No. 1 Swiatek downed by Krejcikova in Dubai final
Top-ranked Iga Swiatek was upset by Barbora Krejcikova 6-4, 6-2 in the final of the Dubai Championships on Saturday.
Krejcikova closed the tournament by beating the top three players in the WTA rankings: No. 3 Jessica Pegula in the quarterfinals, No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinals, then Swiatek. No. 8 Daria Kasaktina was also overcome in the second round.
The Czech is the fifth woman in the Open era to beat the world's top three at the same event.
“It's a big achievement and I think it's going to give me a lot of confidence that I can play with the best ones,” Krejcikova said.
The former French Open champion dominated the final, breaking Swiatek five times. The Pole earned two breaks back in the first set, but Krejcikova then played out a love break and held to love for the set.
In the second, she broke for 2-1 and 5-2 and easily held serve to win her sixth singles title.
Her previous title was in October, when she beat Swiatek for the first time in the Ostrava final.
• Daniil Medvedev won the Qatar Open in Doha when he defeated Andy Murray 6-4, 6-4 in a final matchup of former No. 1s
Medvedev converted fast starts in each set. He reached 4-1 in the first and 3-1 in the second.
Murray fought back but Medvedev stifled him and earned his 17th singles title.
“Sometimes we were playing bad, then suddenly both of us were playing amazing,” Medvedev said. “I'm happy to win.”
Medvedev also won in Rotterdam last weekend and his winning streak is at nine matches.
“Daniil is one of my favorite players to watch and one of the best players on the tour,” said Murray, who was playing in a record fifth Doha final. “It's great for me to get that opportunity to play against someone of his level in a final again.”
• No. 1 seed Carlos Alcaraz and second-seeded Cameron Norrie won semifinal matches and will meet in today's final at the Rio Open in Rio de Janeiro.
Alcaraz worked hard to beat Nicolas Jarry 6-7 (2), 7-5, 6-0. Norrie topped Bernabe Zapata Miralles 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (3).
Alcarez and Norrie also clashed last weekend in the title match of the Argentina Open, which Alcaraz won in straight sets.
Alcaraz dropped only his second set in the Rio Open tournament against Jarry.
The 19-year-old Spaniard was in trouble with the Chilean's effective service in the first two sets, but showed he had more energy in the third.
Norrie will play his third final of the year. He needed 21/2 hours to beat Zapata Miralles.
Asked what he needs to do differently from the finals in Buenos Aires and Auckland, which he lost to Alcaraz and Richard Gasquet, Norrie said: “I have to play better in the big moments.”
Norrie leads the tour in wins in 2023, with 17 victories against three losses.
Perez leads final day of Formula 1 testing
Red Bull driver Sergio Perez moved up the leaderboard as the sun went down to lead the third and final day of Formula One testing.
It underlined how strong Red Bull looks heading into next weekend's seasonopening race on the same Sakhir desert circuit in Bahrain. Defending world champion Max Verstappen led the first test day.
“A very successful end to the test with another day of uninterrupted running,” Red Bull head of race engineering Gianpiero Lambiase said. “Checo (Perez) was able to complete a variety of test items, including a chance to get a feel for the car under conditions closer to qualifying and the race.”
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton was .36 seconds behind Perez in second but the twitchy W14 again experienced problems with balance and traction.
Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas was .52 behind Perez in third ahead of Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc — who led after the morning session — and Carlos Sainz Jr. The Ferraris were around .7 seconds off Perez's pace but showed good reliability.
Perez drove all day and completed 133 laps. Bottas racked 131. Only Alex Albon did more than them with 136 laps for Williams, while the seven-time F1 champion Hamilton did 65.
Austria's Schwarz wins slalom race
Marco Schwarz of Austria won a tight giant slalom race as the men's World Cup circuit made a stop at the Palisades Tahoe resort in Olympic Valley, Calif. for the first time since 1969.
In fifth place after the opening run, Schwarz powered through the course in a combined time of 2 minutes, 23.63 seconds to hold off Swiss standout Marco Odermatt by 0.03 seconds. Rasmus Windingstad of Norway wound up third to earn his first World Cup podium finish since 2019.
It was Schwarz's first World Cup win since a slalom race on Jan. 26, 2021, at Schladming, Austria.
Odermatt has now been on the podium in each of the last 14 World Cup giant slalom races he's started.
It's been quite a season for Odermatt, who also won the giant slalom at the world championships in Courchevel, France, on Feb. 17. Odermatt's performance Saturday extended his lead over Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of Norway in his bid to win back-to-back overall World Cup titles.
The top American finisher was George Steffey in 21st place.
The last time the men were in California — 54 years ago — Reinhard Tritscher of Austria won a giant slalom race and American Billy Kidd took a slalom event.