Federer Pads Streak by Defeating Roddick

Top-ranked Roger Federer defeated Andy Roddick, 6-4, 6-0, Sunday to win the Thailand Open at Bangkok, joining John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg as the only players to win 12 consecutive ATP Tour finals in the last 25 years.

“It would be nice to break their record, but I’ll take one tournament at a time,” said Federer, who has won 10 titles this year. “I hope to play well until the end of the season.”

Federer needed only 58 minutes to defeat the second-seeded Roddick, whose elbow was sore from his semifinal victory over Marat Safin.

Federer won three majors this year: the Australian Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open. He started the streak in Vienna last October. He reached the semifinals at Madrid and quarterfinals at Paris before winning the Tennis Masters Cup final in Houston to close the 2003 season.

*

Guillermo Canas won his third title this year with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Lars Burgsmuller in the Shanghai Open.

The victory was another step in a comeback by Canas, who sat out most of the 2003 season because of a wrist surgery. He also won this year at Stuttgart, Germany, and Umag, Croatia.

*

Top-seeded Elena Dementieva won the last five games to beat third-seeded Elena Bovina, 0-6, 6-0, 6-4, in the Gaz de France Stars final at Hasselt, Belgium.

It’s the first title this year for Dementieva, the runner-up at three events, including the U.S. Open and French Open.

*

Wimbledon women’s champion Maria Sharapova defeated Marta Domachowska, 6-1, 6-1, to win the inaugural Korea Open at Seoul.

*

Li Na became the first Chinese to win a WTA singles title, beating Martina Sucha, 6-3, 6-4, in the Guangzhou Open in China.

*

Eighth-seeded Tomas Berdych, 19, won his first ATP title, defeating Filippo Volandri, 6-3, 6-3, in the Campionati Internazionali di Sicilia at Palermo.

Soccer

Kristine Lilly scored the 100th goal of her career and Mia Hamm gave fans at Portland, Ore., a final thrill with two goals in the U.S. women’s 5-0 victory over New Zealand.

The exhibition game was part of the team’s fan appreciation tour after winning the Olympic gold medal this summer in Athens. After the 10-match tour, team mainstays Hamm, Julie Foudy and Joy Fawcett plan to retire from international play.

European soccer’s governing body threatened to remove the 2008 European Championships from hosts Austria and Switzerland, citing the Swiss for failing to build a stadium in Zurich.

UEFA gave the two countries a year-end deadline to provide financial guarantees.

Running

Paul Kirui of Kenya won the men’s world half-marathon title at New Dehli, capping a year in which he also won 13.1-mile races in Rome and Berlin.

Kirui finished in 1 hour 2 minutes 15 seconds. Sun Ying Jie of China won the women’s race in 1:08:40.