Sports Digest/TENNIS: Russia's Elena Dementieva gave herself an early birthday present when she rallied after dropping the first set to beat Serena Williams 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 and win her maiden Kremlin Cup title yesterday.
Top seed Nikolay Davydenko prevailed over France's Paul-Henri Mathieu 7-5, 7-6 in the men's final later in the day to retain his Kremlin Cup crown and complete the Russian double at the €1.6 million indoor tournament.
World number four Davydenko, who called for a medical timeout late in the second set to treat his right wrist, needed four match points to finish off the fourth-seeded Frenchman for his third victory in Moscow in the last four years.
Dementieva, who turns 26 today, came out storming after losing the first set, breaking the fourth-seeded American three times in each of the next two sets to claim her first career win over the former world number one in emphatic fashion.
The 14th-ranked Russian had not even won a set off Williams in their four previous meetings.
RALLYING: Frenchman Sebastien Loeb revived his hopes of clinching a fourth world rally title when he won the Tour of Corsica for the third time in succession yesterday. The Citroen driver cut his deficit to Ford's world championship leader Marcus Gronholm of Finland, who finished second, to four points with three races left.
Gronholm now has 104 points and Loeb 100 ahead of the rally of Japan on gravel later this month. Loeb's Spanish team-mate Dani Sordo took third place, 44.3 seconds off the pace.
MOTORCYCLING:World champion Casey Stoner delighted his home fans with a dominant victory in the Australian MotoGP yesterday.
The 21-year-old Australian started third on the grid but he surged into the lead on the first lap and never lost it, easing to his ninth win of the season and becoming the first home winner of the Australian Grand Prix since Mick Doohan in 1998.
Stoner crossed the line in 41 minutes, 12.244 seconds, over six seconds ahead of his Ducati team mate Loris Capirossi with Yamaha's Valentino Rossi in third.
MOTORSPORT: Adam Carroll scored a podium finish on his A1GP debut as Belmayne A1 Team Ireland achieved their best ever Sprint Race result in the Brno, Czech Republic yesterday.
Starting from fourth on the grid the 24-year-old made a storming start and was battling with Team GBR for second position when there was contact between the two cars. Carroll was forced on to the dirt and sustained slight damage to the left sidepod but was able to hold on to third position.
Team Great Britain suffered a mixed bag of results, finishing second in the sprint and suffering a puncture in the feature as Team New Zealand took a dominant brace of wins.
BOXING: Russia's Sultan Ibragimov won a unanimous decision over former undisputed world champion Evander Holyfield to retain his WBO heavyweight title on Saturday.
Holyfield, one week short of his 45th birthday, was bidding to become the oldest world heavyweight champion in boxing history but came up short against his 32-year-old opponent.
Two judges scored the fight 117-111 and one had it 118-110 for the undefeated Russian, who improved his record to 22 wins and one draw, with 17 knockouts.
It was the ninth defeat in 53 fights for the American, who was hoping to win his fifth heavyweight title.
