Golovin easily defeats Petrova for first title

Tatiana Golovin beat Nadia Petrova 6-2, 6-1 Sunday for her first WTA Tour singles title at the Bausch & Lomb Championships at the Amelia Island (Fla.) Plantation.

Golovin was appearing in her fourth championship but had been runner-up in each of the three previous finals.

Golovin answered nearly all of the top-seeded Petrova’s booming but erratic serves and most of her blistering groundstrokes.

But her best tactic was to wait until the defending champion made one of her 27 unforced errors.

“I forced myself to be aggressive and stay aggressive and use my forehand,” Golovin said.

Women’s Hockey

U.S. in final

Krissy Wendell and Molly Engstrom each had a goal and an assist to help the United States advance to the title game in the women’s world hockey championships with a 4-0 victory over Finland at Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Canada will play Finland tonight, with the Finns needing to win by three goals to advance to the championship game.

Miscellany

Arkansas tries again

John Pelphrey will leave South Alabama to take over the Arkansas basketball program, according to reports by FoxSports.com and CBS Sportsline.com.

•Nate Gallick, a former NCAA champion at Iowa State, edged Mike Zadick in a best-of-three-periods 132 1/4 -pound freestyle match Saturday night at the U.S. National Championships at Las Vegas.

Zadick, 28, was seeking his first national championship and was top-seeded.

He is the reigning U.S. World Team freestyle champion at 132 1/4 pounds. Zadick will try to successfully defend his title in two months at the World Team Trials, also at Las Vegas.

•Glenn Howard led Canada to the curling world championship with an 8-3 win over Germany at Edmonton, Alberta.

Canada took a 4-0 lead in the first end over Andy Kapp’s Germany team and was never threatened.