Former world No. 1 Maria Sharapova warmed up in style for the French Open by cruising to her first title in a year with a 6-2, 6-4 win over an out-of-sorts Samantha Stosur at the Rome Open on Sunday.
After a rain-delayed start, the Russian appeared to be in a hurry to get off court again and won 14 of the first 15 points as she raced into a 4-0 lead, before clinching an easy first set.
The battling Australian had no answer to Sharapova’s range of shots in the second set and the Russian clinched her 23rd career title and her first in Rome with another devastating forehand winner.
Stosur, who had committed 14 unforced errors to Sharapova’s five in the first set, began the second set with two more wayward forehands as the seventh-seed broke yet again.
However, the runner-up at Roland Garros last year got lucky in the very next game to break back as her mishit forehand dropped on the baseline to give her a 2-1 lead.
Sharapova, who needs the French Open title to complete a career Grand Slam, kept her focus to take the next three games against an opponent she had beaten in all seven of their previous meetings.
The Russian negated sixth seed Stosur’s wayward power game with some canny placements and finished off a long sixth game with two rasping forehands.
The Australian, who sat through the changeover with her head bowed low, finally managed to hold on to two consecutive service games, but she was powerless to stop Sharapova from lifting a second clay-court title in Europe.
“I was ready from the first point and wanted to be aggressive. I tried to take that start away from her,” Sharapova said.
“Moving wise, I feel better on clay. I feel better and better, and although I may not be the best slider or have the strongest legs, there’s more than that in tennis and that’s why I won,” 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