Tenth seed Petra Kvitova claimed a record third Madrid Open tennis title on Saturday, outlasting Kiki Bertens, 7-6 (8-6), 4-6, 6-3. The two-time Wimbledon winner celebrated her hard-fought victory in the nearly three-hour finale when the unseeded Bertens hit a backhand long on the final point. Kvitova previously won Madrid in 2011 and 2015. This win gives Kvitova four titles in the first five months of 2018. Kvitova was playing her 11th match in 13 days after also winning the Prague Open last weekend. On the men’s side, second seed Alexander Zverev handled Denis Shapovalov, 6-4, 6-1, to reach the final, where he will face fifth seed Dominic Thiem, a 6-4, 6-2 winner over sixth seed Kevin Anderson.
COLLEGES
Ex-BC women’s hoops player Droesch dies
Clare Droesch, the former Boston College women’s basketball player who helped the Eagles to the 2004 Big East title, four NCAA Tournament appearances, and two Sweet 16s, died after a six-plus-year battle with cancer. She was 36. The school said the New York native died Friday at home. Droesch was diagnosed with breast cancer in December 2011. Droesch scored 1,136 points for BC — 12th most in school history. She averaged 9.0 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 2.5 assists from 2001-05 . . . Ben Spencer and Buddy Carr had three goals apiece but No. 15 UMass (12-5) saw its rally fall short in its 15-13 loss to No. 5 Yale (14-3) in the first round of the NCAA Division 1 men’s lacrosse tournament at New Haven . . . Nick Shanks’s four goals and Mason Pollack’s 19 saves led host Tufts (18-1) to the NCAA Division 3 men’s lacrosse tournament quarterfinals with an 18-11 win over Ithaca (16-4) . . . Catherine Lawliss had four goals to lead the Tufts women’s lacrosse team (13-4) to a 17-8 first-round win over FDU-Florham (15-5) in the NCAA Division 3 women’s tournament . . . Lexi Lenaghan scored four goals to reach 100 points on the season and Babson (13-7) took a 17-4 win over Castleton (11-7) in an NCAA Division 3 women’s tournament first-round game in Middlebury, Vt.
NHL
Predators’ Fisher decides to retire again
Predators center Mike Fisher retired after an 18-year NHL career. The 37-year-old center had two goals and two assists in 16 games with the Predators this season after signing a contract Feb. 26. He added one goal in 12 playoffs games. Fisher was Nashville’s captain last season before retiring in August after the Predators lost in six games to the Penguins in the Stanley Cup Final. He said he doesn’t plan to come out of retirement again. Fisher did not play in Thursday’s second-round Game 7 loss to the Jets because of a lower-body injury . . . Nicklas Backstrom (right hand) is day to day but Capitals coach Barry Trotz said he is optimistic the center will be able to play in the Eastern Conference finals against Tampa Bay.
Rantanen, Finland upset Canada at worlds
Mikko Rantanen scored twice and Harri Sateri made 30 saves to lead Finland to a 5-1 win over Canada at the world championships at Herning, Denmark. Canada’s Curtis McElhinney was pulled with 3:25 remaining in the opening period after allowing three goals on nine shots. With the win, Finland jumped to second in Group B with 12 points, one behind the United States. Denmark is another point back in third and Canada remains at 10 in fourth followed by Latvia with 9. Frans Nielsen, Jesper Jensen, and Nichlas Hardt scored for host Denmark, which kept alive its dream of reaching the quarterfinals with a 3-1 win over South Korea. Ronalds Kenins, Guntis Galvins, and Andris Dzerins scored as Latvia beat Germany, 3-1, to stay in contention. In Group A at Copenhagen, Mika Zibanejad gave defending champ Sweden a 4-3 overtime win over Slovakia with a power-play goal with 41 seconds remaining, Kirill Kaprizov, Evgenii Dadonov, Nikita Nesterov, and Mikhail Grigorenko scored as Russia topped Switzerland, 4-3, and Konstantin Komarek had a goal and an assist in Austria’s 4-0 win over Belarus. Sweden leads Group A 14 points, with Russia 1 point back. Switzerland and the Czech Republic have 9, Slovakia 8, and Austria 4. The first four teams from each group advance to the quarterfinals.
MISCELLANY
Lomachenko wins WBA lightweight title in TKO
Ukrainian boxer Vasiliy Lomachenko (11-1, 9 KOs) stopped Venezuela’s Jorge Linares (44-4, 27 KOs) at 2:08 of the 10th round of their WBA lightweight championship fight in New York to win a title in his third weight class. Lomachenko landed a hard left to the body during a flurry of precision punches that sent Linares to his knee. Linares, who hadn’t lost since 2012, got up but the referee called the bout. Lomachenko added the 135-pound title to his belts at 126 and 130 pounds . . . Will Power pulled away from Scott Dixon to win by 2.2443 seconds in Indianapolis, his second straight IndyCar Grand Prix victory. Power dominated on the 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course. He led a race-high 56 laps, including the last 34 . . . Lewis Hamilton set a track record of of 1 minute, 16.173 seconds to win the pole for Sunday’s Formula One Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona . . . German soccer team Hamburger SV beat Borussia Moenchengladbach, 2-1, but was relegated from the Bundesliga for the first time since the league was founded in 1963.
