Malisse’s strings help Hass win in Delray
With the help of some broken racket strings, Tommy Haas beat defending champion Xavier Malisse 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (5) on Sunday to win the International Tennis Championships in Delray Beach, Fla.
Malisse’s racket strings popped on a return at 6-5 in the third-set tiebreaker, sending the ball long and giving the fourth-seeded Haas his first title since 2004.
The 27-year-old Haas now has eight career titles. This was his first since capturing the trophies at the 2004 Houston and Los Angeles tournaments.
“It’s been a while,” said Haas, who is ranked 30th.
Top-seeded Ivan Ljubicic defeated Austrian qualifier Stefan Koubek 6-3, 6-4 to win his second title of the year at the Zagreb Indoors in Zagreb, Croatia.
The No. 5-ranked Ljubicic improved to 14-1 this season, winning his fifth career title.
Football
Superdome date set
The New Orleans Saints, driven from their home by Hurricane Katrina last August, will return to the Superdome on Sept. 24 to play the Atlanta Falcons.
The game will be the third of the season for the Saints, who played their “home” opener last season at the home of their opponent, the New York Giants. The rest of the team’s home schedule was played in San Antonio and Baton Rouge, La.
The Oakland Raiders plan to interview Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt in the coming days for their coaching vacancy.
Miscellany
Kostelic wins slalom
Fighting the flu, Croatian skier Janica Kostelic won the final World Cup slalom before the Turin Games in Ofterschwang, Germany, and became the second woman to win five different disciplines in a season.
Kostelic finished in 1 minute, 42.22 seconds for her 26th World Cup victory.
The U.S. contingent didn’t come close, with Lindsey Kildow was 11th and Resi Stiegler 13th in an event that is one of the American team’s weakest disciplines this year.
Dmitri Dashinski of Belarus earned his third victory of the season in a World Cup ski aerials competition in Spindleruv Myln, Czech Republic.
Dashinski earned 251.77 points in the two-round race.
In the women’s race, Nina Li of China claimed her third season win with 199.33 points.
Janne Ahohen led Finland to victory in a World Cup team ski jumping event in Willingen, Germany.
Jens Arne Svartedal of Norway won a men’s World Cup 15-kilometer cross country classic in Davos, Switzerland.
Virpi Kuitunen of Finland easily won the women’s 10-kilometer classic.
The Marshall Islands, a former U.S. territory and nuclear testing site in the Pacific, is in line to become the latest member of the Olympic club.
The IOC executive board proposed recognition of the islands’ national Olympic committee. The move goes to the full International Olympic Committee in the next few days.
The Marshall Islands, a series of atolls and reefs with a population of around 60,000, will become the 203rd country or territory with Olympic status.