Bronze medal winner France's Florence Gavellier, right, Netherland's gold medal winner Esther Vergeer, center, and silver medal winner Korie Homan, left, celebrate their win at the women's wheelchair tennis singles award ceremony at the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games in Beijing.
She won 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (5) to extend a streak that has lasted 5 1/2 years."I mean, I am going to lose matches one day," she said.
"But I was just really, really hoping it was not going to be today. I was just this close from losing this match, the most important match of my whole year." Vergeer won double gold medals in Sydney and Athens.
She will go for that again Monday in doubles with partner Jisek Griffioen. They face Americans Beth Arnoult and Kaitlyn Verfuerth in the final.
France's Florence Gravellier won the singles bronze, beating Griffioen 6-3, 6-4.
(Via The Associated Press)
Russia won its fourth Fed Cup in five years Sunday, defeating Spain when Svetlana Kuznetsova beat Anabel Medina Garrigues 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 to clinch the title.
The victory gave Russia an insurmountable 3-0 lead in the top team event in women’s tennis.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” Kuznetsova said. “Even though I wasn’t playing my best game, it’s so important for me to win this point for the team.”
The Russians made it 4-0 when Elena Vesnina and Ekaterina Makarova downed Nuria Llagostera Vives and Carla Suarez Navarro 6-2, 6-1 in doubles.
Kuznetsova used powerful ground strokes to race ahead 4-0 in the first set. Medina Garrigues regrouped to lead 6-5 and served out the set on a clear sunny day at Club de Campo Villa de Madrid’s clay court.
The players traded breaks to reach 3-3 in the second set before Kuznetsova won three straight games to even the match. She then got a late break in the third to secure the victory.
“She’s a player who puts great weight on her deliveries,” Medina Garrigues said. “I gave it my all.”
Kuznetsova was confident her stamina would carry her against an opponent who refused to wilt.“I gave her a chance to get back,” she said. “I started to play a little bit of baseline tennis against her game. I felt so much more energy. knew my fitness was better.”
On Saturday, Vera Zvonareva beat Medina Garrigues, and Kuznetsova defeated Carla Suarez Navarro.
(Via Yahoo! Sports)
Gilles Simon of France won his second straight BCR Open Romania by beating Carlos Moya 6-3, 6-4 on the weekend final.
The second-seeded Simon broke the Spaniard at 3-2 in the first set and saved all six break points he conceded in the match to secure his fifth career title.
The final only lasted about 90 minutes, just half the time it took Simon to defeat eighth-seeded Jose Acasuso of Argentina in Saturday’s semifinal.
Simon beat local favorite Victor Hanescu in last year’s final, and has an 11-1 record in Bucharest.
In the men's doubles final, French duo Nicolas Devilder and Paul-Henri Mathieu won an epic battle against top seeded Poles Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski 7-6(4), 6-7(9) 22-20 in the final of the BCR Open Romania in Bucharest to clinch their first team title.
(Via Yahoo! Sports)
Bronze medal winner France's Florence Gavellier, right, Netherland's gold medal winner Esther Vergeer, center, and silver medal winner Korie Homan, left, celebrate their win at the women's wheelchair tennis singles award ceremony at the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games in Beijing.
