Australian Open champ Maria Sharapova reached her first claycourt final on Saturday after 16th seeded American Lindsay Davenport withdrew from their scheduled match due to illness.
Sharapova was 0-3 career in claycourt semi-finals prior to the walkover win at Amelia Island.
The top seed was chasing her third title of the year and the 19th of her career yesterday when she was due to face Dominika Cibulkova.
“I feel great; it’s amazing,” Cibulkova said. “I beat some great players here this week and am now in the final of Amelia Island — I still can’t believe it. I’m really looking forward to the final.”
It was a disappointing end to a promising tournament for Davenport, who was a win away from reaching her fifth career final at this Tier II event.
BACK TO BACK TITLES
The 31-year-old American had won 14 straight matches here, having gone 10-0 in winning back-to-back titles from 2004-05. She also won in 1997 and was runner-up in 2003.
“I am very disappointed to not be able to take to the court today,” Davenport said.
“Right after my quarter-final victory I started feeling sick while receiving treatment. I returned to my hotel where the tournament doctor came to see me,” she said. “Unfortunately I was running a fever and had aches, pains and a headache. Those symptoms have worstened today.”
In a battle of unseeded 18-year-olds in the other semi-final, Cibulkova emerged with a 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 victory over Alize Cornet.
The 34th-ranked Slovak was due to appear in her maiden WTA Tour final yesterday where she was to face Sharapova for the first time.
IMPRESSIVE RUN
Cibulkova has made an impressive run through the draw with upsets of No. 2 seed Anna Chakvetadze, 11th-seeded Amelie Mauresmo and No. 14 Victoria Azarenka.
Cornet also had posted her share of surprises here with wins over No. 9 Sybille Bammer and 13th-ranked Virginie Razzano, but was denied what would have been her first Tier II final appearance.
The Frenchwoman played in her first championship match at the Tier III Acapulco event last month, finishing as runner-up to Flavia Pennetta.
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