Collins wins 13th straight match for back-to-back titles
Danielle Collins is showing no signs of slowing down as she heads into retirement later this season, having won her second consecutive tournament on Sunday at the Credit One Charleston Open in South Carolina.
The unseeded Collins crushed fourth-seeded Russian Daria Kasatkina 6-2, 6-1 on the clay surface in 77 minutes for her 13th consecutive match victory after winning the hard-court Miami Open a week earlier.
Fellow American Serena Williams was the last player to win Miami and Charleston in the same year in 2013, and Williams did the same in 2008.
The 13-match tour-level win streak is Collins’ career best, supplanting her 12-match run in 2021 which included victories in Palermo, Italy, and San Jose, Calif.
Collins started February at No. 71 in the world rankings and is projected for the top 15 on Monday. The 2022 Australian Open runner-up outplayed No. 11 Kasatkina in winners (37-10), won 95.2 percent (20 of 21) of first serve points and saved both break points she faced.
Elsewhere: At the Copa Colsanitas, homecountry favorite Camila Osorio completed an impressive run, defeating
No. 1 seed Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) before a partisan crowd to win her second title in Bogota. Osorio, who won her first WTA Tour crown in Bogota in 2021, was seeded sixth, ranked No. 85 in the world and had not won consecutive matches this season. The Colombian lost just one set en route to the championship. Along the way, Osorio ended two-time defending champion and secondseeded Tatjana Maria’s
14-match winning streak in Bogota in the quarterfinals . ... Pedro Martinez
of Spain 6-3, 6-4 in the final of the Millennium Estoril Open in Estoril, Portugal. The No. 2 seed, Hurkacz recorded 15 aces in capturing his eighth career ATP Tour crown in the 87-minute match. He won 29 of 35 first-serve points and did not have to save any break points, while Martinez saved 3 of 5. Hurkacz, now 3-0 against Martinez on the tour, will rise two spots to a career-high-tying No. 8 in the PIF ATP Rankings on Monday. Martinez, who defeated top seed and eighth-ranked Norwegian Casper Ruud in the semifinals, will improve 17 spots to No. 60 in the rankings . ... At the Grand Prix Hassan II, Italian Matteo Berrettini, playing in his third tournament since missing six months with an ankle injury, downed defending champion Roberto Carballes Baena of Spain 7-5, 6-2 in the final at Marrakech, Morocco. Berrettini, a 2021 Wimbledon finalist, had not won on the ATP Tour since his Queen’s Club win two years ago. He will rise 51 spots to No. 84 in the PIF ATP Rankings on Monday. Baena had won nine consecutive matches in Marrakech before dropping Sunday’s final in 1 hour, 46 minutes. He converted just 1 of 8 break points, while Berrettini converted 4of7.
ETC.
NHL: Lucas Raymond had a goal and an assist for the Detroit Red Wings in a 3-1 win against the visiting Buffalo Sabres on Sunday. It was the
40th multi-point game of Raymond’s career, making the forward the eighth
Red Wings player age 22 or younger to reach the mark. Patrick Kane and Dylan Larkin scored for the Red Wings (38-31-8, 84 points), who jumped into the second wild card in the Eastern Conference, pending the Washington Capitals’ result later Sunday. Alex Lyon made 37 saves. Tage Thompson scored, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 21 saves for the Sabres (3736-5, 79 points), who dropped to five points behind the final playoff spot with four games remaining. NFL: New England Patriots and star safety Kyle Dugger have agreed to terms on a four-year contract extension, multiple media outlets reported Sunday. Per reports, Dugger will receive a base value of $58 million for the contract, and the deal could be worth up to $66 million. It includes $32.5 million in guarantees. Dugger, 28, received the transition tag from the Patriots last month. The tag allowed the Patriots to match any offer from another team. Dugger recorded a career-best 109 tackles to go with two interceptions and 1.5 sacks in 17 games (all starts). He has totaled 343 tackles, nine interceptions and 2.5 sacks in 61 career games (52 starts) since being selected by New England in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft.
College basketball: Tennessee hired Marshall’s Kim Caldwell as its new head coach. Caldwell replaces Kellie Harper, who was fired last week after five seasons, 108 wins and four consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances while coaching at her alma mater. The Vols posted a 20-13 record (10-6 Southeastern Conference) and dropped a 79-72 decision to North Carolina State on March 25 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Caldwell, in her only season at Marshall, guided the Thundering Herd to a school record in wins (26), the Sun Belt title and their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1997.
MLB: Stephen Strasburg announced his retirement from baseball on Sunday after a 13-season career with the Washington Nationals that was marred by devastating injuries. Strasburg, 35, was a three-time All-Star and part of the franchise’s only championship team in 2019. He was named MVP of the World Series after the Nationals beat the Houston Astros in seven games, when he went 2-0 with a 2.51 ERA over 14 1⁄3 innings. After leading the Nationals to the World Series title, Strasburg signed a seven-year, $245 million deal before the next season. However, because of injuries, he made just eight starts and threw 31 1⁄3 innings while going 1-4 with a 6.89 ERA under the new contract. Strasburg, 35, had surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome in 2021, had a stress reaction in his ribs in 2022 and was shut down in spring training of 2023 with what was characterized as severe nerve damage. He last pitched in a game on June 9, 2022 . ... Cleveland Guardians ace
Shane Bieber will undergo Tommy John surgery on his right pitching elbow. Bieber, who won the American League Cy
Young Award in 2020, started the season with a bang, going 2-0. In his two starts, he held the Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners scoreless, giving up 10 hits, walking one and striking out 20 in 12 innings. But the team said that following his first start in Oakland on Opening Day, and then after the game in Seattle on April 2, Bieber felt elbow pain. It’s a recurrence of an issue that popped up in 2023, which was treated both with rest and rehabilitation last season and in the offseason . ... Boston placed shortstop Trevor Story on the 10-day injured list, after the twotime All-Star sustained a dislocated shoulder in Friday night’s game against the Los Angeles Angels. He will be reexamined in Boston on Monday. The 31-year-old infielder left in the fourth inning of Boston’s 8-6 win over host Los Angeles after making a diving stop on Mike Trout’s hard grounder . ... The Pittsburgh Pirates placed lefthander Ryan Borucki on the 15-day injured list on Sunday because of left triceps inflammation. Borucki has four relief appearances this season. The 30-year-old has a
5.40 ERA after allowing four hits, two runs and no walks with six strikeouts in 3 1⁄3 innings.