for us," Wright said. "We

yyys123 · Posted: 28-10-2019 08:41:00 Post subject: for us," Wright said. "We

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. -- The celebration began with a series of happy hops that propelled Serena Williams across the court. Soon she was twirling, waving, laughing and mugging for the cameras -- a familiar ritual by a perennial champion. Williams won a record seventh Key Biscayne title Saturday when she overcame a slow start and a set point to beat Li Na 7-5, 6-1 at the Sony Open. She surpassed the tournament record of six titles she shared with Andre Agassi. "I was actually super excited at the end," Williams said, "because I remember sitting here last year trying to get to six, thinking, OK, obviously I want seven, but I dont want to put the pressure on myself to get to seven. Obviously I wanted to have the most titles here." The No. 1-ranked Williams looked tense at the outset and served poorly, and she was broken twice to fall behind 5-2. "At that moment I felt like I had nothing to lose," Williams said. "I just was able to relax. Whenever I relax, I enjoy myself." Li held a set point serving at 5-4, but Williams erased it with a backhand winner. Williams needed another 21 minutes to pull out the set. The final game of the set went to deuce six times, but she finally won it with a booming backhand that Li couldnt handle. Williams ran to her chair with a satisfied scream, her left fist leading the way. She dominated from there, sweeping the final five games. The 17-time Grand Slam champion has more titles at Key Biscayne than at any other tournament. Shes the fourth woman in the Open era to win an event at least seven times. "I think were going to have to rename this tournament," former top-five player Mary Joe Fernandez said during the trophy ceremony. Both finalists are 32, and they shared lots of smiles while holding their trophies. Li explained: "We were talking about, For sure before the match they say, "Oh, two old women."" Theyre close in age, but its a commentary on the yawning gap between Williams and the rest of the womens tour that, even while at less than her best, she won in straight sets against the No. 2-ranked player. She made only 44 per cent of her first serves and converted just five of 17 break-point chances. Even so, Williams extended her winning streak against top-10 opponents to 15 matches. She beat Li for the 10th time in a row since 2009. "When youre going up against the top players, for me, I have to be ready because they are the best in the world, the whole planet," Williams said. "I enjoy playing people that are ranked like that, because I feel like I can eventually bring out the best in me." The top-ranked men will meet in Sundays final, when No. 1 Rafael Nadal tries for his first Key Biscayne title against No. 2 Novak Djokovic, a three-time champion. No. 1-ranked Mike and Bob Bryan won the mens doubles title for the first time since 2008 by beating Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah 7-6 ( Cool

, 6-4. Williams lives 90 minutes up I-95 from Key Biscayne and considers it her home event. She said the fans provided a boost when she fell behind. "It was like, Oh my gosh, if I can just hang in here and just try to enjoy myself," she said. "Honestly the crowd pulled me through. I heard some fans go, Go Serena." Williams has played in the tournament 14 times and also won the final in 2002-04, 2007-08 and 2013. She has celebrated so many titles she couldnt remember the first one. "Who was it against?" she said. "Venus?" Actually, she lost finals to her sister Venus in 1999, and to Victoria Azarenka in 2009. She beat Jennifer Capiati for her first two Key Biscayne titles, and the others came against Elena Dementieva, Justine Henin, Jelena Jankovic and Maria Sharapova. Li, who won the Australian Open in January, was at the top of her game for most of the first set. Even so, she couldnt close it out. "Only one mistake: I think I should go party last night," Li said with a smile. Williams committed six unforced errors in the opening game, and it took her 16 minutes to win a game. She double-faulted to fall behind 5-2, but then won 11 of the final 12 games, a surge worthy of a champion. Wholesale Baseball Jerseys . -- Andy Granatelli, the former CEO of STP motor oil company who made a mark on motorsports as a car owner, innovator and entrepreneur, has died. MLB Jerseys China . -- Mike Shanahan gave Robert Griffin III a rest, and may have turned up the pressure on himself, too. https://www.mlbjerseyschina.us/ . Watching them over the past year - and in some cases, two years - has given us a starting point for this seasons Craigs List. Cheap Nike MLB Jerseys .Before a raucous sellout crowd, the Hawks won for the 29th time in 31 games to extend their Eastern-best record to 36-8.As usual, pretty much everyone chipped in.Four starters were in double figures and backup point guard Dennis Schroder led a spurt at the start of the fourth quarter that helped the Hawks pull away. Wholesale Nike MLB Jerseys . -- Shanshan Feng was alone in her opinion about the pin positions in the Kraft Nabisco Championship.PHILADELPHIA -- Darrun Hilliard watched intently Saturday night as the Philadelphia 76ers retired Allen Iversons number at the Wells Fargo Center. Less than 24 hours later, in the same arena, he tried to recreate the magic of his all-time favourite player. Hilliard scored a career-high 26 points and No. 8 Villanova set a school record for regular-season wins with a 73-56 victory over Marquette on Sunday. "AI was the man," Hilliard said. "That was my favourite player. Seeing him go out and be the smallest guy on the court and doing what he did with everything against him, it was something I looked up to. So its pretty cool to be in this building." Josh Hart added 13 points and JayVaughn Pinkston had 11 points and seven rebounds for the Wildcats (26-3, 14-2 Big East), who have won four straight and 10 of 11. The Wildcats had never won 26 regular-season games in the 95-year history of the program. Villanova won 25 games four previous times, most recently in 2008-09, a season it reached the Final Four. Deonte Burton scored 13 points for Marquette (17-12, 9-7) and Todd Mayo finished with 11 points and five rebounds. "I was proud of that effort," Villanova coach Jay Wright said. "I know Marquettes a good, hungry team and they play hard. Its hard to match that level." Playing in the home of the 76ers Hilliard almost looked like an NBA guard with the kind of show he put on for the fans. The 6-foot-6 junior guard had 18 points in first half, shot 5 for 8 from 3-point range for the game and set his career high with a dazzling drive that put the Wildcats up 66-47 with 4:58 left. Hilliards previous career high of 25 points came in an upset win over Syracuse last season -- also at the Wells Fargo Center. "Darrun was on fire today," Hart said. "When you have someone whos 5 for 8 from 3s, the defence is really focusing in on him so that allowed me to get open shots." Villanova was 12 of 29 from 3-point range. Trying to make a late push to get into the NCAA tournament for the ninth straight year, Marquette came in having won five of six, including an important two-point victory over Georgetown on Thursday. But the Golden Eagles never threatened to upset the Wildcats, shooting just 4 for 15 from 3-point range and 16 for 25 from the free throw line. They committedd 15 turnovers.dddddddddddd "I would say the number one disappointment is we didnt play as hard as we have to play on the road to beat a team as good as Villanova," Marquette coach Buzz Williams said. After falling behind by 11 points at halftime, Marquette made just one field goal through the first 5 minutes of the second half to allow Villanova to open a 48-29 lead. Villanova led by double digits the rest of the way to move one full game ahead of No. 9 Creighton for first place in the Big East. The Wildcats only two conference losses have come to Creighton, which fell out of first place after losing to Xavier on Saturday. "I dont think theyre going to win our league or theyre eighth in the country based on one number," Williams said. "I think theyre really good in each phase of the game but I also think they play for one another. I think they play incredibly hard and I think they play with great spirit." Hilliard and Hart combined to score Villanovas first 20 points, before Pinkston and Tony Chennault scored the next nine for the Wildcats. Daniel Ochefu then forced a steal, ran ahead of the pack and had a transition dunk to cap a 17-4 run and send Villanova to a 31-18 lead with 3:18 left in the first half. The Golden Eagles cut the deficit to six points a couple of minutes later, but Hilliard scored five straight points to close the half, hitting two free throws after Williams was called for a technical foul and drilling a 3-pointer with 2 seconds remaining. "I thought that series was important for us," Wright said. "We were struggling a little and they were coming back." The Wildcats led 36-25 at halftime despite foul-plagued starting guards Ryan Arcidiacono and James Bell playing just 6 and 5 minutes, respectively. Neither scored in the first half and Bell, the teams leading scorer, didnt score at all and remains six points shy of 1,000 points for his career. "In the first half, when we were playing without James Bell and Ryan Arch, I thought our energy level actually went up," Wright said. "I thought we were actually a quicker team. And then those guys were really fresh in the second half. "Weve been trying to build our depth throughout the season and that was really important to have that first half like that." ' ' '

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