Mauresmo Battles Back to Stop Venus Williams

Top-seeded Amelie Mauresmo defeated third-seeded Venus Williams, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, Sunday to win the Proximus Diamond Games at Antwerp, Belgium, for her first victory of the year, denying Williams a gem-decorated racket worth $1.3 million.

Williams, who said she had a stomach injury, needed to beat Mauresmo to win the gold-and-diamond trophy, which goes to the first three-time winner in any five-year span.

Since she has won the title two of the last four years, Williams will have a last shot at the trophy next year.

Mauresmo trailed nearly the entire match in front of 14,600 at the sold-out Sports Palace and came from behind in the last two sets, belying her reputation for struggling under pressure.

“I sought a way to get back in it. That was so satisfying,” Mauresmo said.

In the final game, she needed five match points before finally pulling off the victory when she hit a shot past Williams at the net.

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Top-ranked Roger Federer rallied to beat Ivan Ljubicic, 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (5), and win the ABN Amro indoor tournament at Rotterdam, Netherlands.

The match was a sharp contrast to the last time they met in a final, when Federer won, 6-3, 6-1, at the Qatar Open in January.

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Kenneth Carlsen used a steady serve to upset eighth-seeded Max Mirnyi, 7-5, 7-5, for the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships title at Memphis, Tenn., his first ATP Tour title since 2002.

Carlsen reached the final when Andy Roddick, the world’s No. 3 player, was forced to withdraw before their semifinal Saturday because of a sprained left ankle.

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Winter Sports

Christoph Gruber made up for his disappointing performance at the Alpine skiing world championships with his first World Cup victory in four years.

Gruber, who failed to qualify for the Austrian downhill squad at the world competition in Bormio, Italy, and then went out in the first leg of the giant slalom, came through at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. He won the super-giant slalom in 1 minute 18.18 seconds. Didier Defago of Switzerland was second, 0.01 of a second behind.

Francois Bourque, 20, who clocked 1:18.22 for third place, became only the third Canadian man in history to climb a World Cup super-G podium.

Bode Miller of Franconia, N.H., was fourth, 0.21 of a second off the pace. But it was enough for him to pass Austrian star Hermann Maier in the super-G standings. Miller leads with 375 points, one ahead of Maier.

Maria Jose Rienda Contreras of Spain gained her first World Cup victory, easily taking the giant slalom on the same hill at Are, Sweden, where she finished second a year ago. Rienda Contreras, who has skied 11 seasons on the World Cup circuit, had a combined two-run total of 2 minutes 04.68 seconds.

Nicole Hosp of Austria, the first-run leader, was second in 2:05.26; and Anja Paerson of Sweden took third, 0.89 off the pace. Julia Mancuso of Olympic Valley, Calif., finished fourth, 0.93 behind.

Vincent Vittoz won the 30-kilometer pursuit, earning France’s first cross-country gold medal in the Nordic skiing world championships at Oberstdorf, Germany.

Vittoz outsprinted a pack of eight to reach the finish line in 1 hour 19 minutes 20.5 seconds. Italian Giorgio Di Centa edged Norway’s Frode Estil for the silver in a photo finish, 0.8 of a second behind.

Ole Einar Bjoerndalen of Norway won a 15-kilometer mass start event at Pokljuka, Slovenia, for his 51st World Cup biathlon victory.

Bjoerndalen, who hit all 20 targets, matched his sharp shooting with a strong run in snowy conditions. He finished in 40 minutes 12.8 seconds. Raphael Poiree of France was second, 1:05 behind.

Sandrine Bailly of France won her third consecutive World Cup biathlon, taking the 12-kilometer women’s mass start event in 39:03.1. Russia’s Olga Pyleva was second, 14.5 seconds behind.

Germany capped the luge world championships at Park City, Utah, with a fifth consecutive team title, and the U.S. team won silver for the second year in a row. Italy finished third.

The Germans won all but one race and took eight of the 12 medals in the three-day event. Germany, the U.S. and Italy took all the medals awarded over the weekend. The team event is decided by the combined times of one doubles team, a woman’s run and a men’s run. Germany was ahead by one-third of a second entering the men’s run.

Germany’s time of 2 minutes 15.696 seconds was 0.163 of a second better than the U.S. team.

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Soccer

Albacete of the Spanish first division fired Coach Jose Gonzalez after the team lost at home to last-place Numancia, 2-1, news agency Efe reported.

Gonzalez, who took over as coach at the start of the season, guided the team to only five wins in 24 league matches this season, leaving the club in 18th place with 23 points.

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Miscellany

Christian Cantwell, who did not compete in the Athens Olympics last year after failing to make it through the U.S. trials, won the shotput at an IAAF indoor meet at Athens.

Cantwell won with a throw of 69 feet 11 inches. The 2004 world indoor champion finished ahead of Romania’s Guset Gheorghie, who threw 69-8 3/4 .

Chad Reed ended Ricky Carmichael’s five-race winning streak, passing the Suzuki star on the last lap of the THQ AMA World Supercross Series event Saturday night in front of 53,595 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. Moments after Reed took the lead on his Yamaha, Carmichael crashed.