Rajeev Ram, a lucky loser from qualifying, made the most of his second chance by winning the ATP Hall of Fame Championship on Sunday, rallying to beat third seed Sam Querrey 6-7 (3), 7-5, 6-3 for his first ATP title.
The 25-year old Ram, a lucky loser after top-seeded Mardy Fish withdrew on Monday to replace Andy Roddick on the US Davis Cup team, won the first all-US final on Newport’s grass courts in seven years.
It was the first ATP final for Ram, the 181st ranked player entering the week, and the lowest ranked to win an event this year.
PHOTO: AP
“These days don’t come around very often unless you’re [Roger] Federer or [Rafael] Nadal. There’s definitely pressure,” Ram said. “I tried to play tennis instead of thinking about what the moment was.”
“Winning tournaments is not normal on the tour for 99 percent of us,” he said.
After losing the first set in a tiebreaker, Ram decided to change his approach against the hard-serving Querrey late in the second set. With Querrey struggling on his first serves, Ram attacked the net against the second.
At 30-40 in the 12th game of the second set, Ram broke and sent the match to third set with a lunging backhand from close.
In the final set, Ram broke in the eighth game, winning with a well-placed forehand cross to go up 5-3. He raised both arms into the air after Querrey hit a forehand long on the match’s final point.
■HOME GIRL WINS TITLE
AFP, BUDAPEST
Hungary’s Agnes Szavay brought joy for the home fans as she claimed victory at the Budapest WTA event on Sunday, beating Switzerland’s top seed Patty Schnyder 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, in a final that lasted almost two hours.
Still, it was Schnyder who carried the first set on Sunday, taking the lead while fourth-seeded 21-year-old Szavay struggled with her serve. The Hungarian then fought back in the second set, winning it 6-4 and giving hope again to the home crowd.
Leading 5-1 in the third set, Szavay missed two match points before claiming the victory.
The qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to be held at the Taipei Dome between Feb. 21 and 25, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced today. Taiwan’s group also includes Spain, Nicaragua and South Africa, with two of the four teams advancing onto the 2026 WBC. Taiwan, currently ranked second in the world in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, are favorites to come out of the group, the MLB said in an article announcing the matchups. Last year, Taiwan finished in a five-way tie in their group with two wins and two losses, but finished last on tiebreakers after giving
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
Taiwan suffered its first defeat of the 2024 World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Premier12, losing to defending champion Japan 3-1 at the Taipei Dome last night. Japan’s victory put Taiwan’s score at two wins and one loss in WBSC Premier12 championship Group B play. In the top of the first inning, a sacrifice fly from Japanese batter Shota Morishita allowed Masayuki Kuwahara to score a run on Taiwan’s starter Chen Po-ching (陳柏清). Taiwan’s attempt to catch up in the bottom of the first ended to no avail and an uneventful second inning saw the score
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
RSS