Victoria Azarenka beats Maria Sharapova in final at Key Biscayne

Shrieking with every shot, Victoria Azarenka won the Sony Ericsson Open for the second time by beating Maria Sharapova, 6-1, 6-4.

The No. 8-seeded Azarenka was the steadier player Saturday and swept nine consecutive games to take charge. Sharapova committed 43 unforced errors, held serve only once and came up short with a late comeback bid.

Azarenka also won at Key Biscayne in 2009, stopping Serena Williams in the final. The two titles are the biggest of the Belarussian’s career.

Sauter wins trucks race

Johnny Sauter passed Kyle Busch one lap before the finish to win the Trucks Series race at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia.

Busch had the race wrapped up until a caution with nine laps to go set up one final restart. He had a good start, but Sauter reeled him in and passed Busch right before the white flag. Sauter then pulled away for his first win of the season, and third in 65 career series starts.

Busch settled for second. He has five wins this year spanning NASCAR’s top three series, including one in the trucks.

Maya Moore of Connecticut is in a class by herself. Her coach will have to share his award. Moore is the Associated Press player of the year, becoming the third two-time winner when she was honored on Saturday.

Connecticut Coach Geno Auriemma shared coach of the year honors with Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer and Miami’s Katie Meier, marking the first time ever that an AP college award has had a tie.

Tommy Ford and Julia Mancuso mastered the mushy snow at U.S. championships at Winter Park, Colo., adding super-G titles to their expanding collections.

Going first in the men’s competition, Ford flew down the twisty course in 1 minute 10.10 seconds, a time that held up as Tommy Biesemeyer finished 0.10 seconds behind. Ryan Cochran-Siegle was third on an afternoon when temperatures soared into the 50s.

Mancuso, who won the giant slalom Friday, glided through the super-G course in 1:13.34, edging Leanne Smith by 0.20 seconds. Stacey Cook finished third.

The U.S. women’s national soccer team yielded two goals in the fisrt half hour Saturday and was beaten, 2-1, by England in London.

It was the second loss of the year for Coach Pia Sundhage’s team as it prepares to play in the Women’s World Cup in Germany this summer. The U.S. also lost to Sweden in the first game of the Four Nations Tournament in China in January.

— Grahame L. Jones

The second-ranked California men’s team and the USC women posted the fastest qualifying times at the 38th annual San Diego Crew Classic.

Two-time defending champion California breezed to a 10-second victory in heat A of the men’s eight collegiate varsity invitational, covering 2,000 meters at Crown Point Shores on Mission Bay in 5 minutes 49.0 seconds. Stanford captured heat B in 5:56.60.

Oregon State, Michigan, Temple and UC San Diego also advanced to Sunday’s grand final. The top three crews in each heat advanced to Sunday’s grand final.

The Trojans won heat A of the Jessop-Whittier Cup collegiate varsity invitational for women’s eight in 6:20.8. Stanford won heat B in 6:24.0, and Cal, Washington State, Washington and Wisconsin also qualified for the final.

Marco Huck retained his WBO cruiserweight title for the sixth time with a unanimous decision over previously undefeated Ran Nakash of Israel on in Halle, Germany.

Huck won with scores of 116-112 and 118-110 twice. The German champion improved to 32-1 while Nakash lost for the first time in 26 professional fights.

Hassan N’Dam successfully defended his interim WBA middleweight title with a unanimous decision over Giovanni Lorenzo in Le Cannet, France.

The judges’ scores were 119-110, 119-109 and 116-110.

N’Dam (26-0) caught Lorenzo with a big left hook in the third round, then had Lorenzo backing off in the fifth and sixth as Lorenzo struggled to match his tempo.

Krzysztof Wlodarczyk of Poland retained his WBC cruiserweight title with a split decision over Francisco Palacios of Puerto Rico in Bydgoszcz, Poland.