Second-seeded Testud captures Big Island title
Associated Press
Sandrine Testud won a tournament for the first time since 1998 when top-seeded Justine Henin was forced to retire in the second set of yesterday's final of the Big Island Championships at the Hilton Waikoloa Village courts.
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The second-seeded Testud was leading 6-3, 2-0 when Henin was forced to stop playing because of a thigh injury.
Sandrine Testud won for the first time since 1998.
The two had met in the finals of the Australian Women's Hardcourt Championships in January. That straight-set win was the first of three titles this year for the 19-year-old Henin.
The win was the third in her career for the 29-year-old Testud and her first since beating Lindsay Davenport in the finals of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Germany in October 1998.
Testud, who reached the fourth round at the French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open this year, and is ranked 17th in the world, won $22,000.
Henin, who is ranked eighth, needed two medical timeouts and had her thigh wrapped in the first set.
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PRESIDENT'S CUP
• Safin wins all-Russian final: Marat Safin won the first all-Russian final in an ATP event, defeating Yevgeny Kafelnikov, 6-2, 6-2, yesterday at the $550,000 tournament at Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
After Safin's victory, his first title of the year, a moment of silence was held to honor victims of the terrorist attacks in the United States.
Safin, the defending champion, won in 56 minutes. His victory came a week after he and Kafelnikov lost semifinal matches at the U.S. Open.
This was only the second meeting between the two, with Kafelnikov having won their 1999 match in Rome. Kafelnikov has won one title this year, in Marseille, France.
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GELSOR OPEN
• El Aynaoui serves home: Younes El Aynaoui used a serve-and-volley game to rally in both sets and beat Albert Montanes, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (2), for the championship of the clay court tournament yesterday at Bucharest, Romania.
The seventh-seeded El Aynaoui played aggressively at the net and had 13 aces.
In the first set, the Moroccan player ranked 44th in the world was down 2-5 in the tiebreaker but broke back twice with aces against Montanes, a baseliner from Spain ranked 100th.
Montanes broke El Aynaoui's service at 2-1 in the second set and took a 5-3 lead before El Aynaoui won the next three games.
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BRAZIL OPEN
• Vacek rallies for victory: Jan Vacek of the Czech Republic rallied from a poor first set yesterday to defeat Fernando Meligeni of Brazil, 2-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3, in the title match at Salvador, Brazil.
Meligeni won the first set 6-2 and got off to a good start in the second. But then Vacek began pushing the fifth-seeded Brazilian to all corners of the court, taking the set in a tiebreaker.
In the third set, Vacek was in control. At one point, Meligeni called on an assistant to massage a cramped leg.
