Lindsay Davenport won the first set in 19 minutes and routed Nadia Petrova, 6-0, 6-3, yesterday to reach the final of the Bausch & Lomb Championships in Amelia Island, Fla.
The top-ranked Davenport will play for the title today against Silvia Farina Elia, a 6-1, 6-3 winner over Virginie Razzano in yesterday's other semifinal.
Davenport played nearly flawless tennis in running off six consecutive games in the first set. Petrova held serve three straight times in the second set, but Davenport broke the 12th-ranked Russian in the seventh and ninth games. In the second set, Davenport won 11 of the last 12 points.
"I wanted to start this match in better fashion than I did yesterday," said Davenport, referring to her 6-1 first-set loss to Venus Williams on Friday.
Petrova had to play two long matches on Friday because rain forced the postponement of most of Thursday's matches.
"That took quite a bit out of me," said Petrova, who has lost all six of her matches with Davenport. "It was just difficult to hang in there against Lindsay."
• STEEPLECHASE: Hedgehunter won the $1.32 million Grand National race by 14 lengths in Liverpool, England, making up for last year's fall while leading at the final jump.
The 7-1 favorite, ridden by Ruby Walsh, capitalized on a blunder by leader Clan Royal at Becher's Brook to charge ahead of the field and win the 4 1/2-mile race, the most famous in jumping.
Carrie Ford, trying to become the first female jockey to win the race in its 166-year history, was fifth on Forest Gunner. The result matched the best finish by a female rider -- 51-year-old Rosemary Henderson on her own horse, Fiddlers Pike, in 1994.
• COURTS: Police arrested 46 soccer fans in Neu-Ulm, Germany, after a regional league match in the latest blow to the country 14 months before it hosts the World Cup.
The fans of SSV Ulm of Germany and visiting FC Normannia Gmuend of Switzerland clashed with police Friday after they refused to pay their bill at a shop. Police used pepper spray and batons after getting attacked when they tried to subdue one member of the group.
• COLLEGE BASKETBALL: Utah's Andrew Bogut and LSU's Seimone Augustus were runaway winners of the John R. Wooden awards, presented to the players of the year. . . .
Steve Cleveland was hired as Fresno State's men's coach, and the former Brigham Young coach pledged to restore integrity to a program rocked by years of scandals.
• LOCALLY: "Mornings With Shirley Povich: A Century of Writing," a 90-minute documentary about the former Washington Post sports columnist, will be shown at 7:30 on Monday night on ESPN. The film was produced by Povich's son, Maury Povich.
• SWIMMING: Michael Raab of Rockville qualified for the U.S. team that will compete at the world championships this summer in Montreal. Raab, who attended Walter Johnson High School and is a student at the University of Virginia, earned a berth in the worlds by finishing second in the 200-meter butterfly at last week's U.S. trials in Indianapolis.
-- From News Services
and Staff Reports
