Sharapova overcomes Davenport to win in Tokyo

TOKYO, Feb 6 (Reuters): Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova beat a hobbling Lindsay Davenport 6-1 3-6 7-6 to win the Pan Pacific Opentoday.

The Russian converted her fourth match point to take the third set tiebreak 7-5 and halt Davenport's bid for a record fifth title at the $1.3 million event.

Sharapova's eighth career title means she will rise from fourth to third when the new world rankings are released tomorrow.

"I had belief in myself," she told reporters.

"I don't want to set a timetable for myself to be number one.

My job's just to go out and perform." It had looked as though Sharapova would run away with the match as she took the first set in just 22 minutes in Tokyo.

Davenport began her sixth Pan Pacific final with her left thigh heavily taped after straining her hamstring in practice and could barely run during a one-sided first set.

The world number one went to the locker room for a medical time-out after the first set and the American fought back to take the second as Sharapova's concentration wavered.

Still moving gingerly, Davenport took more risks in an attempt to keep the points short and the frustration began to show on Sharapova's face.

"In the first set I looked at my coach (Adam Peterson) and he told me to stop," said Davenport.

"I took the time-out to get more support for my leg but I realised at that point that it was going to hurt.

I started to go for my shots but I didn't expect it to stay that close." However, Sharapova refused to buckle.

Muttering to herself constantly in Russian, the 17-year-old matched Davenport ace for ace as the third set went with serve.

The Siberian-born Sharapova beat Davenport in last year's Wimbledon semi-finals in their only previous meeting.

She came up with the big shots again to earn four match points.

Sharapova squandered three of them - just as she did in her semi-final loss to Serena Williams at the Australian Open.

But this time she held her nerve and ended Davenport's brave resistance with a forehand down the line after one hour 47 minutes.

Sharapova earned $189,000 for her third title in Japan to take her career earnings above the $3 million mark.

She also won the Japan Open in 2003 and 2004.

FA to fine clubs for players' abuse of referees LONDON, Feb 6 (Reuters): England's Football Association has warned clubs they will be fined heavily if their players abuse referees and linesmen during a game.

A number of recent Premier League matches have featured open abuse of officials by players, including the Arsenal versus Manchester United game on Tuesday when England forward Wayne Rooney swore at the referee on several occasions.

"The FA have reminded clubs about the increased harassment of officials and have advised them they will be liable for fines up to 250,000 pounds," said referees' boss Keith Hackett.

"It is a heavy penalty but we had to do something," he told the Observer newspaper today.

"The network is in place to put a squeeze on such behaviour with suppressing passion in the game." Hackett is general manager of PGMOL, the body responsible for managing referees in professional soccer.

Freeman considering competitive comeback - report SYDNEY, Feb 6 (Reuters): Australia's former Olympic champion Cathy Freeman is reported to be considering a comeback at next year's Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

Freeman, who crowned her athletics career by winning the 400 metres gold medal at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, announced her retirement in July 2003 but said she would consider making a comeback.

The athlete told Sydney's Sun Herald newspaper on Sunday that she would only make a return if there was "overwhelming support" for her, and if she did, she would restrict herself to the 4x400m relay.

"If I was part of the relay I'd do it, but not the individual," she was quoted as saying.

"It would be a lot of fun.

It would be enough motivation for me to get out there and try again." Danny Corcoran, the chief executive of Athletics Australia, told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

radio that he had not heard anything from Freeman about a comeback but planned to speak with her.

"To make that decision there's an enormous amount of hard work and pain and training that goes along with that and I'm not sure at this point in time whether Catherine wants to go along with that," he said.

"She's achieved everything possible, and I've had no indication that this is the case that she wants to make a comeback.

But I guess the next step is to sit down, have a chat, and see if there's any truth in it." Mahindra starts favourites against Vasco today MARGAO, Feb 6 (UNI): Buoyed by their win against Salgaocar Sports Club, Mumbai's Mahindra United look to be the favourites when they lock horns against lowly-placed Arlem-sponsored Vasco Sports Club in the sixth round of the ONGC Cup 9th edition National Football League championship match at Nehru stadium, Fatorda, tomorrow The well-knit jeepmen who are in an upbeat mood have seven points from four outings with two wins, a draw and defeat would certainly go all out for a win to improve their point tally.

On the other end, Vasco have had a poor season so far and are presently placed second from the bottom with 2 points with two drawn matches against SBT and JCT following losses to Fransa, Salgaocar and East Bengal.

Vasco will have to pull up their socks and play a more aggressive game tomorrow to keep their hopes alive in the championship.

They though will be weakened in their efforts as they would be missing Vinu Jose in the defence and likely to not have the services of Brazilian forward Fabio xavier Vasco coach Derrick Pereira informed that Jose would have to sit out tomorrow after being booked with two yellow cards, adding that striker Xavier was also a doubtful starter for the tie.

"Our boys will go all out for win tomorrow, as a win is a must to boost our confidence.

Though the teams is doing well, our forward line is not quick in grasping the advantages, Derrick stated.

Mahindra team manager Henry Menezes said, "Our team is fully fit and are in good spirit and our aim to snatch full points in Goa." Stating that Vasco was a good team, he said he expect a good match.

"Vasco will be playing before the home crowd but we will give a good fight and hope our boys will put up the same performance as they did against Salgaocar at home," Menezes added.

Mahindra look menancing on paper in all departments and all eyes will be on Brazilian duo of Flavio Rodrigues and Callisto de Almedia.

Flavio would in focus, especially, after scoring all three goals in the championship so far.

Flavio along with another de'Almedia or Abhisek Yadav would be hoping to combine well.

They form a potent strike force for the Mumbai outfit and would prove a tough task for the Vasco defenders to contain.

The jeepmen's midfield is perhaps their strongest point with brilliant performance by Jatin Bhist.

He will have the superb trio of S Venkatesh, Stevan Dias, Rauf Khan or Khalid Jamil ready to take control of the halfline.

Their defence is as solid as rock with Surkumar Singh, Arun Malhotra, Covan Lawrence and Debabrata Roy.

Mahinra have an efficient goalkeeper Sandeep Nandy, who has had an impressive showing in the last matches.

Vasco should also be wary of the fact that Mahindra's strong defence has only conceeded one goal.

If Vasco desire to salvage some prestige, they would have to play for a draw.

Towards this end they would have erect a rock solid defence and much would depend on Seby Dias, Kamal Thapa and Nicolao Colac.

Their midfilders Dennis Cabral, Minino Fernandes, Satish Minz, Sidney Rodrigues and Sushanat Mathew need to show more enterprise in the middle and forwards Alex Ambrose and Anthony Pereira or Levy Coelho will have to make good use of the few opportunities they get to hit the target.

Rogario Remos, who had perfomed consistently well under the bar will guard the goal.

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