Murray outlasts Karlovic to win

Defending champion Andy Murray won the second title of his career, neutralizing Ivo Karlovic’s big serve to win the SAP Open final, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 7-6 (2), on Sunday at San Jose.

Murray proved to be the only player who had an answer for the difficult serve of the 6-foot-10 Karlovic, who lost his serve only once in 51 games and had a tournament-record 87 aces heading into the final.

Despite Karlovic’s 26 aces, Murray did an outstanding job on his return game in the final two sets, forcing Karlovic to hit many more shots than he needed in previous matches.

Murray, ranked 13th in the world, is off to a fast start in 2007, finishing as runner-up in Doha, Qatar, and making the fourth round of the Australian Open before losing to Rafael Nadal.

Amelie Mauresmo won a $1.3-million diamond-studded racket trophy by beating Kim Clijsters, 6-4, 7-6 (4), in the final of the Diamond Games tournament at Antwerp, Belgium.

The victory spoiled Clijsters’ farewell match in front of a frenetic home crowd of 14,500 at the Sports Palace. The 23-year-old Belgian has said she would retire at the end of the season.

Mauresmo won the tournament for the third time in a row, enough to keep the 8.8-pound gold racket studded with 1,702 diamonds, which goes to the first three-time winner in any five-year span.

“I said all week I didn’t think about it, but honestly I thought about it the whole week,” Mauresmo said.

Wild-card Guillermo Canas upset top-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero, 7-6 (4), 6-2, in the Brazil Open final at Costa do Sauipe, to win his first tournament since returning from a doping ban.

Soon after reaching the 2005 French Open quarterfinals, Canas was suspended two years for using a banned steroid the previous February. The ban was reduced to 15 months on appeal.

Gilles Simon won his first career title, beating seventh-seeded Marcos Baghdatis, 6-4, 7-6 (3), at the Open 13 at Marseille, France.... Yaraslova Shvedova won her first WTA Tour title by upsetting top-seeded Mara Santangelo, 6-4, 6-4, at the Sony Ericsson International at Bangalore, India.

WINTER SPORTS

Poor finish for U.S. at skiing championships

Austria won the team competition title and finished with the most medals at the Alpine Skiing world championships at Are, Sweden.

Sweden was second and Switzerland third in the team event. The United States, without injured Bode Miller and other top skiers, finished last of the 11 teams.

Lindsey Kildow and Julia Mancuso, the only Americans to win medals at the worlds this year, also missed the team event. Kildow was injured in slalom training while Mancuso was exhausted and left early.

The Austrians flew in super-G silver medalist Fritz Strobl to strengthen their chances in the team event.

Yevgeni Popov led Russia to a World Cup win in the four-man bobsled at Winterberg, Germany, and increased his lead over Steven Holcomb of the United States in the season title race. Russia I completed its two heats in 1 minute 51.08 seconds, with Holcomb’s United States I finishing second in 1:51.11. Janis Minins piloted Latvia I to third in 1:51.64.

SOCCER

Costa Rica wins Central American Cup

Costa Rica defeated Panama in a penalty shootout after tying 1-1 in regulation, and claimed its sixth Central American Cup at San Salvador, El Salvador. Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras advanced to the CONCACAF Gold Cup in the United States in June.