Federer victorious in front of home crowd
Roger Federer beat Fernando Gonzalez 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (3) Sunday to win his fourth straight title and 11th of the year at the Swiss Indoors in Basel, Switzerland.
The top-ranked Federer hit a forehand return for a winner on the first point of the third-set tiebreaker and cruised from there to win his hometown tournament for the first time in seven attempts.
•Maria Sharapova won her fifth title of the season in Linz, Austria, beating defending champion Nadia Petrova 7-5, 6-2 in the Generali Ladies final and advancing to No. 2 in the rankings.
The top-seeded Russian overtook Justine Henin-Hardenne in the rankings and now trails only Amelie Mauresmo. Sharapova needs to win the season-ending WTA Championship in Madrid, Spain, to finish on top.
•Richard Gasquet won his third title of the season, beating Marc Gicquel 6-3, 6-1 in an all-French final at the Lyon Grand Prix in Lyon, France.
Distance running
Boise woman wins race
A woman from Boise, Idaho, won the female divison of the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C., a race that was marred by the death of one man and the heart attack of another.
An unidentified man collapsed more than halfway through the race and died. Another runner had a heart attack near the starting line.
The race featured 32,118 runners and was won by Ruben Garcia, a corporal in the Mexican Navy, and Laura Thompson, of Boise, Idaho. Thompson was timed in 3:00:10.
•Wilfred Kigen of Kenya won his second straight Frankfurt Marathon, finishing in 2 hours, 9 minutes, 6 seconds at Frankfurt, Germany.
Svetlana Ponomarenko of Russia won the woman’s race in 2:30:05.
•Kenya’s Josephat Ongeri won the Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Bank Marathon in Detroit, finishing in 2 hours, 18 minutes, 22 seconds.
Russian Elena Orlova took the women’s race, finishing in 2:41:26.
Miscellany
U.S. to host qualifying
FIBA Americas announced that next summer’s qualifying tournament for the 2008 Olympics will be staged in Las Vegas, where the American team holds training camp.
Las Vegas edged San Juan, Puerto Rico, for the right to host the FIBA Americas tournament, which will run from Aug. 22-Sept. 2.
•Tennessee quarterback Erik Ainge injured his right ankle in the Volunteers’ win over South Carolina, but he “should be ready to go” this week against No. 13 LSU, coach Phillip Fulmer said.
•Doug Kent rolled nine straight strikes in the final game for a 277 to win the U.S. Bowling Congress Masters tournament in West Allis, Wis.
•Francois-Louis Tremblay won his second straight 500 meters, and his Canadian team captured the 5,000-meter relay in World Cup short-track speedskating in Jeonju, South Korea.
•A player for a championship junior college basketball team was shot in the head and chest after police say he confronted a man who was touching females inappropriately at a Halloween party in Fort Smith, Ark.
Terrist Parramore was in critical condition at Sparks Hospital, police Sgt. Jarrard Copeland said.