Federer floors Cuevas to take ‘Istanbul title’
Serena eases through in Madrid
ISTANBUL, May 3, (Agencies): Top seed Roger Federer on Sunday won the Istanbul Open with a superb display of clay court tennis to defeat Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay in straight sets.
The Swiss world number two and 17-time Grand Slam winner showed imperious form ahead of the French Open, beating world number 23 Cuevas to win the 85th title of his career in a thrilling second set tie break.
Federer showed dexterity and power despite resolute defence from his opponent, who required two injury timeouts for treatment on his wrist, to win through 6-3, 7-6 (13/11) in one hour 36 minutes.
World number one Serena Williams moved to 21-0 this season with a 6-0, 6-1 destruction of fellow American Madison Brengle in under an hour at the Madrid Open on Sunday. Williams claimed to have been undercooked for the clay court season after her last outing in beating Sara Errani on Fed Cup duty two weeks ago, but looked imperious in setting up another all-American tie with Sloane Stephens.
World number two Simona Halep slumped to a shock 7-6 (8/6), 6-3 defeat to France’s Alize Cornet in the first round of the Madrid Open on Sunday.
Halep reached the final in the Spanish capital last year, but looked out of sorts as a double fault handed Cornet the opening set in a tie-break.
And the Romanian’s serve crumbled when serving to stay in the match in the second as Cornet wrapped up victory in just under two hours on court.
Halep’s exit could be a big boost to defending champion Maria Sharapova who showed no signs of her recent struggles with form and fitness as she beat Switzerland’s Timea Bacsinszky 6-2, 6-3.
Sharapova had been set to met Halep in the last four had both women made it that far. The Russian dominated the Bacsinszky serve in the first set to break three times and then depended on her own in the second as one break in the eighth game was enough to set up a second round clash with Britain’s Heather Watson or Colombian Mariana Duque-Marino.
Caroline Wozniacki continued her encouraging form of late with a comfortable 6-3, 6-0 win over Australia’s Jarmila Gajdosova.
Fourth-seeded Elina Svitolina saved eight of 11 break points on her way to her third WTA title as she defeated unseeded Timea Babos 7-5, 7-6 (3) in the Grand Prix SAR final on Saturday.
Svitolina extended her unbeaten record in finals to 3-0 after hitting nine aces and breaking Babos four times. The 25thranked Ukrainian won her previous titles in Baku in 2013 and 2014.
Babos, who beat fifth-seeded Mona Barthel and third-seeded Flavia Pennetta to reach the final, relinquished a 5-2 lead in the opening set as she failed to convert five set points. She was also two points away from sealing the second set at 5-4.
But Svitolina won the last 11 points of the first set, and proved the strongest in the tiebreak.
Richard Gasquet of France won the Estoril Open final in straight sets on Sunday, beating Australian Nick Kyrgios 6-3, 6-2.
Fifth-seeded Gasquet, who broke seventh-seeded Kyrgios three times on the clay court, won in just over an hour for his 12th career title and second of the year after also winning at Montpellier.
New Zealand conquered the Australians twice in last year’s Four Nations, including a 22-18 win in the tournament final in Wellington.
The Kangaroos scored the first try through Sam Thaiday, who trampled over Kieran Foran to score off Cooper Cronk. But the Kiwis broke the Anzac Test wide open with four tries in the closing 20 minutes of the opening half.
Powerhouse winger Manu Vatuvei, voted man of the match, scored a try double within the space of eight minutes and world player of the year Shaun Johnson became more influential.
In a significant moment Johnson stepped inside Johnathan Thurston to score New Zealand’s third try, and the Kiwis were in again towards half-time.
A quick movement to the right and winger Jason Nightingale’s kick downfield had Greg Inglis scrambling in cover to clear the threat.
But Inglis inexplicably failed to ground the rolling ball in Australia’s ingoal and Shaun Kenny-Dowall scored New Zealand’s fourth try — giving them a shock 26-6 half-time lead.
Vatuvei looked set to complete his hattrick of tries early in the second half, only to have the ball knocked out of his grasp by Inglis’s desperate tackle.
Fullback Roger Tuivasa-Sheck pulled off a ball-and-all tackle on Cooper Cronk on the New Zealand try-line to save a certain try as the Kangaroos mounted attacking raids.
Centre Will Chambers finally got over the try-line as the Kangaroos pulled back to trail 26-12 with 20 minutes left.
But it was the Kiwis who came close to scoring twice in the final stages, with Johnson chased down by Inglis and Kenny-Dowall losing the ball over Australia’s try-line.
The Bulls moved to the top of the South African conference with a 35-33 victory over the Lions in a thrilling Super Rugby match at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.
The Bulls have 34 points from 11 games, four more than the second-placed Stormers who were stunned 25-17 by the Cheetahs earlier in the day.
The Lions had clawed back from 25-10 down to lead by a single point going into the final 15 minutes before Bulls number eight Pierre Spies barged over to regain the advantage for the home side. European junior time-trial champion still managed to only finish 13 seconds behind the German in the time-trial despite his changing bikes.
“I am very surprised by his performance today notably because of his changing bike,” said Martin.
“Already yesterday I was surprised (Zakarin finished second in a tough mountain stage). I didn’t know of him before.”
British sprint ace Mark Cavendish had to be told by the bodyguards of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan to return to the podium after trying to leave before the head of state awarded the prizes for the Tour of Turkey on Sunday according to Turkish media.
Cavendish, who enjoyed a successful race winning three stages, tried to make a premature exit after first waiting for Erdogan to turn up for the prizegiving ceremony and then sit through a long speech by the president.
However, the 29-year-old Isle of Manborn rider found his exit route blocked by the bodyguards and he was obliged to return and be handed his prize from Erdogan in front of the TV cameras.