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| June 13, 2005 | Monday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 5, 1426 |
Federer beats Safin in final
HALLE (Germany), June 12: World number one Roger Federer beat Australian Open champion Marat Safin 6-4 6-7 6-4 to win his third consecutive Halle Open title on Sunday. Top seed Federer, who is also going for a third successive Wimbledon title later this month, produced another masterly performance on grass, his finesse and consistency proving too much for the powerful but erratic Russian.
Federer extended his three-year winning streak on grass to 29 matches but is still well short of Bjorn Borg’s record of 41 over five years in from 1976 to 1980.
Second seed Safin had beaten the Swiss in their last meeting, saving a match point in a five-set thriller in this year’s Australian Open semifinals. They had never previously met on grass.
RODDICK LIFTS TROPHY
LONDON: Andy Roddick joined elite company as he won a third consecutive title at Queen’s club with a 7-6 (9/7), 7-6 (7/4) victory over Croatian Ivo Karlovic on Sunday.
Roddick, 31-7 this season, claimed a 15th straight match on grass in west London as he took victory in a struggle of serve in one hour 20 minutes.
The American joins Lleyton Hewitt (2000-2002) and John McEnroe (1978-81) in earning three straight at the prime Wimbledon tune-up event.
The pair of big-hitters fired down a total of 26 aces with the only break point chances three saved by Karlovic, ranked 77th.
Karlovic came into the contest without having dropped a set and having notched 80 aces. He added 16 on a grey Sunday afternoon.
The final was the first in the career for the 26-year-old Karlovic, whose main claim to fame was a first-round upset of holder Hewitt at Wimbledon, 2003.
Roddick led handily in both tie-breakers before Karlovic charged back making the American work hard for his win. Roddick will prepare for the June 20 start of Wimbledon with private training in London.
SHARAPOVA TRIUMPHS
BIRMINGHAM: Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova retained her Birmingham grasscourt title with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 win over Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic on Sunday.
It was a timely boost for the 18-year-old Russian with her win coming just a week before the start of her title defence at the All England Club.
Sunday’s win was her 17th in a row on grass and her 10th career title.
Sharapova’s latest Birmingham triumph was her 10th WTA Tour title in two years and her third of 2005, with the promise of many more to come.
She took her prize money for the year through the one million dollar barrier and provided some loose change ahead of this week’s planned shopping spree in London.
For the second successive match, however, the world number two watched her opponent tail away after being afflicted by injury.
Tatania Golovin was hampered by a foot injury in her semi-final on Saturday and the 20-year-old Jankovic needed a medical time-out to have treatment on her right thigh at the end of the second set.
And, like Golovin, Jankovic won just one game on the resumption as Sharapova breezed through the second set in just 25 minutes.
Both players struggled at times in the cold and windy conditions and, although Sharapova always looked capable of pulling out the big shot to avert a crisis, she appeared to lose concentration in the second set.
Jankovic dropped just six points on her serve in the second set to level the match but faded badly when she began to feel the effects of her thigh strain and succumbed to the Wimbledon champion for the third time in as many meetings.
Sharapova is almost over the cold that affected her performances in the previous two days but found it difficult to cope with the sudden drop in temperature and is still troubled slightly by a thigh strain.—Agencies
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