Venus falls short at WTA Finals
Third-seeded Karolina Pliskova cruised to a 6-2, 6-2 win over fifth-seeded Venus Williams in a round-robin match as the WTA Finals opened in Singapore. In Sunday’s other match, second-seeded Garbiñe Muguruza of Spain posted a 6-3, 6-4 win over seventh-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia.
Juan Martin del Potro won his 20th career title, beating Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-2 in a successful title defense at the Stockholm Open. Horse racing: Mended tied Ema Bovary for the third-longest winning streak by a Bay Area-based horse when she rolled to her ninth straight victory, a 5¾-length romp in the first race at Golden Gate Fields. All nine wins and $125,400 in earnings have come after trainer John F. Martin claimed the 4-year-old filly for $12,500 for owners Troy and Maritza Onorato. Hap Loge won 11 straight races in 1973, and Lost in the Fog won 10 straight in 2004-05. Colleges: Virginia named Carla Williams as its athletic director. Williams, an athletics administrator at Georgia for the past 13 years and the deputy director of athletics since 2015, will become the first female African American athletic director at a Power Five school. Hockey: Brianna Decker scored twice to help the U.S. women’s team open its preOlympic exhibition schedule with a 5-2 victory over Canada in Quebec City. Marathon: Eyob Faniel became the first Italian in 22 years to win the Venice Marathon after a bizarre incident in which the leading six runners took a wrong turn.
Favorites Abdulahl Dawud, Gilbert Kipleting Chumba, Kipkemei Mutai and David Kiprono Metto were among the leading group that followed a motorcycle off the course after 16 miles. They lost around two minutes. Faniel finished in 2 hours, 12 minutes, 16 seconds. Ultimate Frisbee: Two San Francisco-based club teams were crowned champions at the U.S. National Championships in Sarasota, Fla.. San Francisco Fury beat two-time reigning champions Boston Brute Squad 14-13 for the title in the women’s division, coming back from a three-point deficit at halftime.
In the men’s division, San Francisco Revolver shut down Austin Doublewide 15-7 for its fifth title in eight years.