Top seeded Venus Williams beat Russia's Maria Kirilenko 6-3 1-6 6-4 in the final of the Korea Open yesterday.
Forced to three sets for the first time in the tournament, she outlasted a resilient Kirilenko in a match that lasted two hours and 21 minutes, by far the longest of the tournament for either player.
Serving for the match at 5-4 up in the third set, Williams went down 0-40, and rallied to force deuce. She took the championship when Kirilenko's return went just out of the sideline to Williams' left.
Light rain delayed the match by about an hour, and when it began, Williams wasted little time in breaking Kirilenko's serve in the opening game.
The Russian appeared over-matched early on, but a series of unforced errors by the American allowed Kirilenko to tie things up at 2-2. Overall the two broke each other's serve six times in a first set which Williams eventually won 6-3.
Williams won the first game in the second set but Kirilenko then profited from unforced errors and broke two serves to win 6-1.
In the third the Russian appeared to edge ahead by going up 3-2 on an ace. But Williams survived a gruelling sixth game to tie things up before breaking Kirilenko's serve to go into the lead and holding her own to go 5-3 up.
Kirilenko fought back, winning her own serve game to close the gap, but in the end it was not enough to win her second straight WTA event after Kolkata, India, last Sunday.
Dmitry Tursunov broke a summer losing streak in style yesterday, racing to a 6-2, 6-1 victory over German Benjamin Becker to win the Thailand Open.
Sixth seed Tursunov lifted a trophy in July in Indianapolis, then lost his next three matches in the first round, including in the US Open to Britain's Tim Henman.
Coming to Thailand after Davis Cup commitments in Moscow last weekend, the 24-year-old was facing a crisis of confidence.
But Tursunov quickly put that right as he added the Bangkok crown to Indy and his breakthrough title a year ago in Mumbai.
"I was playing well, to say the least," Tursunov said. "It's a final, a big occasion.
"You don't want to come out an play sloppy. I knew that I had to put pressure on him right away. Unfortunately it was a short match -- bad for the crowd but good for me," he said.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
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