Bertens beats Vekic for eighth WTA title
ST PETERSBURG • Second seed Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands beat Croatia's Donna Vekic 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 to win the St Petersburg Ladies Trophy on Sunday and claim her eighth WTA singles title.
Bertens, the world No. 8, was slow out of the blocks, and found herself trailing 5-2 in the first set before staging a remarkable turnaround.
REUTERS
Kane in US to speed up recovery
ATLANTA • Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane plans to step up his recovery from an ankle injury next week but will not push too hard to return earlier than expected, the 25-year-old said.
He is likely to be out until March after damaging left ankle ligaments against Manchester United at Wembley on Jan 13, but has gone to the United States to recover.
The Englishman, who was in Atlanta to watch the Super Bowl, told Sky Sports "the ankle feels good", adding: "We'll get the footballs out next week and see how it reacts. It's going well so far but we've got to take our time with it and do it right."
REUTERS
Good showing from local skydivers
Singapore's skydivers ended last week's Wind Games in Empuriabrava, Spain with three medals in a field of more than 200 athletes.
The Republic's duo of Kyra Poh and Choo Yi Xuan partnered Spaniards Cesar Rico and Dani Gallego to win the gold in the relay race with a total time of 677.474 seconds, 7.482 sec ahead of NinjAspire - a French-American team.
The quartet combined again to finish second in the 4 Way Dynamic event, behind NinjAspire. Isabelle Koh, 11, was placed third in the junior freestyle category. In-form Benzema helps Real close gap
MADRID • Karim Benzema scored his sixth goal in four games, as Real Madrid beat Alaves 3-0 on Sunday for a fourth successive LaLiga victory which took the European champions to within eight points of leaders Barcelona.
Real, the only top-three side in LaLiga to win over the weekend, moved to 42 points, two behind second-placed Atletico Madrid, who lost 1-0 at Real Betis, and eight adrift of Barca, who drew 2-2 at home to Valencia.
REUTERS
