U.S. tops Belgium in Fed Cup match
Lindsay Davenport and Venus Williams won in singles and the United States claimed the doubles match to sweep Belgium on Sunday in Delray Beach, Fla., and advance to the semifinals of the Fed Cup.
Top-ranked Davenport defeated Els Callens 6-4, 6-0 to put the U.S. team ahead 3-0 in the best-of-5 quarterfinal.
Williams followed by beating Leslie Butkiewicz, 6-1, 6-4, in the second match on Sunday, and Davenport and partner, Corina Morariu, posted a 6-1, 6-2 win over Kirsten Flipkens and Eveline Vanhyfte to complete the sweep.
The Americans advanced to the semifinals July 9-10 at defending champion Russia, a 4-1 winner at Italy. France will face Spain in the other semifinal. The French beat Austria 4-1 and Spain eliminated Argentina 3-2 in the other quarterfinals.
“I didn’t feel I played that great in the first set,” said Davenport, who has a 25-2 Fed Cup singles record. “I made some sloppy errors, but I got better in the second set. What I wanted to do was go out there and seal it up 3-0 and get the tie over with.”
ATP
Top-seeded Andy Roddick easily handled weak-serving Sebastien Grosjean, taking a quick 6-2, 6-2 victory in Houston for his 17th career title and third U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship in five years.
Roddick, playing his first tournament since a wrist injury forced him out of the ATP tournament at Key Biscayne three weeks ago, needed just 70 minutes to complete a run through the tournament field without losing a set.
It was Roddick’s fifth straight appearance in the clay court final, the longest streak on the ATP tour since Russia’s Yevgeny Kafelnikov reached the title match at Moscow from 1996-01, winning the last five.
Grosjean, who upset second-seeded Andre Agassi en route to the finals, struggled with his serve from the start. He had to overcome triple break point in the opening game before holding serve. Then, he won only 16 points the rest of the set.
•Rafael Nadal beat Spanish countryman Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-1, 7-6 (4), 6-3 to win the Open Seat Godo in Barcelona, Spain, for his second clay-court title in two weeks.