Serena Williams won her first title in 11 months when she beat Patty Schnyder 7-5, 6-3 in the Bangalore Open final on Sunday.
Making her debut in Bangalore, Williams won her 29th career title and first since last April at Miami.
"It's good to be a champ here, it always feels good to win," Williams said.
The American squandered two set points at 4-5 in the first set and rallied from 3-0 down in the second.
Serving for the match, Williams had to save two break points before claiming the victory in 83 minutes.
"I did not want to make too many errors. That was my game plan, but I did not stick to it," Williams said. "It wasn't my best match. Patty played well and forced me to do better."
Williams was playing only her second tournament of the year. After her title defense at the Australian Open ended in the quarter-finals, she had gum surgery and had to withdraw from four tournaments last month.
This week, she saved a match point in beating sister Venus in the semi-finals.
In the final, 11th-ranked Williams was warned for court violation and racket abuse when she cursed and smashed her racket on the ground in the fifth game.
"I'm passionate about what I do. I got too passionate, my grip was wet and that's what happened," Williams said.
Williams missed two sets points with Schnyder serving at 4-5, and squandered two more in the 12th game before winning the fifth set point on a netted return by the Swiss player.
Schnyder, ranked 12th, broke Williams twice to lead 3-0 in the second but Williams had the set tied at 3-3 and rolled to the end.
In the doubles final, Peng Shuai and Sun Tiantian of China defeated top-seeded Chan Yung-jan and Chuang Chia-jung of Taiwan 6-4, 5-7, 10-8.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later