Cycling
Betancur wins Paris-Nice while Contador retains lead
NICE, France – Colombian rider Carlos Betancur won the Paris-Nice cycling race while Arthur Vichot won on the last stage Sunday.
Vichot outsprinted Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil and Cyril Gautier on the Promenade des Anglais to finish in 3 hours, 6 minutes, 56 seconds on the 128-kilometer trek around Nice
GUARDIAGRELE, Italy – Alberto Contador again showed his strength in the mountains as he claimed a second successive Tirreno-Adriatico stage win to move into the overall lead Sunday.
Contador, who won the grueling fourth stage of the race Saturday, recorded a dominant victory over another tough leg from Amatrice to Guardiagrele.
Golf
Senden takes Valspar with the help of timely birdies
PALM HARBOR, Fla. – John Senden made two big birdies on a wild and windy Sunday at Innisbrook for a 1-under 70 to win the Valspar Championship.
The one-shot victory was Senden’s first in more than seven years and sends the 42-year-old Australian to the Masters next month.
AGADIR, Morocco – Alejandro Canizares of Spain completed a wire-to-wire victory at the Trophee Hassan II by shooting a 2-under 70 in the final round Sunday for a five-stroke victory.
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. – Fred Couples won the Toshiba Classic on Sunday for his 10th Champions Tour title, birdieing the final two holes for a one-stroke victory.
The 54-year-old Couples closed with a 5-under 66 to finish at 15-under 198 at Newport Beach Country Club. Also the 2010 winner, he made a 4-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th and holed another 4-footer on the par-5 18th.
Tennis
Djokovic drops Federer for his first title of the year
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. – Novak Djokovic beat Roger Federer 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3) to win the BNP Paribas Open for the third time on Sunday.
Federer rallied from a break down and a 5-3 deficit in the third set to force the tiebreaker, but he made a slew of mistakes to lose the 33rd meeting between the rivals.
Federer still leads the series 17-16, having beaten Djokovic in three sets in the semifinals at Dubai two weeks ago. Djokovic will remain No. 2 in the world, while Federer will rise three spots to No. 5 on Monday in the ATP Tour rankings.
World Cup Skiing
Fenniger and Hirscher take slalom races and titles
LENZERHEIDE, Switzerland – Marcel Hirscher beat Felix Neureuther in a testy Austria vs. Germany duel for the World Cup slalom title Sunday.
Racing last as the controversial first-run leader, Hirscher finished 0.76 seconds inside Neureuther’s time to overtake his rival in the standings.
Hirscher added the slalom trophy to his third consecutive overall title that he clinched Saturday.
Olympic champion Mario Matt was third, trailing 1.08 behind his Austrian teammate’s two-run time of 2 minutes, 7.74 seconds.
Hirscher had led by 0.06 on a first-run course set by an Austria team coach that was branded unfair and ugly by Neureuther’s team boss, and ridiculous by American racer Ted Ligety.
LENZERHEIDE, Switzerland – World Cup overall champion Anna Fenninger added the giant slalom title Sunday by winning the season-ending race.
The Austrian racer had to finish ahead of pre-race standings leader Jessica Lindell-Vikarby of Sweden and duly won her fourth consecutive World Cup giant slalom.
Fenninger’s two-run combined time of 2 minutes, 1.28 seconds was 0.25 faster than teammate Eva-Maria Brem.
Lindell-Vikarby was third, trailing 0.33 behind Fenninger.
Fenninger, the Olympic silver medalist in giant slalom, got her first career World Cup discipline title.
She completed an Austrian sweep of race wins and discipline titles Sunday.
Associated Press
