U.S. softball advances to World Cup title game

Crystl Bustos and Natasha Watley hit two-run home runs and Jennie Finch threw a three-hitter as the United States advanced to the championship game of the World Cup of Softball with a 7-0 win against Canada on Sunday in Oklahoma City.

Finch (1-0) struck out eight in six innings, her longest outing of the year. She hasn’t given up a run in her last 19 1/3 innings.

The U.S. (5-0) was the only team to make it through round-robin play undefeated and has now won 21 consecutive games.

Japan (4-1) defeated China 3-1 to advance to the championship against the U.S. Japan beat the U.S. in the 2005 World Cup final, and the Americans won the rematch in last year’s championship game.

Basketball

Mourning to return

Alonzo Mourning is coming back, one more time.

Ending nearly three months of suspense about his future, the Miami Heat center said Sunday night at his annual Zo’s Summer Groove charity game that he’ll play again next season – a choice he kept secret to the end, insisting he was still deciding just hours before the actual announcement.

“I will be coming back,” Mourning said.

•The NBA players association is considering an appeal of the seven-game suspensions given to Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson for legal issues.

Both players were suspended by the league Saturday without pay and are scheduled to miss the first seven games of next season.

Artest pleaded no contest in May to a misdemeanor domestic violence charge stemming from a March 5 dispute with his wife. Jackson pleaded guilty last month to a felony count of criminal recklessness for firing a gun outside an Indiana strip club last fall.

Tennis

U.S. eliminated

Russia eliminated the United States in the Fed Cup semifinals, overcoming Venus Williams’ singles victory and advancing with a win in the decisive doubles match at Stowe, Vt.

Williams beat Anna Chakvetadze, 6-1, 6-4 in the first match of the day.

Nadia Petrova and Elena Vesnina topped Williams and Lisa Raymond 7-5, 7-6 (1) to win the series for Russia 3-2.

•David Ferrer of Spain beat countryman Nicolas Almagro 6-1, 6-2 to win the Swedish Open at Bastad, Sweden, for his fourth ATP title.

The second-seeded Ferrer broke Almagro in the opening game of the match and took a 5-1 lead after another break. In the second set, Ferrer twice broke the unseeded Almagro.

•Fifth-seeded Paul-Henri Mathieu became the second Frenchman to win the Swiss Open title by defeating Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-7 (1), 6-4, 7-5 in Gstaad, Switzerland.

•Fourth-seeded Fabrice Santoro rode his two-handed style to the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships’ title at Newport, R.I., beating fifth-seeded Nicolas Mahut, 6-4, 6-4, in the first all-French final in the tournament’s 31-year history.

Miscellany

Gatti retires

Arturo Gatti decided his most recent beating was his last. The two-time world champion retired Saturday after being stopped in the seventh round by Alfonso Gomez in a 147-pound bout at Atlantic City, N.J.

“Hasta la vista, baby,” the 35-year-old Gatti said as blood flowed from his cut lip after the fight.

•Timmy Horton needed little time to easily earn his first Bassmaster Elite Series win, finishing with a four-day weight of 83 pounds, 10 ounces and claiming the $109,000 prize in Plattsburgh, N.Y.

•Craig Coffin kicked a 22-yard field goal in overtime to lift the United States past Japan 23-20 to win the American football World Cup in Kawasaki, Japan.

•Brazil stunned favored Argentina 3-0 Sunday to win its second straight Copa America soccer title at Maracaibo, Venezuala.