Fourth seed Steve Johnson of the US shook off cramps and fought his way to a 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7/5) victory over Brazil’s Thomaz Bellucci at the US Men’s Clay Court Championship in Houston, Texas, on Sunday.
Johnson, who arrived in Houston after a US Davis Cup tie in Australia, won his second career ATP Tour title and his first on home soil.
“To win on US soil and win when you’re not feeling great is a testament to my willpower and competitiveness,” Johnson said. “My body has just physically run out of gas after this week. Coming in from Australia kind of put me behind the eight ball and then the nerves of trying to close out the final, a lot of factors go into cramping. I was very fortunate to get out of that.”
Photo: AP
Eighth seed Bellucci was vying to become the first player since 2004 to win five three-set matches en route to an ATP Tour singles title.
“I wasn’t cramping, but I was so tired that I couldn’t think to win the match,” Bellucci said. “He was a little bit worse than me [physically], but he was playing unbelievably.”
“I’m a little bit sad because I think I could have won, but I’m happy to make another final,” Bellucci said.
GRAND PRIX HASSAN II
AFP, MARRAKESH
Croatia’s Borna Coric saved five match points to defeat Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber 5-7, 7-6 (7/3), 7-5 on Sunday to clinch his maiden career ATP Tour title at the Grand Prix Hassan II in Marrakesh.
Coric, the 20-year-old world No. 79, trailed 3-0 in the second set and 4-2 in the decider before he rallied to victory against third seed Kohlschreiber, who was bidding for an eighth ATP Tour title.
The Croatian lost last year’s final to Federico Delbonis of Argentina.
Coric fired 10 aces to defeat Kohlschreiber after 2 hours, 38 minutes, the longest final on the ATP Tour this year.
“I would say that’s my biggest comeback, I’ve never saved five match points,” Coric said. “Especially in such an important match, I served very well in the big points. It’s an awesome feeling. I didn’t know what to expect when I came here and I wasn’t in the best shape, but I’ve been working very hard the past three or four months and now it’s paying off.”
For 33-year-old Kohlschreiber, the manner of defeat was nothing new — he squandered seven match points against world No. 1 Andy Murray earlier this year.
“It was one of those days,” the German veteran said.
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
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
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