AUCKLAND, New Zealand — The wait is over. New Zealand is back on top at the Rugby World Cup.
The All Blacks survived the last in a string of injuries and beat France 8-7 in a gripping final Sunday to become the third two-time champion.
Despite being the perennial favorite, New Zealand hadn’t won the World Cup since hosting and winning the inaugural tournament in 1987. Two of its biggest losses in knockout matches in the intervening 24 years were to France.
This time, the All Blacks held on.
“It’s something we’ve dreamed of for a while,” New Zealand coach Graham Henry said. Now, “we can rest in peace.”
The French had been written off after an inconsistent tournament but produced one of their finest World Cup performances.
Monfils wins in Sweden
STOCKHOLM — Top-seeded Gael Monfils beat Jarkko Nieminen 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 in the Stockholm Open final for his first title of the year.
It was the 10th-ranked Monfils’ fourth career ATP Tour crown. The 25-year-old Frenchman had been hampered by a knee injury.
• Top-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus won the Luxembourg Open, beating unheralded Monica Niculescu of Romania 6-2, 6-2.
The No. 3-ranked Azarenka didn’t lose a set all week and had no problems against a player who was in her first WTA Tour final.
• Top-seeded Janko Tipsarevic beat defending champion Viktor Troicki 6-4, 6-2 in the first all-Serb ATP final to win the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, and Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia won her first career WTA title, rallying to beat Kaia Kanepi of Estonia 3-6, 7-6 (1), 7-5 for the women’s crown.
• Top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki and three-time major winner Maria Sharapova lead two round-robin groups for the WTA Championships this week in Istanbul.
Footnotes.
American short-track speedskater Katherine Reutter won her second 1,500 meters World Cup gold in two days at the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns, while J.R. Celski earned bronze in the men’s 1,500 behind South Koreans Noh Jinkyu and Kwak Yoon-gy.
• With a revamped team filled with rookies at the Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, the United States beat Canada 11-1 in four innings to win the country’s sixth straight softball gold.
• The Phoenix Coyotes traded center Petteri Nokelainen and minor-league defenseman Garrett Stafford to the Montreal Canadiens for former University of Denver center Brock Trotter and a seventh-round pick in next year’s draft.
• Ted Turner, Dennis Conner and several other America’s Cup greats were among 15 members of the first class inducted into the National Sailing Hall of Fame in San Diego.
• Adam Moffat scored from 38 yards in the first half, and the host Houston Dynamo beat the Los Angeles Galaxy 3-1 to secure a spot in the MLS Eastern Conference semifinals. The Associated Press
