Isner drops Baghdatis in Atlanta Open

Tennis: John Isner won the Atlanta Open for the third straight year, beating Marcos Baghdatis 6-3, 6-3 on Sunday at Atlantic Station.

The top-seeded former University of Georgia star has reached the finals in Atlanta in five of the past six years and is 20-3 in the event. He has 10 ATP Tour titles.

Isner beat an injured player.

The fifth-seeded Baghdatis began struggling physically early with a bothersome groin muscle/tendon that first flared up more than a month ago.

Shortly into a 59-minute match, the fifth-seeded Baghdatis knew he had a problem, and he felt it was worse because he had limited recovery time after his three-set win late Saturday night versus Gilles Muller.

After scoring off Isner’s second serve to start the match, Baghdatis was finished.

From there, he lost all 15 points on Isner’s first serve in the first set, and scored just twice against Isner’s final 38 service games.

• Nadal beats Fognini

to capture Hamburg Open: Top-seeded Rafael Nadal overcame some sloppy play on his beloved clay to beat Fabio Fognini 7-5, 7-5 and win the Hamburg Open for the second time in Hamburg, Germany.

Nadal squandered a 3-1 lead in the final set and saved two set points before prevailing in 2 hours and 34 minutes over the eighth-seeded Italian and the 2013 Hamburg winner.

Nadal now has 47 clay-court titles, second to Guillermo Vilas’ 49. It was Nadal’s second title on clay this year.

• Thiem beats Goffin to collect Swiss Open title: Dominic Thiem of Austria won his second straight title, beating top-seeded David Goffin of Belgium 7-5, 6-2 in the Swiss Open final in Gstaad, Switzerland.

The 24th-ranked Thiem added the Swiss trophy to the Croatia Open he won one week earlier. Thiem’s run of three clay-court titles this season started in April at Nice, France.

• Gasparyan wins Baku Cup for first WTA title: Margarita Gasparyan of Russia won her first WTA title by beating Patricia Maria Tig of Romania 6-3, 5-7, 6-0 in the Baku Cup final in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Gasparyan served for the match when up 5-4 in the second set but was broken back at love. However, she dominated the final set to wrap up the win in 2 1/2 hours.

Gasparyan had never won a main-draw match at the WTA level before this tournament, while Tig was also playing in her first tour final.

• Hingis helps Washington take World TeamTennis title: Martina Hingis helped the Washington Kastles win their record fifth consecutive World TeamTennis championship with a 24-18 victory over the Austin Aces in Washington.

Kastles captain Leander Paes was selected as the finals MVP.

Hingis, a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, and Paes teamed to beat Teymuraz Gabashvili and Alla Kudryavtseva in mixed doubles. Hingis also paired with Anastasia Rodionova for a women’s doubles victory against Kudryavtseva and Elina Svitolina.

Overseas Elite wins $1 million tournament

Miscellany: Former St. John’s player D.J. Kennedy scored 24 points and Overseas Elite won The Basketball Tournament and its $1 million prize by beating Team 23, 67-65 on Sunday.

Overseas Elite emerged from a field of 97 teams in the tournament that began July 12. More than 125 players who had either NBA or NBA Development League experience took part in the winner-take-all, single-elimination event.

• Ledecky starts with easy win: Katie Ledecky of the United States opened an ambitious program at the world swimming championships in Kazan, Russia, with an easy victory in the 400-meter freestyle.

The 18-year-old Ledecky led all the way and was under her world-record pace until the next-to-last lap, touching in 3 minutes, 59.13 seconds to set a championship mark. Ledecky set the world record of 3:58.37 at last year’s Pan Pacific championships in Australia.

Ledecky, a recent high school graduate who has yet to earn a driver’s license, will be favored in the 800 and 1,500 freestyles and is a threat in the 200 free.

Sun Yang of China opened the first night of pool swimming with a victory in the men’s 400 free.