Power easily wins Vegas Grand Prix

Second-year driver Will Power started from the pole and finished at the front Sunday, running away with the inaugural Champ Car World Series Vegas Grand Prix in Las Vegas.

While three-time defending series champion Sebastien Bourdais and heralded rookies Graham Rahal and Simon Pagenaud all failed to finish the season-opening 1-hour 45-minute race, Power never had a problem.

At the finish it wasn’t even close, with Power beating rookie Robert Doornbos by 16.787 seconds, about half a mile on the 2.44-mile, 12-turn temporary circuit.

It appeared for a while that the race would be a battle between Power, last year’s top rookie, and 2003 series champion Paul Tracy, who started side by side on the front row. But Tracy had an early problem in the pits and finished third.

The win was a great birthday present for Team Australia co-owner Derrick Walker, who last celebrated a Champ Car victory in 1999 when Gil de Ferran won at Portland, Ore.

Bourdais, who had won the previous five inaugural races in Champ Car, was never a factor. He started 16th after a crash in qualifying on Saturday, overcame three flat tires in the first 24 laps to reach third place and then hit a concrete barrier on Lap 30 and ended up 13th.

Rahal crashed on the first lap and finished last.

World champion Fernando Alonso won the Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang to hand new team McLaren-Mercedes its first Formula One victory since 2005.

Rookie Lewis Hamilton, F1’s first black driver, added to McLaren’s resurgence by finishing second ahead of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, who won the season-opening Australian GP last month.

Pole-sitter Felipe Massa of Ferrari was overtaken by Alonso and Hamilton on the first lap and never challenged, finishing fifth.

The win was the 16th of Alonso’s career. The last time a McLaren won an F1 Grand Prix was October 2005 in Japan.

TENNIS

Roddick rests injury,

U.S. completes victory

With the U.S. assured a spot in the Davis Cup semifinals, Andy Roddick rested his sore left hamstring as his team completed its 4-1 victory over Spain in the best-of-five event at Winston-Salem, N.C.

Tommy Robredo beat Roddick’s replacement, doubles specialist Bob Bryan, 6-4, 6-4. James Blake then beat Feliciano Lopez, 6-3, 7-6 (3).

The U.S. will next play Sweden, which closed out a 4-1 win over Argentina in Gothenburg.

In the other semifinal, defending champion Russia will play Germany. Russia, with a decisive victory by Marat Safin, defeated France, 3-2, in its quarterfinal at Moscow.

Safin beat Paul-Henri Mathieu, 7-6 (3), 6-3, 6-2. Sebastien Grosjean had tied it for France by topping Igor Andreev, 7-5, 4-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, in the first match.

Germany, guaranteed of advancing, lost two singles matches and defeated host Belgium, 3-2, at Ostend.

Tatiana Golovin beat Nadia Petrova, 6-2, 6-1, for her first WTA Tour singles title in the Bausch & Lomb Championships at Amelia Island, Fla.

Golovin was appearing in her fourth championship.

Golovin handled Petrova’s big serves and sharp groundstrokes, but her best tactic was waiting until the top-seeded defending champion made one of her 27 unforced errors.

MISCELLANY

Robinson’s body to lie

in state in Baton Rouge

In an honor more often bestowed on political leaders, the body of Grambling State’s legendary football coach Eddie Robinson will lie in state today at the Louisiana Capitol in Baton Rouge.

He will be buried Wednesday in Grambling. Robinson died last week at 88.

Krissy Wendell and Molly Engstrom each had a goal and an assist to help the United States advance to the title game in the women’s world hockey championships with a 4-0 victory over Finland at Winnipeg, Canada.

Goalie Chanda Gunn of Huntington Beach stopped all 13 shots she faced.

Canada, a 5-4 shootout winner over the United States on Saturday night in the first game of the three-team group winners round robin, will play Finland tonight, with Canada needing a win or overtime loss to advance.

Australia continued its march toward the Cricket World Cup semifinals in Antigua with a seven-wicket victory over England, which probably needs to win its remaining three matches to avoid elimination.

Australia extended its unbeaten record at the World Cup to 24 matches and cements its position atop the eight-team standings.

Glenn Howard led Canada to the curling world championship with an 8-3 win over Germany at Edmonton.