Australian Wins U.S. Open Title

Australia’s Daniela DiToro broke the Netherlands’ 12-year grip on the women’s singles title at the U.S. Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships, with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over San Jose’s Sharon Clark Saturday at the Racquet Club of Irvine.

Second-seeded DiToro, who lost in last year’s final to Maaike Smit, put Clark away in straight sets to win her first Open title.

“The U.S. Open is everyone’s dream,” said DiToro, 23. “It’s always been one of my biggest dreams. It doesn’t feel real yet.”

DiToro, who didn’t lose a set in her run to the championship, looked as if she might not drop a game to the unseeded Clark. But Clark, after falling behind, 4-0, in the first set, finally won a game before losing, 6-1.

The second set was closer than the 6-2 score. But DiToro’s strong serve and experience were too much for Clark, who has never made it past the second round. “I was hoping I could have played better,” Clark said. “We had a lot of close games in the second set that could have gone either way.”

Clark, 29, made it to this year’s final largely because top-seeded Chantal Vandierendonck of the Netherlands, the world’s No. 1 player, defaulted. Vandierendonck was disqualified Wednesday after she was 45 minutes late for her second-round match. With the seven-time champion out of the way, Clark ran through the rest of the field.

“I feel bad for Chantal. She is a good friend of mine, but I don’t really know what happened,” Clark said. “Even without her default I would have made it to the semifinals, which is better than I have ever done.”

DiToro said: “Sharon totally earned the right to be here by playing great tennis. It was unfortunate what happened to Chantal, but that takes nothing away from Sharon.”

The world’s top player in the men’s division also will be absent from the finals, as Ricky Molier of the Netherlands was upset by sixth-seeded Kai Schraymayer of Germany in Saturday’s semifinal. Schraymayer, who returned to the tennis tour after taking a few years off to study law, defeated Molier, the defending champion, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4. Schraymayer will face third-seeded David Hall of Australia, who upset second-seeded Steve Welch of Arlington, Texas, on Friday.

The men’s singles final will begin at 11 a.m. today, followed by the doubles at 2 p.m.