World No. 1 Justine Henin claimed her 40th career title and stretched her winning streak to 28 matches with a three-set victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova at the Sydney International yesterday.
The tenacious Belgian fought back from dropping the opening set to beat her closest ranking rival, the second-seeded Russian, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 in two hours 18 minutes.
The victory was Henin's third Sydney title, having won there previously against Amelie Mauresmo in 2004 and Francesca Schiavone in 2006.
The win, coming just days before the start of the Australian Open in Melbourne, also extended Henin's advantage over Kuznetsova to 16-2 in career match-ups.
Henin has now won all her six WTA finals against the world No. 2.
The top seed's victory came despite struggling on serve with nine double-faults and three service breaks.
But she rose to Kuznetsova's challenge and played her best tennis deep in the final set, breaking the Russian's serve twice to surge home.
Henin was hesitant on her serve and was broken in the fourth game of the opening set but hit back, breaking Kuznetsova to love in the seventh game.
The top seed again had trouble on serve and a double-fault brought up two set points.
She saved one with a rasping cross-court forehand volley but then netted a backhand to hand the Russian the opening set in 42 minutes.
Henin hit back straight away, breaking the second seed in the opening game of the second set and again in the seventh game, levelling the final after 80 minutes.
Henin's service again came under pressure in the final set, dropping her opening service game to love and having a fight to hold on to her next one.
But she broke Kuznetsova to love in the fifth game and hit some great forehands to level at 3-3.
Henin fought off two break points on her service in the eighth game before breaking Kuznetsova with a terrific low forehand.
She served out for the match, winning when Kuznetsova's forehand went long.
In the men's singles big-serving Australian Chris Guccione powered through to the final yesterday, setting up a weekend clash with Russian Dmitry Tursunov.
Guccione, ranked 125, finished the stronger in the sapping heat on yesterday to down the 32nd-ranked Czech Radek Stepanek, 7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 6-4 in just under two hours.
He will play in his second ATP final against 35th-ranked Tursunov, who outlasted veteran Frenchman Fabrice Santoro, 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) in one hour 42 minutes.
The 22-year-old Guccione's only other final appearance was in Adelaide last year, where he lost to Serbia's Novak Djokovic.
Eugenie Bouchard already has her own signature pickleball paddle. She is No. 17 in the pickleball rankings and constantly appears on the main court at events because she is always a big draw. However, just to be absolutely clear, she is not retired from tennis. The 2014 Wimbledon finalist still practices on the tennis court, still competes at tennis events and still has a Women’s Tennis Association ranking (No. 1,288). The Canadian standout just has a new sport that has caught her attention. Bouchard is one of several familiar tennis names — like Jack Sock and Donald Young — crossing over to
Starting with three fights in the first nine seconds and ending with a celebration and a spot in the 4 Nations Face-Off final, the US on Saturday delivered exactly what Matthew Tkachuk hoped for by beating Canada. “We needed to send a message,” Tkachuk said. “The message we wanted to send is ‘It’s our time.’” Tkachuk fought Brandon Hagel off the opening faceoff, brother Brady tussled with Sam Bennett the next time the puck dropped, J.T. Miller dropped the gloves with Colton Parayko next and the Americans followed those fisticuffs with a 3-1 victory over their biggest rival. “That was one of the
Shaquille O’Neal is staying with TNT Sports on a new contract worth more than US$15 million per year, Front Office Sports reported on Friday. The news means the cast of Inside the NBA is staying together even as TNT is set to license out the show to ESPN starting next season. TNT was the odd network out in the NBA’s recent TV rights negotiations, as NBC and Amazon joined previous rightsholder ESPN in inking deals for basketball games. That left TNT without a need for pregame and postgame NBA shows. In a trade with ESPN, TNT is licensing Inside the NBA to the
Aaliyah Edwards on Monday pulled off the stunner of the opening round of the Unrivaled one-on-one tournament, beating top-seeded Breanna Stewart 12-0. The tournament to be played over three days featured 23 of the WNBA’s 36 players. A few had other commitments and a couple others were out with injuries. Stewart got the ball first against Edwards and missed a contested layup. Edwards then hit a three-pointer from the corner and a jumper from the elbow to go up 5-0. The player who scores keeps the basketball. Edwards hit two layups and a three-pointer to seal the win. Stewart, a two-time WNBA Most Valuable Player,