* * * * Tampa Bay Times | Monday, May 30, 2016 | 3C

Times wires

PARIS — Hitting sublimebackhands, defending cham-pion Stan Wawrinka surged to a7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (7-9), 6-3, 6-2 win andinto the French Open quarterfi-nals Sunday, so in control againstViktor Troicki that he amusedhimself and the crowd by hittingwith a ball boy while Troicki gottreatment in the third set.After lending the boy a racket

for their impromptu hitting,Wawrinka, seeded third, got backto business, securing his win incold, humid conditions in justunder three hours.Also through to the quarters:

second-seeded Andy Murray,in a rain-interrupted 7-6 (11-9),6-4, 6-3 victory over big-servingAmerican John Isner.Wawrinka needed eight set

points toovercomeTroicki, seededNo. 22, in the first set. In the sec-ond-set tiebreaker, Troicki need-ed five set points to break downWawrinka, who hit an attemptedforehand lob long for Troicki topull even at one set each.A backhand winner from

Wawrinka — one of 14 from himin the match — broke Troicki tolove in the fourth game of thethird set, during which Troickigot treatmentonhis right leg andwas given pills, and Wawrinkamade the ball boy’s day.“I was a little bit bored, was

waiting for (Troicki), was talkingto the ball kid,”Wawrinka said. “Iasked him if he was playing ten-nis. I said, ‘Okay, let’s play.’ ”An ace brought up two match

points for Wawrinka, and he con-verted the first when Troicki net-ted a backhand from the baseline.A lber t Ramos-Vino las ,

a 55th-ranked, unseeded Span-iard who had never made it pastthe second round of 18 previ-ous Grand Slam tournaments,ousted No. 8 Milos Raonic 6-2,6-4, 6-4 to play Wawrinka in thequarterfinals.The cool, cloudy weather

appeared to take some bite outof Raonic’s serve on the redclay as new coach John McEn-roe watched before they work

Tennis> FrenchOpen

Wawrinka has funmoving into quarters

together at Wimbledon nextmonth.On the women’s side, Garbine

Muguruza advanced to the quar-terfinals for a third straight year.The array of shots and matu-rity the 22-year-old deployed inan intensely fought 6-3, 6-4 winagainst 2009 champ SvetlanaKuznetsova strengthened theargument that Muguruza couldsoon be challenging Serena Wil-liams for the top spot .Standing in the way of her sec-

ond semifinal at a major tour-nament is Shelby Rogers. The108th-ranked American, whohad never made it out of thethird round at a Grand Slam,beat Irina-Camelia Begu 6-3, 6-4.The Romanian, seeded No. 25, isthe third seeded player to fall toShelby in her march to the quar-terfinals.At night, rain halted play

again, and after about 20 min-utes, with the rain still beatingdown and night falling, organiz-ers halted play for the day. Unfin-ishedwerefourth-roundmatchesbetween Simona Halep and SamStosur, and Tsvetana PironkovaandAgnieszkaRadwanska.

TodayTV:5a.m., TennisChannel;noon,Ch.8

PlayoffsConference finalsWestWARRIORS3,THUNDER3(TV:TNT)

Game1:Thunder108,Warriors102

Game2:Warriors118, Thunder91

Game3:Thunder133,Warriors105

Game4:Thunder118,Warriors94

Game5:Warriors120,Thunder111

Game6:Warriors108,Thunder101

Tonight:atGoldenState,9

EastCAVALIERS4,RAPTORS2

Times wires

OAKLAND, Calif. — After arecord 73 wins and a memora-ble Game 6 comeback on theroad, the Warriors’ goal of get-ting back to the NBA Finalsand defending their title comesdown toGame 7 at home againstthe powerful Thunder.All along, the Warriors have

said their numerous team mile-stonesandpersonal accomplish-ments won’t matter a bit unlessthey repeat as champions.They need one more victory

to become the 10th team to rallyfroma 3-1 postseason deficit.“I’ve learned that our play-

ers are tough, they’re mentallytough,” coach of the year SteveKerr said Sunday, when his teamtook a day off from film andpractice. “I don’t know if I reallylearned that. I already knew that.But they’ve firmly confirmedthat. It’s been a great comeback.Nowwe still have to play.We stillhave another game.”Kerr just wanted his War-

riors to grab back somemomen-tum from Kevin Durant and theThunder. They have it all right,heading into the decisive gameof the West final tonight afterwinning two straight.The Warriors forced a

Game 7 after Klay Thompsonmade a playoff-record 11 3s andscored 41 Saturday in a 108-101win at Oklahoma City. StephenCurry bounced back from a slowstart to finish with 29 points, 10rebounds andnine assists.When hi s t eam won

Game 5 on Thursday, Curry hol-lered, “We ain’t going home!” —and Golden State wants no partof OKC having the last say in theWarriors’ summer plans.“We got a big one (Saturday)

night to stay alive, and nowwe’ve got some momentum.But it can work in reverse,” Kerrsaid. “One game changes every-thing, andwe’ve got to come outand play our game and playwellto finish the series out.”Golden State hardly considers

it a gimme just because it’s play-ing at home,where it has lost justthree times this season. TheWar-riors have had their problemsagainst Durant, Russell West-

brook and the towering Thunder.Oklahoma City is fueled by

trying to reach its first NBAFinals since losing to LeBronJames and the Heat in 2012.James and the Cavaliers arewaiting on tonight’s winner.“It’s going to be a hard game.

If we thought (Saturday) washard, Game 7’s going to be eventougher,” Curry said.PLAYER’S DEATH: The shootingdeath of Pelicans rookie guardBryce Dejean-Jones rattled theleague and raised questionsabout what led up to the shoot-ing. Dejean-Jones, 23, was shotafter kicking down the door of

what he mistakenly thoughtwas his girlfriend’s apartmentin Dallas. “It’s shocking thishappened,” his agent, Scott W.Nichols, said. “Wrong place,wrong time, I think.” Police saidthey would not havemore infor-mation about the incident untilafter theMemorial Dayholiday.GRIZZLIES HIRE COACH: TheGrizzlies announced the hir-ing of Heat assistant David Fiz-dale as head coach and plan tointroduce him at a news confer-ence Tuesday. Fizdale, 41, will bea first-time head coach. He hasspent the past eight years withtheHeat.

NBA> sports.tampabay.com for more NBA news and scores

Associated Press

Klay Thompson blocks a shot by the Thunder’s Russell Westbrook during the fourth quarter ofthe Warriors’ Game 6 comeback, in which Thompson hit an NBA playoff record 11 3-pointers.

Warriors ready to finish comebackResults

FRENCH OPENAT PARISSingles, Men, Fourth Round—Albert Ramos-Vinolas,

Spain, d. Milos Raonic (8), Canada, 6-2, 6-4, 6-4.StanWawrinka (3), Switzerland, d. Viktor Troicki (22),

Serbia, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (7), 6-3, 6-2.AndyMurray (2), Britain, d. John Isner (15), United

States, 7-6 (9), 6-4, 6-3.Richard Gasquet (9), France, d. Kei Nishikori (5), Japan,

6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.Singles, Women, Fourth Round— GarbineMuguruza

(4), Spain, d. Svetlana Kuznetsova (13), Russia, 6-3, 6-4.Shelby Rogers, United States, d. Irina-Camelia Begu

(25), Romania, 6-3, 6-4.Simona Halep (6), Romania, leads Sam Stosur (21),

Australia, 5-3, susp., rain.Agnieszka Radwanska (2), Poland, leads Tsvetana

Pironkova, Bulgaria, 6-2, 3-0, susp., rain.

SHOW COURT SCHEDULETodayDavid Goffin (12), Belgium, vs. Ernests Gulbis, LatviaNovak Djokovic (1), Serbia, vs. Roberto Bautista Agut

(14), SpainSerenaWilliams (1), United States, vs. Elina Svitolina

(18), UkraineVenusWilliams (9), United States, vs. Timea Bacsin-

szky (8), Switzerland