James Blake withdrew Monday from the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships, citing a sore right knee that had been bothering him the past couple of weeks. Blake had been seeded second in the tournament but withdrew from Memphis for a second straight year because he said he felt he wouldn’t be able to play a competitive match.
Fourth-seeded Fabrice Santoro of France quit his first-round match because of an injured right shoulder while trailing Olivier Rochus of Belgium 6-3, 2-0 Monday at the Zagreb Indoors. Eighth-seeded Janko Tipsarevic of Croatia made 11 aces in beating Mischa Zverev of Germany 6-3, 6-1. Austria’s Stefan Koubek saved two match points to overcome wild card Franko Skugor 2-6, 7-6 (2), 6-0.
Eighth-seeded Elena Dementieva beat Patty Schnyder 7-5, 6-0 Monday to advance to the second round of the Dubai Championships. Dementieva saved two set points in the first set and then breezed through the second after Schnyder had to take a medical timeout with a pulled right hamstring. “I knew it would be a tough opening match against Patty, and that’s how it turned out,” Dementieva said.
The United States will host France on indoor hard courts in Winston-Salem, N.C., in the Davis Cup quarterfinals. The defending champions will play the French team April 11-13 at the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the International Tennis Federation said Monday. The last time the teams played, France beat the U.S.
Andy Roddick arrived at the SAP Open this week not knowing where his game was because he had played so sparingly this season. He left San Jose with this third title at this event and confidence that he can get on a roll following a 6-4, 7-5 victory in the tournament final Sunday. “You want to build on this and use it,” Roddick said.
Maria Sharapova defeated Vera Zvonareva 6-1, 2-6, 6-0 Sunday in the Qatar Open final, remaining unbeaten this season and earning her 18th career title. The Australian Open champion is 14-0, including two wins in the Fed Cup for Russia this year. Sharapova is 9-0 in Doha, where she won in 2005. “I played five matches in five days and that is not an easy thing to do,” Sharapova said.
David Nalbandian earned his eighth career title, rallying to defeat Jose Acasuso 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 Sunday at the Copa Telmex final. “I’m very happy to win at home,” said the 11th-ranked Nalbandian. “It’s beautiful to pull off something I could never do before here.” Former Argentina soccer captain Diego Maradona was in the crowd at the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club.
Not too many top tennis players go unnoticed as youngsters. Roger Federer was the best junior in the world in his day. Andre Agassi was so much better than his peers that he moved into the pros at age 16. Pete Sampras’s talent, while ultimately underestimated, was seen as considerable. In women’s tennis, talent becomes noticeable at even earlier ages — many top women win major titles before they …
The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.) Danica Patrick doesn’t want to become the “Anna Kournikova of racing.”
A mid-afternoon torrent flooded the courts at Mar-a-Lago on Sunday and interrupted round-robin play during the 11th Annual Donald J. Trump Pro/Am Tennis Invitational.
