MONACO // Rafael Nadal defeated David Ferrer 6-4, 7-5 yesterday to win his seventh consecutive Monte Carlo Masters tennis title. The top-ranked Spaniard chalked up his 37th successive win at the clay court event, where he has not lost since 2003.
It was his 44th career title and 19th at a Masters event. Nadal had lost his three previous finals, twice to the second-ranked Novak Djokovic, and once to Roger Federer, the world No 3.
US relegated in Fed Cup
STUTTGART // The United States, the record 17-time champions of tennis' Fed Cup, were relegated from the top-tier World Group, failing to win a point in a 5-0 loss to Germany, with Andrea Petkovic beating Melanie Oudin 6-2, 6-3 in the first of the reverse singles for an unassailable 3-0 lead in the best-of-five series. In other ties, Russia beat Italy 5-0 to set up a final with the Czech Republic, who triumphed 3-2 over Belgium.
Kenyans do the double
LONDON // Emmanuel Mutai and Mary Keitany completed a Kenyan double in the London Marathon while moving into fourth place each on the individual all-time lists. Mutai broke compatriot Sammy Wanjiru's men's course record with a time of 2hrs 4mins 40secs. Earlier on the sunny, spring morning, world women's half-marathon champion Keitany ran the second half of her race on her own to clock 2hrs 19mins 19secs.
West Indies' Alexander dies
KINGSTON // Former West Indies captain Franz "Gerry" Alexander, who represented the cricket team in 25 Test matches, has died at age 82. Alexander made his debut for the West Indies against England at Leeds in 1957. He represented the West Indies in 25 Tests between 1957 and 1961, scoring 961 runs. One of his most famous innings was 60 against Australia in the famous tied Test in Brisbane in the 1960/61 series.
