Tennis News

TORONTO (CP) _ Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia and Ai Sugiyama of Japan found almost instant success as a doubles duo when they decided to team up this past March. Now they have their first title together. Srebotnik and Sugiyama captured the doubles title at the US$1.34-million Rogers Cup on Sunday, defeating Cara Black of Zimbabwe and American Liezel Huber, 4-6, 6-2 and then 10-5 in a tiebreak.

LONDON (AP) _ Tennis officials are investigating suspicious betting patterns on a match in which top-seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia retired with an injury against a low-ranked opponent at an ATP tournament in Poland. In an unprecedented move, British online gambling company Betfair voided all bets Friday placed on Thursday's second-round match at the Prokom Open in Sopot between defending champion and No. 4-ranked Davydenko and No. 87-ranked Martin Vassallo Arguello of Argentina. Betfair said it received about ...

STUTTGART, Germany (AP) _ Rafael Nadal dropped serve three times and had to sweep five straight games to win the Mercedes Cup with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland on Sunday. The top-seeded Spaniard hadn't previously dropped serve in the tournament, but had to rally from 5-2 down in the second set to claim his sixth title this year and his 93rd win in 94 matches on clay. ``I had a little luck, but ...

LIVERPOOL, England (AP) _ A severe dog bite forced Bjorn Borg to pull out of his first grass-court match in 26 years. The five-time Wimbledon champion was bitten on his right leg by a German shepherd called The Wolf when he tried to pull the dog away from his golden retriever, Lipton, at his home in Sweden over the weekend. Borg, who received medical treatment at a Stockholm hospital, was told not to put any weight on ...

PARIS (AP) _ Maybe Roger Federer needs to allow the pain of coming up short at the French Open to last a little longer. Maybe he needs to be a tad more concerned about whether he ever will pull off what he's come so close to _ and yet, in a way, remains so far from accomplishing: a ``Roger Slam'' of four consecutive major titles, a career Grand Slam, a true Grand Slam. Maybe Federer needs ...

PARIS (AP) _ A sluggish Roger Federer overcame a deficit in every set at the French Open on Friday, and now is within one victory of the only Grand Slam title he has yet to win. The top-ranked Swiss looked lacklustre for much of the match but advanced to the final by beating Nikolay Davydenko 7-5, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (7). ``I could have lost in three sets,'' Federer said. ``He's an excellent player. It's a superb win ...

PARIS (AP) _ Venus Williams was knocked out of the French Open on Friday, losing to fourth-seeded Jelena Jankovic 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 in the third round. Williams, who reached the final at Roland Garros in 2002 but missed the last two Grand Slam tournaments because of injuries, also lost to Jankovic in the third round at Wimbledon last year. ``I got a little bit tired at the end,'' Williams said. ``It's tough on clay.'' Top-ranked Roger Federer had ...

PARIS (AP) _ Venus Williams advanced to the second round of the French Open by beating French teenager Alize Cornet 6-4, 6-3 Monday on a damp court after another long rain delay. Williams, who lost to sister Serena in the 2002 final at Roland Garros, survived a pair of breaks in the first set and another in the second on centre court. ``I had some chances to really take the match, but she always came back,'' said ...

LONDON (AP) _ Wimbledon will give players three chances per set to challenge line calls using video technology at this year's tournament _ one more than the U.S. and Australian Opens. Wimbledon is introducing the Hawk-Eye system on Centre Court and Court No. 1 at the June 25-July 8 championship for the first time. The existing cyclops technology will be moved to courts 2, 14 and 18. Cyclops, which has been used at Wimbledon since 1980, ...

ROME (AP) _ Tennis star Rafael Nadal went to a hospital for a checkup following a dizzy spell Thursday, although he was not planning to pull out of the Rome Masters. ``Everything is OK. It was just a routine checkup. He's playing tonight,'' Nadal's spokesman Benito Barbadillo said. ``It was the same as yesterday. He was just feeling a little dizzy, that's it.'' The Spaniard looked to extend his 73-match ...

ROME (AP) _ Roger Federer lost to Italian wild card Filippo Volandri 6-2, 6-4 Thursday in the third round of the Rome Masters, extending his title drought to four straight tournaments. The top-ranked Federer last won at the Dubai Tennis Championships in March. He has since failed to win at Indian Wells, California; Key Biscayne, Florida; Monte Carlo, Monaco; and Rome. It's the worst stretch of Federer's career since becoming ...

LONDON (AP) _ The total purse at Wimbledon will be nearly 10 per cent more than last year, with the male and female champion each taking home 700,000 pounds (C$1.57 million). The only Grand Slam tournament on grass will offer 11,282,710 pounds (C$25,355,662) in all, an increase of 8.7 per cent. Wimbledon announced on Feb. 22 it would pay men and women the same from the opening round to the ...

MONTE CARLO, Monaco (AP) _ Roger Federer won his 500th career match Friday, beating David Ferrer 6-4, 6-0 in the quarter-finals of the Monte Carlo Masters. ``I am very happy to have done it here,'' said Federer, who reached the final in Monte Carlo last year. ``That is a lot of games. I'm glad they are victories.'' The 10-time Grand Slam champion has never lost a set to Ferrer in ...

LONDON (AP) _ The two highest-ranked players in the first round of the Fed Cup will play in the opening singles matches for Russia on Saturday. Ninth-ranked Nadia Petrova and fifth-ranked Svetlana Kuznetsova were picked Friday to lead a deep Russian team against Spain on clay at the Luzhniki Indoor arena. Petrova will open against Anabel Medina Garrigues and Kuznetsova, a former U.S. Open champion, will face Lourdes Dominguez-Lino. Maria ...

LONDON (AP) _ Marat Safin saved Russia, and sent the defending champions into the Davis Cup semifinals. The former top-ranked Russian played for the first time in the best-of-five series on Sunday and beat Paul-Henri Mathieu 7-6 (3), 6-3, 6-2 in the deciding match to give the hosts a 3-2 win over France. ``It was a pure accident,'' said Safin, who is 29-18 in the Davis Cup. ``I have not ...

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) _ Andy Roddick leaned back in his chair, drink in hand, and yelled, ``Let's go, Bob!'' With the U.S. assured a spot in the Davis Cup semifinals, Roddick rested his sore left hamstring on a stress-free Sunday. But he remained a cheerleader for a competition he desperately wants to win. The Americans entered the day with a 3-0 lead over Spain in the best-of-five event, making reverse ...

BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) _ Andy Murray, bothered by a hip injury, will play the opening singles match for Britain against the Netherlands in the Davis Cup on Friday. Murray was drawn Thursday to play Raemon Sluiter on indoor hardcourts at the NEC Arena. Tim Henman will play Robin Haese in the second singles match. They will swap for Sunday's reverse singles. On Monday, Murray said he might miss the match ...

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. (AP) _ Justine Henin raised a fist, shook it and punched the balmy air Thursday after reaching the Key Biscayne final for the first time by beating Anna Chakvetadze 6-2, 6-3 at the Sony Ericsson Open. The top-ranked Henin is a five-time Grand Slam champion, but until this year she had never advanced beyond the quarter-finals at Key Biscayne. The Belgian says she dislikes the island's windy ...

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. (AP) _ Rafael Nadal said he's skipping Spain's Davis Cup quarter-final match against the United States next month because he needs to rest his injured foot. Nadal said his foot has been bothering him for the past month. Despite the injury, Nadal planned to play in the quarter-finals Wednesday night at Key Biscayne against Novak Djokovic of Serbia. ``Although I've been playing very well, I'm playing with ...

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. (AP) _ The match included 25 double faults, one on a second serve that landed wide of the doubles alley. There were 91 unforced errors and 13 service breaks, resulting in 2{ hours of fitful tennis before a stadium crowd that groaned at the mishits and missed chances. Maybe one match every 20 months between Maria Sharapova and Venus Williams is enough. The two Grand Slam champions ...

NEW YORK (AP) _ Justine Henin regained the No. 1 ranking on Monday and will head into this week's Sony Ericsson Open in Miami as the favourite. Russian Maria Sharapova would have stayed No. 1 if she'd reached the semifinals in defence of her Pacific Life Open title at Indian Wells last week, but the 19-year-old Russian fell in the fourth round. Henin was poised to take over after winning ...

Top-ranked Maria Sharapova retired during the second set of her Pan Pacific Open semifinal against Ana Ivanovic on Saturday because of a hamstring injury. After dropping the first set 6-1, the Russian star consulted with her trainer. She won the first game of the second set before retiring. ``It's disappointing to have to finish this way,'' Sharapova said. ``I started to feel pain in the second game of the first ...

Switzerland's Roger Federer and Russia's Maria Sharapova top the lists of seeds at the Australian Open, with organizers sticking to thh world rankings. Federer, the defending champion, is aiming for his 10th Grand Slam singles title and has been atop the men's rankings since February 2004. Sharapova moved to the top of the women's seedings list at Melbourne Park after No. 1-ranked Justine Henin-Hardenne of Beelgium withdrew from the tournament ...

All the brilliant numbers came down to one simple equation for Roger Federer: He was two sets short of a Grand Slam season. Federer returns to Melbourne Park as the overwhelming favourite and defending Australian Open champion, one of three majors he won while compiling a 92-5 record last year. Four of his losses were against second-ranked Rafael Nadal, including the French Open final when he won the first set ...

Defending champion Andy Roddick set up a championship match against top-ranked Roger Federer in the Kooyong Classic exhibition tournament, beating Scotland's Andy Murray 6-4, 6-4 on Friday. Roddick, of the United States, has only one win in 13 ATP Tour matches against Federer, of Switzerland, and has lost their last eight matches. ``I'm going to go out there and try to win a tennis match,'' Roddick said. ``It's always nice ...

Top-seeded Tommy Robredo and No. 3 seed David Ferrer will meet in an all-Spanish final to the Heineken Open after winning rain-delayed semifinals Friday. Robredo beat seventh-seeded Agustin Calleri of Argentina 6-4, 6-0 while Ferrer beat Olympic silver medallist Mardy Fish of the United States 6-0, 4-6, 6-1. Rain delayed the start of the Robredo-Calleri match by 90 minutes and only five points had been played _ Robredo held serve ...

Top-seeded Rafael Nadal opened the year with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Rainer Schuettler of Germany, and second-seeded David Nalbandian was upset by Kristian Pless 2-6, 6-3-, 7-5 in the opening round of the ATP Tour's Chennai Open. The 20-year-old Nadal started out rusty and Schuettler took a 4-2 lead by breaking Nadal in the sixth game. But Nadal, ranked second in the world, won four straight games to take ...

World No. 2 Maria Sharapova said Tuesday she has put on some more muscle over the past year to play better in Grand Slams. The 19-year-old Russian spoke to reporters on the eve of Hong Kong's three-day Champions Challenge exhibition, a warm-up for the Australian Open, which begins Jan. 15. Sharapova said winning the French Open title was one of her New Year resolutions. ``I only play about three tournaments ...

Martina Hingis needed only 46 minutes Tuesday to complete a 6-0, 6-1 win over Australian Nicole Pratt at the Australian Women's Hardcourt Championship. The former top-ranked Hingis returned to this tournament last season after three years on the sidelines and reached the semifinals. Weeks later, she made the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, an event she won three consecutive years from 1997. The Swiss star, who finished the 2006 season ...

Lleyton Hewitt, playing singles for the first time since losing in the Davis Cup last September, beat Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic at the Adelaide International on Tuesday after Tipsarevic retired late with a thigh injury. The former top-ranked Australian was leading the round-robin match 6-1, 4-2 when Tipsarevic decided he could not continue. Hewitt, whose last singles match was a five-set loss to Argentina's Jose Acasuso in the Davis Cup semifinals, ...