Ernests Gulbis of Latvia upset the second-seeded Ivo Karlovic of Croatia 6-2, 6-3 on Sunday to win his first career title at the Delray Beach International Championships.
The 72nd-ranked Gulbis, who never dropped a set all week, should move into the top 40 in the rankings this week.
Karlovic, ranked 33rd, couldn’t get his trademark serve in gear on his 31st birthday, losing serve in the fifth and seventh games of the first set and the third and ninth games of the second. He fought off three match points on serve with aces in the final game, but hit two double faults on the final two points to surrender the match.
Gulbis is the second player of the year to win a title in his first finals appearance. The US’ John Isner won the Auckland title in his first trip to a final last month.
Gulbis saved two break points in the fourth game and never dropped his serve in eight games in the match. He won 45 of 48 games he played this week en route to the title.
Defending doubles champions Bob and Mike Bryan moved into second place on the Open Era titles list, winning their 58th career title earlier on Sunday.
The Bryans beat Philipp Marx of Germany and Igor Zelenay of Slovakia 6-3, 7-6 (3) to snap a tie with Peter Fleming and John McEnroe, and Bob Hewitt and Frew McMillan.
The Bryans are four titles away from surpassing the record of 61 held by Australians Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde.
The American brothers also captured their 600th career doubles victory in their Delray Beach semi-final match on Saturday.
The Bryans have won eight career Grand Slam doubles titles. The latest came last month when they won their fourth Australian Open title in the past five years.
Next up for the brothers is first-round Davis Cup action against Serbia in Belgrade next weekend.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but