Sun, Jul 05, 2009
Venus Williams won in straight sets over Italy's Flavia Pennetta, with a first-set tiebreak, to win the Zurich Open for the second time in her career. She also won as a teenager in 1999.
ALESSANDRO DELLA BELLA / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Sports

SPORTS SHORTS

Venus captures second title of year, readies for tour final

the associated press
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 10.20.2008
ZURICH, Switzerland — Venus Williams won the Zurich Open on Sunday for her second singles title of the season.
Williams beat Italy's Flavia Pennetta 7-6 (1), 6-2 to take the tournament she last won as a teenager in 1999.
The win should seal the 28-year-old American's place at the season-ending WTA Tour Championship in Doha next month. She also won at Wimbledon this year.
No. 17 ranked Pennetta had upset top-ranked Jelena Jankovic in the second round and went in with a 3-1 career record against Williams after beating her in Moscow last week.
The first set stayed on serve, with neither player allowing a break point opportunity.
Williams dominated the tiebreaker, racing to a 6-0 lead. Pennetta saved one set point but then netted a backhand.
Williams created her first break chance at 1-1 in the second set, and Pennetta netted another two-fisted backhand.
In the next game, Williams delivered four straight aces.
● Fourth-ranked Andy Murray beat Gilles Simon of France 6-4, 7-6 (6) Sunday to win the Madrid Masters. He became the first Briton to win four titles in a season. He will be the first Briton in the Open era and the first since Fred Perry in 1936 to finish the year at No. 4.
ua sports
4 Cats fall in tennis
UA men's tennis players lost four of four matches Sunday in trying to reach the quarterfinals of the ITA West Regional in Malibu, Calif. Jay Goldman, Pat Metham, Andres Carrasco and Andres Arango all were on the losing end.
● UA's women golfers finished seventh Sunday at the Stanford Intercollegiate with a 14-over 866 score. First-place UCLA was 8 under. Leading the Cats was Margarita Ramos, who carded a final-round 71 to finish 2 over at 215 and tie for 14th place.
horse racing
2 scratched from BC
ARCADIA, Calif. — Red Giant and Tropic Storm were declared out of their respective Breeders' Cup races Sunday.
Red Giant, trained by UA grad Todd Pletcher, was one of the favorites in the $2 million Turf next weekend at Santa Anita. He didn't finish his feed from the previous night and had a high temperature Sunday.
At Hollywood Park, trainer Craig Dollase said Tropic Storm was out because of a soft-tissue injury.
miscellaneous
Ohno takes third
● American Apolo Anton Ohno finished third in the men's 1,500-meter final at the short-track speedskating World Cup on Sunday behind first-place Lee Jung-su, who finished in 2 minutes 17.941 seconds, and another South Korean, Lee Ho-suk.
● Nick Weatherspoon, a former University of Illinois basketball star who played seven seasons in the NBA, died Friday in Canton, Ohio. He was 58.
Includes material from news releases