Britain's Andy Murray won his second consecutive title at the US$416,000 ATP SAP Open, downing Croatia's Ivo Karlovic 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 7-6 (7/2) in San Jose, California, on Sunday in the final.
The 19-year-old Scotsman took his only prior ATP crown at this event last year, defeating Australian Lleyton Hewitt in the final, and defended the title by rallying to defeat a 103rd-ranked rival seeking his first ATP final victory.
The soon-to-be 28-year-old Karlovic had not reached an ATP quarter-final since last May at Munich but ousted US seeds James Blake and Mardy Fish and German seed Benjamin Becker to reach the final.
Murray defeated US top seed Andy Roddick, the 2004 and 2005 San Jose champion, in the semi-finals and South Korean Lee Hyung-taik in the quarter-finals.
As usual Karlovic, at 2.08m the tallest player on the ATP tour, was imperial on his own serve whacking down 26 aces which took his total for the tournament to 113.
But Murray still managed to break his serve twice in the match which lasted a lengthy 2hr 34min.
Simon victorious
France's Gilles Simon beat Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) to win the US$600,000 ATP tournament in Marseille on Sunday.
The 22-year-old Simon, ranked 58th in the world but who had won only one match since last September and that was when his opponent withdrew, won the first ATP tournament of his career following victory over the seventh-seeded Baghdatis.
It was only his second ATP tour final following a defeat to Spain's Nicolas Almagro in Valencia last year.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB