Venus Williams dashed Martina Hingis' hopes of capturing her first title on home soil, by defeating the Swiss number one seed, 6-3, 6-4, in the final of the Swiss Challenge yesterday.
The second-seeded American needed an hour and 27 minutes to secure her second successive victory over Hingis, following her win in the semi-finals of the Grand Slam Cup earlier this month. This was Williams's first straight sets win in their 13 meetings. Hingis made the brighter start, taking an early 2-0 lead. She then lost her own delivery three times to concede the first set and probably realised it wasn't going to be her day, when Williams saved three break points with aces en route to a 4-2 second set lead.
The American double-faulted twice when serving for the match at 5-3, before breaking Hingis to wrap up the match. Meanwhile in Vienna, Greg Rusedski fought back from two sets down to beat Germany's Nicolas Kiefer in the final of the ATP CA Tournament in Vienna yesterday.
Rusedski, seeded fifth in the Austrian capital, won 6-7 (5-7) 2-6 6-3 75 6-4 against the number seven seed to claim his second title of the season following victory in the Grand Slam Cup in Munich.
Cycling: Ciaran Power's good form continued in the Herald Sun Tour in Australia yesterday and he is up to fifth place overall. Power was third of a four-man breakaway group on stage six on 141 kilometres at Ballaret, beaten in the sprint to the line by Robbie McEwen and Eric Wohlberg but Michael Blaudzun, who was fourth, is the new overall leader with Power 55 seconds adrift. Morgan Fox was next best of the Irish, in fifth place, and he is 20th overall.
Skiing: The 8th Irish Open Ski Championships at Kilternan which traditionally brings to a close the season on artificial slopes was fittingly fought out by its top two skiers, Conor Columb, the holder and British Champion, and Ciaran Lee.
Columb finished on a high note posting an aggregate time of 27.14, nearly half a second fast ahead of Lee.
The ladies race was taken by 17-year-old, Tamsen Mc Garry, who finished ahead European Champion Kelly Morris and Ski Club-mate, Sara Farivarz.
DETAILS: Male Overall - 1.C Columb (SCI) 27.14(Sec), 2. Ciaran Lee (SCI) 27.61, 3. H Edwards (Telford) 27.99. Senior: 1. C Columb, 2. J Hopper (SCI) 28.45, 3. M Shepperd (Aberdeen) 28.52. Junior 2: 1. C Lee, 2. A Pickles (LIO) 30.0, 3. A McCleave (SCI) 30.67. Female - Overall. 1. T Mc Garry (SCI) 29.53, 2. K Morris (Lyons) 29.84, 3. S Farivarz (SCI) 31.51. Senior 1: K Morris, 2. F Hicks (SCI) 31.93. Junior 2: 1. T McGarry,2. T.Archibold (Telford) 32.85, J Eaton (arrows) 45.60. Team Slalom: 1.Ireland (C Lee, J Cassidy, S Farivarz, T Mc Garry, C Columb, L Kennan) 2. England, 3. Scotland.
