Belgium Coasts to First Fed Cup Championship

An American no-show did nothing to dim Belgium’s first Fed Cup title.

“It would have been great if they were here, but they weren’t,” said Justine Henin, after she and Kim Clijsters took rapid-fire straight-set victories over Russia in Sunday’s final at Madrid, Spain.

“We were the favorites here but we had to prove it on the court and we did it,” Henin said.

“It’s a great victory for a little country with two young players and a great team.”

Henin beat Nadia Petrova, 6-0, 6-3, in 50 minutes. Clijsters, taking her first set in 14 minutes, defeated Elena Dementieva, 6-0, 6-4, in 49 minutes in one of the most lopsided finals in history.

With two of tennis’ youngest stars, Belgium was the favorite to claim the equivalent of the men’s Davis Cup from the moment the two-time defending champion Americans--17 titles overall--withdrew last month, citing security worries.

Belgium won Pool A in the round-robin portion of the tournament to reach the final with victories over Spain, Australia and Germany. Russia was 3-0 with victories over France, Argentina and the Czech Republic.

Only about 2,000 fans watched the final, played on an indoor clay court. The crowd was even smaller when Russia won the meaningless doubles, Petrova and Elena Likhovtseva beating Els Callens and Laurence Courtois, 7-5, 7-6 (2).

Officials blamed the scant turnout on the absent United States, a final without the home Spanish team, and a venue isolated in northern Madrid that is being floated as a potential site for the 2012 Olympics.

Clijsters said she was “pretty surprised there were that many people.” Henin, however, admitted disappointment at the attendance and atmosphere of the five-day event.

“It would be better for sure if we were playing in Belgium or if there were a lot of people, but that’s the format now,” she said. “It’s a little bit sad.”

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Patty Schnyder of Switzerland beat second-seeded Henrieta Nagyova of Slovakia, 6-0, 6-4, to win the Volvo Women’s Open at Pattaya, Thailand, her first title in almost three years.

Golf

Allen Doyle won the Senior Slam by two strokes over Tom Watson at St. Augustine, Fla.

Doyle held off an early charge from Doug Tewell and a late bid from Watson, closing with a second straight five-under 67 on The Slammer & The Squire course at the World Golf Village.

He earned $300,000 in the unofficial event that featured the four winners of the senior tour’s major championships. Doyle also won the Senior Slam two years ago.

David Duval frittered away a six-shot lead over the final six holes before winning the Dunlop Phoenix tournament in a playoff at Miyazaki, Japan.

Duval made a four-putt double-bogey at the 17th hole, before parring the last hole to shoot two-under-par 69 and tie Taichi Teshima, who shot a 65.

They finished at 15-under 269, five strokes ahead of last year’s champion, Shingo Katayama, and Scott Laycock.

Duval, the British Open champion, won the playoff at the first extra hole, the par-five 18th, where he almost holed a bunker shot from 60 feet before tapping in for birdie.

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Brad Faxon and Scott McCarron became the first team to repeat in the Franklin Templeton Shootout, making a birdie on the last hole to beat John Daly and Frank Lickliter by two shots at Tiburon Golf Club at Naples, Fla.

Faxon and McCarron became the third and fourth players to win three times. They previously won with different partners before last year.

Steve Elkington and Fred Couples each won three times with different partners.

Tournament founder Greg Norman, who finished last with Elkington as a partner, left just after play was over to go to St. Augustine to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Baseball

A grassroots effort was announced at Minneapolis to rally people from throughout the upper Midwest to make it known that they don’t want the Minnesota Twins cut from major league baseball.

Paul Ridgeway, chairman of the “Keep the Twins at Home” effort, said baseball Commissioner Bud Selig is severely underestimating the power and loyalty of Twin fans.

Ridgeway’s group hopes to gather tens of thousands of signatures on petitions in support of the Twins when red, white and blue “Twins Fans Vans” leave the Metrodome on Tuesday for various parts of Minnesota.

Miscellany

No. 4 Oklahoma got 24 points from Rosalind Ross to defeat No. 11 Purdue, 80-75, in the Women’s Tip-Off Classic at Durham, N.C.

Diana Taurasi scored 21 points and Swin Cash added 17 to lead No. 1 Connecticut past Florida International, 91-47, at Storrs, Conn., in the second round of the preseason Women’s National Invitation Tournament.

In another Women’s NIT game, No. 3 Vanderbilt defeated Oregon State, 81-55, at Nashville.

No. 5 Duke got 17 points and 10 rebounds from Monique Currie to defeat No. 7 Texas Tech, 85-69, at Durham.

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Saeed Salem Jaber of Qatar hoisted a total of 1,012 pounds to win three gold medals at the World Weightlifting Championships at Antalya, Turkey, and claim the title of world’s strongest man.

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World champion Yevgeny Plushchenko of Russia held off a strong double-quad performance by Tim Goebel of the United States to win the men’s event at the Nations Cup Grand Prix figure skating competition at Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

Two other top skaters were down in the standings.

Three-time world champion Elvis Stojko of Canada was only sixth, falling on his quad attempt, while Michael Weiss, the 1999 and 2000 American champion, was eighth.

Former world champion Maria Butyrskaya of Russia won an error-filled women’s event that featured a failed triple axel attempt by Japan’s Yoshie Onda.

Germany’s Anni Friesinger held off Jennifer Rodriguez in the 1,500-meter race to win for the second time at the season’s first speedskating World Cup event at Berlin.

Friesinger finished in 1 minute 57.86 seconds.

Rodriguez, who is from Miami, was timed in 1:58.10 at the Hohenschoenhausen ice rink.

Gianni Romme, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, won the men’s 5,000 in 6:28.92.

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Scott Cassidy, who pitched for Toronto’s triple-A Syracuse team this year, gave up two hits in six innings and Mark Budzinski had three hits, leading the United States over Taiwan, 6-0, in the baseball World Cup at Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

The United States (3-2) is tied for fourth with Nicaragua in Group A.

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Former West Indies cricket team captain Denis Atkinson, known for his part in a 1955 record wicket stand against Australia, died Friday at Bridgetown, Barbados. He was 75.

After winning seven Olympic gold medals and 27 world championships, German kayaker Birgit Fischer announced her retirement at age 39.