Sixth-seeded Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine defeated Karolina Sprem of Croatia 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 in the first round of the US$220,000 GDF Suez Grand Prix on Monday.
Bondarenko broke Sprem’s serve at 1-1 in the first set and later jumped out to a 4-2 lead but the Croatian came back to win four games in a row to take the set.
Sprem, a semi-finalist at this tournament last year, took a 3-1 lead in the second set but this time it was Bondarenko who won four consecutive games to even up the match.
Sprem began the decisive set by winning her own service game but that was as far as she got, as Bondarenko won six straight games to win the match, her first WTA win over Sprem after losses in 2001 and 2006.
Maria Elena Camerin of Italy also scored her first defeat over Lourdes Dominguez Lino of Spain, 4-6, 6-0, 6-1.
■HALL OF FAME
AP, NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND
Prakash Amritraj and Taylor Dent won their opening matches at the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships on Monday.
India’s Amritraj, the runner-up last year, beat Danai Udomchoke of Thailand, 6-1, 6-4 and Dent, the 2002 Newport champion, defeated Marcos Daniel of Brazil, 6-2, 6-1.
In other first-round action, Brendan Evans of the US ousted No. 4-seeded Benjamin Becker 7-6 (5), 3-6, 7-5, when the German double-faulted on the final point. Jesse Levine beat Australia’s Chris Guccione, 7-6 (2) 7-6 (2); Daniel Brands of Germany beat Vince Spadea 6-0, 6-4; and American Robby Ginepri ousted Santiago Ventura of Spain, 6-2, 1-6, 6-4.
Top-seeded Mardy Fish withdrew after replacing Andy Roddick on the US Davis Cup team.
Fish was selected for the team a day after Roddick lost an epic Wimbledon final to Roger Federer. Roddick withdrew from the Davis Cup citing a right hip flexor injury.
■SWEDISH OPEN
AP, BASTAD, SWEDEN
Fifth-seeded Sorana Cirstea of Romania beat Swedish wild card Johanna Larsson 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 in the first round of the Swedish Open on Monday.
Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova also advanced to the second round of the clay-court WTA tournament, coming from one set down to defeat US veteran Jill Craybas 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 in a rain-delayed match.
Eighth-seeded Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic defeated Poland’s Urszula Radwanska 3-6, 6-2, 6-2.
Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain, Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia and Gisela Dulko of Argentina also progressed to the second round.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later