Roddick Doesn’t Waste Time in Beating Davydenko, 6-3, 6-2

Top-seeded Andy Roddick defeated Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, 6-3, 6-2, in the final of the Raiffeisen Grand Prix at St. Poelten, Austria, on Saturday for his first ATP title of the year.

Roddick won his sixth career title in the clay-court event leading to the French Open and won a tournament outside the United States for the first time since winning a juniors event in Melbourne, Australia.

Roddick used a serve-and-volley game to control the match from the outset, and needed only 63 minutes to beat the sixth-seeded Davydenko.

“He is great when you are hitting hard,” Roddick said. “I tried to make him run and give him difficult balls to play.”

Davydenko, a two-time winner this year who had not lost a set in the tournament, had no answer for Roddick’s shots.

“I just tried to keep the balls in, because his serve was so strong. I could not do much. My passing shots did not work like in the previous games here,” he said. “I made too many mistakes to win today.”

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Top-seeded Chanda Rubin beat Spain’s Maria Antonia Sanchez Lorenzo, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, to win the Spanish Open in Madrid.

Rubin, ranked No. 8 in the world, struggled against the 84th-ranked Sanchez Lorenzo, who was playing in only her second WTA final.

After Rubin won the first set, Sanchez Lorenzo broke serve in the 12th game of the second set to force a decisive third. Rubin broke serve in the ninth game of the third set and won the match in 2 hours 16 minutes.

Rubin lost last year’s final to Monica Seles, who withdrew before this year’s tournament with a foot injury.

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Silvia Farina Elia of Italy won the Strasbourg Open in France for the third consecutive year by beating Karolina Sprem of Croatia, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

Sprem, an 18-year-old qualifier, was appearing in her first WTA Tour final.

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Fernando Gonzalez won in singles and teamed with Nicolas Massu to win in doubles as Chile won its first World Team Cup title, beating the Czech Republic, 2-1, at Duesseldorf, Germany.

Gonzalez beat Jiri Novak, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5), to give Chile the lead before Radek Stepanek beat Marcelo Rios, 6-3, 7-6 (5).

Gonzalez and Massu then beat Novak and Stepanek, 6-4, 6-2, in the deciding doubles match.

Miscellany

The U.S. women’s water polo team was outscored, 3-0, in the fourth quarter and lost to Australia, 8-5, in the 2003 Thetis Cup at Syros, Greece. The U.S. will play for fifth place today against Hungary.

It’s the first time the U.S. failed to advance to a medal round in an international tournament since losing the fifth-place game at the 1999 World Cup.

Samford University football player Charles Williams was killed in a car accident Friday in Birmingham, Ala. He was 21. A junior cornerback, he played in eight games last season, making eight tackles.

Williams apparently was a passenger in one of the four vehicles involved in the crash in downtown Birmingham, police said.