Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beat Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro 7-5, 6-2 on Saturday to win the Portugal Open and claim her first trophy on clay. The third-seeded champion, coached by former Swiss great Martina Hingis, earned the fifth title of her career while leaving her opponent winless from five finals. One of those was at the same venue a year ago, when Suarez Navarro went down to Kaia Kanepi, an opponent she beat in the semi-finals this week.

Los Angeles, Mar 14 (EFE).- Spain's Rafael Nadal battled Latvia's Ernests Gulbis for two hours and 33 minutes at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California, before finally prevailing 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 and setting up a showdown in the quarterfinals with Swiss great and long-time foe Roger Federer. Federer was pushed to three sets by countryman Stanislas Wawrinka, but pulled out the win 6-3, 6-7 (4-7), 7-5 in two hours and 20 minutes.

Defending champion Roger Federer battled past fellow Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka 6-3, 6-7 (4/7), 7-5 on Wednesday to reach the quarter-finals of the Indian Wells Masters. Federer, seeded second behind Novak Djokovic and chasing his first title since Cincinnati last August, could get a quarter-final clash with his great rival Rafael Nadal, who was to play Latvian qualifier Ernests Gulbis in the fourth round later Wednesday. Federer improved to 13-1 against Wawrinka, but he had to labor two hours and 20 minutes to do so.

Short-handed five-time champions Spain crashed out of the Davis Cup Sunday when Canada completed a famous World Group triumph while 32-time winners United States were locked in a dogfight against Brazil. Milos Raonic secured the crucial winning point in Vancouver by beating Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 to send Canada into their first Davis Cup quarter-final. They will tackle Italy in April for a place in the semi-finals.