Hamburg, Germany – Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal rallied to win their semifinals Saturday and set up a showdown between the top-ranked players for the Hamburg Masters championship.
Nadal defeated Lleyton Hewitt 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 to extend his clay-court winning streak to 81 matches, and Federer beat Carlos Moya 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Federer has gone four straight tournaments without a title, his worst run since he became No. 1 in February 2004. The Swiss star has won three Hamburg championships in his past four visits to the tuneup for the French Open. He takes a 16-match winning streak in Hamburg into today’s final, his fourth this season.
Nadal, No. 2 in the world, has a 7-3 career record against Federer, including 5-0 on clay.
WNBA
Shock begins title defense with win
Plenette Pierson scored 14 points in 14 minutes of the first half as the defending WNBA champion Detroit Shock picked up where it left off with a season-opening 75-68 win over the visiting Sacramento Monarchs.
Pierson finished with 20 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals after a pregame ring ceremony and banner-raising before 13,689 at The Palace.
Deanna Nolan, last year’s Finals MVP, and backcourt partner Katie Smith each had 12 points, and forwards Swin Cash and Cheryl Ford added 10 apiece to help celebrate coach Bill Laimbeer’s 50th birthday.
Diana Taurasi scored 20 points and Tangela Smith added 17 to help the host Phoenix Mercury defeat San Antonio 81-72.
Former Colorado State star Becky Hammon scored 13 points in her Silver Stars debut.
Tan White scored 17 points and Tamika Whitmore added 16 to lead the host Indiana Fever to an 83-64 victory over the Minnesota Lynx.
Nykesha Sales had 20 points and the Connecticut Sun opened the season with a road win for the first time in franchise history, an 89-80 victory over the Washington Mystics.
Iziane Castro Marques scored 25 points and Betty Lennox had 13 second-half points that keyed the Seattle Storm’s rally from 22 points down in an 82-69 win over the visiting Houston Comets.
TENNIS
Kuznetsova, Jankovic in Italian final
Svetlana Kuznetsova and Jelena Jankovic will play for the Italian Open title in Rome, and apart from Justine Henin, nobody on the tour is playing as sharply as those two.
Kuznetsova, seeded second, beat Daniela Hantuchova 6-4, 6-2, and Jankovic, seeded third, routed Patty Schnyder 6-1, 6-3 in the other semifinal.
Kuznetsova is ranked a career-high No. 3 this week. Jankovic is also at a career high in the rankings – No. 5 – and has not dropped a set this week.
SAILING
Luna Rossa leading U.S. challenger
Luna Rossa of Italy beat BMW Oracle Racing of the United States to move within one victory of the Louis Vuitton Cup finals.
Luna Rossa won by 1 minute, 57 seconds and has a 4-1 lead in the best-of-nine semifinals in Valencia, Spain. Emirates Team New Zealand also moved in front 4-1 against Desafio Espanol, crossing the finish 1:49 ahead of the Spanish boat.
BMW Oracle Racing entered the America’s Cup challengers series as one of the favorites to meet defending champion Alinghi in the June 23-July 4 final, but instead found itself having to come from behind against the Italians before crossing the start line.
FOOTNOTES
Chelsea captures FA Cup
Didier Drogba scored during extra time to give Chelsea a 1-0 victory over Manchester United in the first FA Cup final at rebuilt Wembley Stadium.
The teams had played to a scoreless tie in regulation and were four minutes from a penalty-kick shootout before Drogba exchanged passes with Frank Lampard on the edge of the area and shot past goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar.
Former University of Colorado runner Dathan Ritzenhein won the Healthy Kidney 10K in New York, overcoming foot injuries to capture the race in Central Park in a course-record 28:25.0.
Alessandro Petacchi won the flat seventh stage of the Giro d’Italia in a sprint finish in Scarperia, Italy, and Marco Pinotti kept the overall lead.
Jermain Taylor outpointed Cory Spinks in a split decision in Memphis, Tenn., for his fourth straight defense of his middleweight championship.
