Federer captures first title of season

Sports Digest

April 21, 2008

Top-ranked Roger Federer won his first title of the season at the Estoril Open when second-seeded Nikolay Davydenko retired with a leg injury while trailing 7-6 (5), 1-2 yesterday in Oeiras, Portugal.

It has been eight years since Federer needed five tournaments to get a shot at his first trophy of season.

"It's not the way you want to win a tournament, but that's just the way it goes sometime," Federer said. "It's great to win a title again."

Davydenko, who dropped to 0-12 against Federer, did not reveal the nature his injury. He had received treatment on his left leg before starting the second set.

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"I have a little injury and I can't finish the match," Davydenko told the court-side crowd. "I'm sorry, guys."

On the women's side, Maria Kirilenko defeated Iveta Benesova, 6-4, 6-2, for her third career title.

• More tennis // Serena Williams captured the WTA Family Circle Cup title in Charleston, S.C., defeating Vera Zvonareva, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, for her first clay-court title since the 2002 French Open. Williams' third title of the year was expected to lift her to No. 6 in the rankings. ... In Houston, seventh-seeded Marcel Granollers-Pujol upset top-seeded James Blake, 6-4, 1-6, 7-5, in the ATP U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship for his first tour title. ... Top-seeded David Ferrer rallied to win the ATP Valencia Open in Spain, beating two-time defending champion Nicolas Almagro, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (2).

• Olympics // The 12-team women's soccer draw for the Beijing Games was announced, and the United States is in Group G with Norway, Japan and New Zealand. In the 16-team men's tournament, the U.S. men are in Group B with the Netherlands, Nigeria and Japan. Both tournaments open before the official start of the Aug. 8-24 Olympics. The women begin play Aug. 6, one day before the men.

• More Olympics // Deena Kastor won the U.S. Olympic marathon trials in Boston, earning a berth for the Beijing Games after erasing a gap of almost two minutes to pass runaway leader Magdalena Lewy Boulet in the last three miles. Kastor, a bronze medalist at the 2004 Athens Games, had an unofficial time of 2 hours, 29 minutes, 35 seconds on the day before the Boston Marathon. She was joined on the U.S. women's marathon team by Lewy Boulet and Blake Russell.

• Basketball // Sylvia Fowles scored 25 points with 18 rebounds and six blocked shots to help the U.S. women bounce back from a loss and earn a 92-60 victory over Cuba in the Good Luck Beijing Tournament. Crystal Langhorne (Maryland) scored 10 points.

• Mixed martial arts // Georges St. Pierre (16-2) reclaimed his welterweight title at UFC 83 on Saturday night in Montreal, dominating Matt Serra (16-5) in a fight that was stopped at 4:45 of the second round.