy rain, and the players were forced off for 15 minutes during the first set.
“I think it is the first time since I’ve been on Tour that I’ve not had a chance to hit balls before going on to the court,” said Murray.
“It pretty much rained non-stop and then they flipped the schedule around so I didn’t feel that comfortable coming on to court.
Djokovic beat Murray in last week’s Madrid Open final
“But he made a few mistakes and I served well to make it easy for myself.”
In between the showers, Murray was at his ruthless best against world number 52 Pouille, playing his first ATP Masters semi-final.
The 22-year-old looked nervous as he dropped serve from 40-0 in the fourth game and – after that brief rain delay – Murray broke again to clinch the set.
It was a similar story in the second set, with Murray repeatedly drawing his opponent into the net and setting up the passing shot.
Two more breaks of serve gave Murray the match and he left the Centrale Court in sunshine, having surpassed his best effort of reaching the last four in 2011.
“A lot of the best players of all time have played, won and competed for the title here, so I’m very happy to get the chance to do that,” added Murray.
“After 10 years of kind of struggling on the clay and especially this event maybe not playing my best, I’m happy to be there.”
Djokovic provides final test
Novak Djokovic converted only two out of 14 break points in a thrilling semi-final against Kei Nishikori
Murray completes his preparation for the French Open, which starts on 22 May, by facing world number one Djokovic in Sunday’s final.
The Serb, 28, needed to dig deep to beat Nishikori in the second semi-final, eventually prevailing 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) in a match lasting a minute over three hours.
“Any time you get the chance to play the best players, especially right before a Slam, is great preparation,” said Murray, who has won just one of his past 13 matches against Djokovic.
“Regardless of who I play in the final, I know I will be pushed hard. That’s what you want.”
“Clay is not my most natural surface, but because of the wins I’ve had on it in the last few years, once I’ve played a few matches and had a bunch of practice sessions on it, I do start to feel much better,” said Murray, who reached the semi-finals at Roland Garros in 2011, 2014 and 2015.
“I believe that I can compete with the best players on this surface now, because of the wins I’ve had in the last two years.”
Serena Williams has won 15 successive matches against American opponents since sister Venus beat her at Montreal in 2014
Serena finding form before French Open
Williams reached her fourth Italian Open final with a 6-4 6-1 win over Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu.
The world number one missed the start of the clay-court season through illness, but is finding form before her title defence at Roland Garros.
Williams is one Grand Slam victory away from equalling Steffi Graf’s record of 22 singles titles in the Open era.
And, after beating world number 35 Begu in one hour and 26 minutes, she is one victory in Rome away from her 70th career title.
Keys, 21, stands in her way after a shock 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 victory over third seed Garbine Muguruza.
The unseeded American, ranked 24th in the world, had already produced the best European clay-court performance of her career to reach the last four.
Defending champion Andy Murray beat Tomas Berdych 6-3, 6-2 to progress to the semi-finals of the Madrid Open.
The Scot produced arguably his best performance of the season to record a first win over the Czech on clay.
Murray, who beat 16th seed Gilles Simon to reach the quarter-finals, won 92% of his first-serve points and denied eighth-seed Berdych any break points.
The world number two, 28, will face nine-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal in the last four.
Home favourite Nadal, who is looking for a third successive tournament victory following his wins in Monte Carlo and Barcelona, beat Portuguese world number 35 Joao Sousa 6-0, 4-6, 6-3.
The former Wimbledon and US Open champion says he is ready for the semi-final against Nadal, after training with the 14-time Grand Slam winner ahead of the tournament.
“You prepare to play against the best clay court player of all time and get yourself ready for that challenge mentally,” he told BBC Sport.
“I practised with him in Mallorca for a few days, which was good.
“It’s great practice, but you can see some things, as well.”
Murray believes his game is in good shape ahead of the French Open, which begins on 22 May, after a remodelling of his second serve over the winter.
One week after completing his ninth title run at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, Rafael Nadal will vie for a ninth crown at another happy hunting ground.
The top seeded Spaniard will look to dethrone two-time defending champion Kei Nishikori on Sunday after downing Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3, 6-3 in the semis of the Barcelona Open.
Bidding for an unprecedented ninth victory on home soil, he is hoping to lift his first trophy in three years, adding to crowns in 2005-’09 and 2011-’13 at the Real Club Tenis Barcelona-1899.
“Tomorrow I will play against one of the world’s best players and it will be complicated,” said Nadal. “I have to play a great match to win the final.”
Nadal had his entire shotmaking arsenal on display against Kohlschreiber, firing 18 winners and claiming 80 per cent of first serve points. He denied his lone break point faced, while capitalising on three of eight on the German’s serve.
Nadal broke for a 4-2 lead in the first set when a Kohlschreiber forehand clipped the tape and sailed long. The Spaniard continued to apply the pressure in the second, and after failing to convert on three break points in the fifth game, he took his fourth chance for 4-3 and another to seal the victory two games later.
He struck a deep return at Kohlschreiber’s feet and a backhand winner to the open court to emerge victorious on his first match point after one hour and 32 minutes.
The World No. 5 advanced to his 101st tour-level final, where he will look to continue his winning ways against Nishikori. Nadal owns an 8-1 advantage in their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry, with their lone final encounter also coming on Spanish soil, in Madrid two years ago.
Should Nadal prevail on Sunday, he would earn a record-tying 49th career clay-court crown, pulling level with Guillermo Vilas.
Novak Djokovic will play Kei Nishikori in Sunday’s Miami Open final after both went through in straight sets.
Serbia’s Djokovic, the five-time champion and world number one, beat Belgian David Goffin 7-6, (7-5), 6-4 on a hot afternoon.
Japanese sixth seed Nishikori beat Australian Nick Kyrgios 6-3, 7-5 in the evening session.
“It’s going to be tough,” said Nishikori, who has won two of eight matches against Djokovic.
“We just played in Australia and I lost in straight sets, so I need to do something better.”
Djokovic, 28, will try to match Andre Agassi’s record haul of six Miami titles, and become the first man to win the Indian Wells-Miami double three years in a row.
Djokovic bent down and kissed the court after finally seeing off 15th seed Goffin in a gruelling two hours and five minutes.
“It was evident that we both struggled with conditions,” said the Serb.
“Physically, it was a great battle. I think we were both trying to catch some breath after some points. It was windy, it was warm, it was humid.”
The top seed came back from a break down in the first set, before Goffin missed a golden opportunity with the open court gaping at 4-4 in the tie-break.
“I was on the back foot in that point, he was dictating,” said Djokovic. “He came to the net and I anticipated where he might smash the ball, he framed it a little bit.
“I had to defend well, which I think I did at the end of the tie-break.”
Nishikori too sharp for Kyrgios
Kyrgios had shown off his firepower in beating Milos Raonic on Friday, but he could not handle Nishikori’s pinpoint accuracy from the baseline.
The Australian dropped serve with a double fault in game three, and did the same on set point six games later.
Nishikori looked to be faltering when he failed to hold for 3-0 in the second set, but the Japanese player avoided the need for a tie-break with a lunging volley on his second match point.
“It was tough. When he plays me he plays so aggressive, doesn’t let me dictate points,” said Kyrgios.
“I felt rushed out there, I was really looking for answers. I’ve been struggling on my serve all week, so to come this far without having my best weapon is a pretty good effort.”
Nishikori, 26, is through to his first Miami final and second at the Masters 1000 level.
Ghana’s female national team, the Black Queens have been drawn to play Tunisia in the second round of qualifiers to the 10th African Women’s Championship (AWC) to be held in Cameroon later this year.
The first leg is expected to be played in Tunisia on 8 April before the Queens host their Tunisian counterparts in Accra in the return leg after a fortnight.
Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, South Africa, Cote d‘Ivoire and Nigeria all drew a bye in the first round of qualifiers which was played early in March.
Tunisians qualified to the second stage of these qualifiers after eliminating Burkina Faso 2-0 on aggregate over two legs. They won the first leg at home 2-0 before forcing a goalless draw in Ouagadougou.
Seven teams will qualify to join hosts Cameroon for the event which has been slated for 19 November to 3 December 2016.
Bayern Munich manager Pep Guardiola says he “doesn’t care” who they play in the Champions League quarter-finals after beating Juventus.
Thomas Muller scored a 90th-minute equaliser to take the tie into extra-time, where Bayern scored twice to prevail 6-4 on aggregate.
“If you want to reach the semi-finals then you have to be ready to beat any opponent,” Guardiola said.
“But we are there. We made it. A minute later and we would have been out.”
The other seven teams in the quarter-finals are Manchester City, Paris St-Germain, Wolfsburg, Benfica, Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid, and Guardiola’s former club Barcelona.
The draw for the quarter-finals takes place on Friday at 11:00 GMT, and the first legs will be played on 5 and 6 April, with the second legs on 12 and 13 April.
