Maria Sharapova maintained her unbeaten record this year with a hard-hitting win over Agnieszka Radwanska which carried her to the final of the US$2.5 million Qatar Open on Saturday.
The Australian Open champion beat the 18-year-old Pole, who has just reached the world's top 20 for the first time, 6-4, 6-3, a scoreline which also means Sharapova has still only dropped one set this year.
Sharapova will now face compatriot Vera Zvonareva, who ended the giant-killing run of China's Li Na, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the other semi-final.
The great improvement in Sharapova's serving shown in Melbourne -- made possible by the recovery from the shoulder problem which blighted her tennis last year -- was again in evidence, and was supplemented by a strident policy with her returning.
"I was a little bit worried coming here because I had done a lot of traveling and when I got here I had a little cold, and because of the court change my body was feeling it. I thought `here we go again,'" said Sharapova, referring to her health and fitness problems of last year.
"But once I got more practice on the courts I felt better and it all started to come together. I do feel physically stronger," she said when complimented on the quality of her court coverage in this match. "But the most important thing is to go into a match you really want to win and to consistently do it."
Sharapova took the ball early and forcefully, risking a few errors but creating constant pressure, a policy which particularly paid off during a crucial phase in the middle of the second set.
"It was a good opportunity for me to play someone who had beaten me," Sharapova said, referring to the fact that she had lost to Radwanska the last time they met, at the US Open in New York five months ago.
"Radwanska played well at the start of the match and I almost went 3-0 down," the fourth seed said.
"I had to play good tennis to get it back. It wasn't an easy match; it was quite tough out there, but I was able to do the job," she said.
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