Andrea Petkovic took another step toward a return to the top 10 of the WTA rankings by winning her second title of the season at the Gastein Ladies on Sunday.
The 20th-ranked German, who played her first claycourt event since reaching the semi-finals at last month’s French Open, beat Shelby Rogers of the US 6-3, 6-3 to follow up on her victory at Charleston in April.
“It’s a super feeling, I am totally happy,” said Petkovic, who reached a career-high ranking of No. 9 almost three years ago. “I want back into the top 10 and I am just playing good tennis. My serve and my footwork can still improve, but I am playing well.”
Photo: EPA
Petkovic also won the event in 2009 for her first of four career titles, which have all come on clay.
“I wanted this victory so badly,” Petkovic said. “I am very relieved. Shelby played very aggressive tennis. I didn’t know her game, but I’ve done some research on YouTube.”
Rogers, who came through qualifying and was ranked 147th, had not been beyond the second round of a WTA event before.
The 21-year-old American from Mount Pleasure, South Carolina, had not beaten a top-50 player before, but defeated world No. 16 Carla Suarez Navarro, No. 40 Camila Giorgi and No. 14 Sara Errani all in straight sets this week before going down to Petkovic.
“I had an incredible time,” said Rogers, who has won four events on the lower-tier ITF circuit. “This has definitely been a week I will never forget.”
Rogers broke Petkovic’s serve for an early 2-1 lead, but the German immediately leveled the score. At 3-3, Petkovic took six straight games to win the opener and build a 3-0 lead in the second.
Rogers closed the gap to 3-2 and then broke her opponent again when Petkovic was serving for the match at 5-2, but netted a backhand in the next game on the German player’s first match point.
BUCHAREST OPEN
AP, BUCHAREST
Top-seeded Simona Halep of Romania overpowered second-seeded Roberta Vinci to win the Bucharest Open final 6-1, 6-3 on Sunday for her eighth WTA title.
Halep, ranked third in the world, was more consistent from the start and easily took the first set.
The 31-year-old Vinci lost her serve to trail 4-2 in the second, before Halep won the final game to love and clinched the title in less than 70 minutes.
Halep now leads Vinci 4-2 head-to-head.
The 22-year-old Halep is enjoying the best year of her career. She was runner-up in the French Open and reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
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