Murray bests Verdasco for third career title
Second-seeded Andy Murray won his third career title Sunday, beating sixth-seeded Fernando Verdasco 6-2, 6-3 in the final of the St. Petersburg Open in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Earlier this season, Murray defended his title in San Jose and was runner-up at Doha and Metz.
•Roger Federer beat Jarkko Nieminen 6-3, 6-4 at Basel, Switzerland, to win his second straight Swiss Indoors and clinch the No. 1 ranking for the fourth consecutive year.
•Sebastien Grosjean won the Lyon Grand Prix for his first title in five years, serving 17 aces and beating Marc Gicquel 7-6 (5), 6-4 at Lyon, France.
•Second-seeded Daniela Hantuchova defeated Patty Schnyder 6-4, 6-2 to win the Generali Ladies at Linz, Austria.
Football
OSU back injured
Yvenson Bernard ran for 62 yards and a touchdown in the first half of Oregon State’s 23-6 victory over Stanford Saturday, but he went out with a shoulder injury and never returned.
Coach Mike Riley feared the injury was serious and that the iron-tough 5-foot-9, 201-pound tailback could miss time.
•SMU coach Phil Bennett was fired, a day after the Mustangs lost 29-23 at Tulsa and were eliminated from bowl contention.
Miscellany
Svindal wins GS
Aksel Lund Svindal began defense of his World Cup overall and giant slalom titles with a victory at the season-opening race at Soelden, Austria.
Svindal delivered the fastest final run to make up a 1.17-second deficit from the opening leg and won with a combined time of 2 minutes, 17.87 seconds.
Olympic combined champion Ted Ligety led after the first leg of a World Cup race for the first time. He finished 0.32 seconds behind the big Norwegian.
•Light flyweight Luis Yanez continued the U.S. team’s success at the World Boxing Championships in Chicago with a walkover victory that put him one win away from qualifying for the Beijing Olympics.
Yanez, a high school senior from Duncanville, Texas, has drawn well so far at the championships, with a bye in the first round and a no-show opponent in the second.
•Wilfred Kigen of Kenya won his third straight Frankfurt Marathon at Frankfurt, Germany, finishing in 2 hours, 7 minutes, 58 seconds.
•Kristen Henehan, a three-time All-American in track at Georgetown, won the Marine Corps Marathon at Arlington, Va., with a time of 2:51:09, while Ethiopia’s Tamrat Ayalew took the men’s title in 2:22:18.
•Sean Rash, of Wichita, Kan., won the U.S. Bowling Congress Masters title in Milwaukee by defeating Steve Jaros 269-245 in the final.