Argentina wins 1st Davis Cup
Argentina won its first Davis Cup title Sunday when Federico Delbonis swept past Ivo Karlovic in straight sets to complete a stunning 3-2 comeback win at Croatia.
Delbonis dropped to the ground after his 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 victory. His teammates fell into each other’s arms and celebrated in front of thousands of Argentine fans in the packed Arena Zagreb.
“Delpo showed his huge heart after turning around the match that looked lost,” said Argentina captain Daniel Orsanic. “Federico played a perfect match under huge pressure.”
This was the first Davis Cup title for Argentina in its fifth final since 1981. Croatia won in 2005.
Going into the reverse singles Sunday, the Croats were leading 2-1 in the best-of-five-series after winning the doubles Saturday.
Juan Martin Del Potro then rallied from two sets down to beat Marin Cilic 6-7 (4), 2-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-3 as Argentina tied it 2-2.
With the victory, Argentina became the third team to come back from 2-1 down in the final since the World Group Davis Cup format began in 1981.
College volleyball: The Stanford women’s team is the No. 6 overall seed and will host first- and secondround games in the 64team NCAA tournament. The Cardinal (21-7), who have made the tourney 36 straight years, have won six national titles, two under 16th-year head coach John Dunning. They begin play at 7 p.m. Friday against Denver.
Ranked ahead of Stanford are Nebraska (1), Minnesota (2), Wisconsin (3), Texas (4) and Kansas. The Final Four will be Dec. 15-17 in Columbus, Ohio.
Skiing: Mikaela Shiffrin won her sixth straight World Cup slalom after building a healthy lead in the first run and holding off some hard chargers in the second at her home course in Killington, Vt.
The overall World Cup leader had a combined time of 1 minute, 27.95 seconds. She was followed by Slovakia’s Veronika Velez Zuzulova, 0.73 of a second behind, and Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener in 1:28.81.
Golf: Denmark fought off a three-pronged attack to win golf ’s World Cup in Melbourne. Soren Kjeldsen and Thorbjorn Olesen combined superbly in the best-ball format for a closing 6-under-par 66 to finish at 20-under 268, four shots clear of France (63), China (65) and the United States (66 by Rickie Fowler and Jimmy Walker) in a three-way tie for second.
Canadian football: Henry Burris threw an 18-yard touchdown pass to Ernest Jackson in overtime and the Ottawa Redblacks beat the Calgary Stampeders 39-33 in Toronto to win the Grey Cup.