Sampras wins 60th title of career

MASON, AUG 16: Pete Sampras avenged last year's loss to Patrick Rafter in the ATP Championship, beating the Australian 7-6 (9-7), 6-3 las...

MASON, AUG 16: Pete Sampras avenged last year’s loss to Patrick Rafter in the ATP Championship, beating the Australian 7-6 (9-7), 6-3 last night for his 60th tournament title.

Sampras has won 22 consecutive matches and four tournaments, including the Queen’s Cup, Wimbledon and Los Angeles, in the second longest streak of his career. He won 29 in a row in 1994.

Sampras is 9-4 against Rafter, but Rafter had beaten Sampras three straight times, including here and at the US Open last year.

Only five players in the Open era have more victories than Sampras — Jimmy Connors (109), Ivan Lendl (94), John McEnroe (77) and Bjorn Borg and Guillermo Vilas (62).

Winning the ATP Championship assured that Sampras will continue as the No 1 player in ATP Tour points. It will be his record 273rd week at No 1.

Williams triumphs

MANHATTAN BEACH: American Serena Williams overcame France’s Julie Halard-Decugis with power and pinpoint shots to win the Acura Classic 6-1, 6-4 last evening.

Williams will move up to No 9 in the WTA Tour rankings today, her second time in the world’s top 10 this year. Her older sister, Venus, is already there.

Story continues below this ad

Playing her first singles tournament in two months and only her ninth of the year, the sixth-seeded Williams upset top-ranked Martina Hingis in the semi-finals with her impressive power game.

Blanco wins

SAN MARINO: Galo Blanco rallied to defeat fellow-Spaniard Albert Portas 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 yesterday in the final of the $ 300,000 San Marino Tournament.

Blanco earned $ 39,000 for his first ATP Tour title.

The clay-court event was the 42nd time since the ATP tour started in 1990 that two Spaniards battled in the title match, and the third time this year, following Casablanca, Morocco, where Alberto Martin defeated Fernando Vicente, and Kitzbuhel, Austria, where Albert Costa beat Vicente.

It was the second all-Spanish final in the 12-year history of the San Marino tournament. In 1996, Costa defeated Felix Mantilla.