DelPo robbed of rosary blessed by Pope
Paris: Argentine tennis player Juan Martin del Potro has revealed that he was robbed at a Paris railway station with thieves making off with a cherished rosary blessed by Pope Francis. Del Potro was checking in at Gare de Nord in the French capital when he stopped to sign an autograph. As he placed his bag on the floor, the thieves made off with his possessions, which also included his passport and cash. “I was doing the check-in to ride on the train and then I was asked for an autograph. I turned around to sign it and within 20 seconds (my bag) had been stolen,” Del Potro said through his press service. His rosary “which I take everywhere” was blessed by Pope Francis when del Potro played at the Rome Masters earlier this year. Del Potro, the world number five, was on his way to London to take part in the season-ending World Tour Finals, which start on Monday. (AFP)
Ruthless Errani secures Fed Cup for Italy
CAGLIARI (ITALY): Sara Errani romped to a 6-1, 6-1 win over Alisa Kleybanova here to spur Italy to their third Fed Cup title in five years with a 4-0 win over Russia on Sunday. A second-string Russian side, who had to contest the final without top players Maria Kirilenko, Elena Vesnina and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, were always likely to struggle against a team featuring grand slam doubles champions Errani and Roberta Vinci. Errani, who was also a singles runner-up at the 2012 French Open, showed her class and experience as she won both her singles rubbers with the minimum of fuss and wrapped up the title for Italy with two matches to spare. With Italy already crowned champions, the teams decided to skip the fourth singles rubber before Karin Knapp and Flavia Pennetta completed the whitewash with a 4-6, 6-2, 10-4 (match tiebreak) win over Margarita Gasparyan and Irina Khromacheva. (Reuters)
Halep beats Stosur to win 6th title in 2013
SOFIA: Romanian Simona Halep battled back from a set down to beat former US Open champion Samantha Stosur 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 in a thrilling Tournament of Champions final on Sunday to capture her sixth title of the year. Winning the season-ending WTA event at the Armeets Arena in Sofia helped the 22-year-old Romanian to rise three places in the world rankings to a career-high 11th. After a mediocre start to the year, Halep caught fire in June, winning the titles at Nurnberg, Den Bosch and Budapest, then adding crowns at New Haven and Moscow. The tournament featured six highest-ranked players who have won at least one International Series title during the year and did not qualify for the more lucrative WTA Championships, earlier held in Istanbul. (Reuters)
Shiv Kapur wins Dubai City Challenge
Dubai: Shiv Kapur played an extremely steady and solid final round of two-under 70 without any bogeys to claim the season-ending Dubai Festival City Challenge Tour Grand Final. Kapur celebrated in a winning way with a 16-under 272 and a whopping four-shot margin over the second place duo Jose-Felipe Lima of Portugal (69) and Andrew McLeary of Scotland, both of whom carded 69 each to total 12-under 276. It was not only Kapur’s second Challenge Tour title of the year – he won the season-opener in February in Ahmedabad – but it also helped him find his way back to the European Tour for 2014. Kapur is the first Indian player to win more than once on Challenge Tour. McLeary squeezed in as the 15th player for the European Tour card for 2014. (PTI)
Jeev finishes 39th in Japan
Hokkaido: Jeev Milkha Singh rounded off the Mynavi ABC Championships with his best card of the week, a two-under 69 and finished in tied 39th place here on Sunday. Jeev carded 72, 74, 72 and 69 for a total of three-over 287. This was Jeev’s fifth start on Japan Tour in 2013 and he needs to play at least two more events to keep his status on the Tour. Yuta Ikeda, (67), who led by two shots with two holes to play, bogeyed the last two to fall into a play-off with S K Ho (68). Both Ikeda and Ho were playing together in the final group. In the play-off Ikeda held his nerve and grabbed his first title of the season. Yoshinori Fujimoto was third. (PTI)