Roberts dominates en route to victory

Loren Roberts made it apparent early that there would be no suspense in the final round of the Senior Players Championship at Timonium, Md.

Roberts made four birdies in a row during a sizzling front nine Sunday and cruised to an easy victory, shooting a three-under 67 to defeat Tom Watson by six strokes.

Starting with a three-shot lead, Roberts made the turn at 30 with a seven-shot lead.

Roberts finished with a 13-under 267 total.

A year ago, Roberts took a two-stroke lead into the final round of the Senior Players Championship and shot a 74 to finish in a tie for third.

“For me personally, I really exorcised some demons today,” Roberts said. “To come here today and start out with a three-shot lead and get the job done, that goes a long way for me in being able to get over a little bit of a hurdle that I had from last year.”

Justin Leonard won the Texas Open for the third time in San Antonio, beating Jesper Parnevik with a 10-foot birdie putt on the third hole of a playoff.

Leonard closed with a five-under 65 to match Parnevik at 19-under 261. Parnevik, who led after each of the first three rounds, finished with a 69.

Suzann Pettersen sank a birdie putt from about six feet on the second playoff hole to beat top-ranked Lorena Ochoa in the Longs Drugs Challenge in Danville, Calif.

Ochoa had missed a 20-foot putt. Pettersen finished with a one-over 73 to match Ochoa (71) at 11-under 277.

Richard Johnson birdied the first playoff hole to beat Matthew Jones and Jeremy Anderson in the Nationwide Tour’s Mark Christopher Charity Classic in Rancho Cucamonga.

Johnson, who shot a four-under 67 to finish regulation at 11-under 273, moved to fourth on the tour’s money list, earning a spot on the PGA Tour next year.

TENNIS

Henin earns eighth title, goes to 54-4 this year

Dropping her first set since losing the Wimbledon semifinals, top-ranked Justine Henin rallied to defeat Tatiana Golovin, 2-6, 6-2, 6-1, in Stuttgart, Germany and win the Porsche Grand Prix for her eighth title of the year. She is 54-4 this year.

Top-seeded Tommy Robredo rallied to beat Andy Murray, 0-6, 6-2, 6-3, in the final of the Moselle Open in Metz, France.

David Ferrer overpowered Richard Gasquet, 6-1, 6-2, to win the Japan Open in Tokyo for his third title of the year.

DISTANCE RUNNING

Runner collapses, dies in record marathon heat

In a race run in scorching 88-degree heat that left one man dead, Kenya’s Patrick Ivuti won the Chicago Marathon by five-tenths of a second in 2 hours 11 minutes 11 seconds in the closest finish in the race’s history. More than 300 runners were taken to hospitals because of heat-related ailments.

The sweltering humidity was so draining that organizers shut down the second half of the course four hours after the start.

Ivuti leaned at the finish line to edge Jaouad Gharib of Morocco by 0.05 of a second. Ethiopia’s Berhane Adere repeated her women’s title in 2:33.49.

Chad Schieber of Midland, Mich., 35, collapsed while running on the South Side and was pronounced dead shortly before 1 p.m. at a Veteran’s Affairs hospital, the Cook County medical examiner’s office. An autopsy was scheduled for today.

The previous record temperature was 84 degrees in 1979.

About 10,000 of the 45,000 registered runners chose to not race, while another 10,934 started but didn’t finish, officials said.

An unidentified runner from Fairfax County, Va., died during the Army Ten-Miler race, near the finish line at the Pentagon in an event that started in 70-degree heat and high humidity.

The runner collapsed about 200 yards from the finish line, said Col. Jim Yonts. The cause of death was not known. Yonts said he did not know the runner’s age. The runner was a civilian, not a member of the military, he said.

MISCELLANY

Maradona taken before judge after flight home

Former soccer great Diego Maradona was stopped by airport police in Buenos Aires after arriving from Italy, taken before a judge and told he faced a civil case involving injuries in a 2006 transit accident for which he had failed to heed a court summons, local reports said.

Chris Bosh scored 23 points and grabbed nine rebounds as the Toronto Raptors held off a spirited Virtus Lottomatica Roma squad for a 93-87 preseason victory in Rome. Andrea Bargnani had 13 points and seven rebounds to help the Raptors win in his hometown.

Dylan Thomas beat Youmzain by a nose in Paris to give trainer Aidan O’Brien his first victory at the 86th Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Europe’s most prestigious horse race.