Dominika Cibulkova avenged an embarrassing defeat to Agnieszka Radwanska by overhauling the top-seeded Pole 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 to win the Bank of the West Classic on Sunday.
Earlier this year in the Sydney final, Radwanska handed the Slovakian a humiliating 6-0, 6-0 loss that Cibulkova said affected her for weeks. However, in Sunday’s final, the 24-year-old Cibulkova immediately shook off her nerves by winning the first game, and fought tooth and nail to seal the win in two-and-a-half hours.
World No. 4 Radwanska entered the final with a 4-0 record against Cibulkova, and appeared to be in control after winning the first set with creative and steady play.
Cibulkova then settled down, breaking Radwanska to lead 4-3 and holding on to win the second set when her opponent missed a return.
The Slovakian wobbled in the decider, with a double-fault conceding a break and allowing Radwanska to take a 4-2 lead, but she broke back immediately and closed out the contest with a searing backhand crosscourt winner.
She fell to her back in joy and her father Milan jumped on to the court to embrace her.
Cibulkova has flirted with the top 10, reaching a career-high No. 12 back in 2009, but has struggled to break through to the next level.
She has failed to make an impression at the Grand Slams this year, but will head into the fourth and final Grand Slam, the US Open, with renewed belief.
BAKU CUP
AP, BAKU
Elina Svitolina won the Baku Cup title by beating Shahar Peer of Israel 6-4, 6-4 in the final on Sunday.
The 18-year-old Ukrainian, the 2010 French Open junior champion, landed four aces and broke Peer decisively in each set to claim her second career title. She won her first in November last year in Pune, India.
The 149-ranked Peer, whose ranking has fallen from a career-best No. 11, was bidding for a sixth career title in her first final appearance since losing in Washington in July 2011.
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
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Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier