Fish surprises No. 1 Federer
No. 98 Mardy Fish stunned No. 1 Roger Federer 6-3, 6-2 Saturday in the Pacific Life Open semifinals in Indian Wells, Calif.
Fish, pulling off by far the biggest of a string of upsets he’s put together in the tournament, dominated the match against the three-time Indian Wells champion.
The defeat, more surprising because it was so lopsided, continued Federer’s frustration this season. The once invincible-seeming Swiss star has lost three times this year, the first two to Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open semifinals and Andy Murray in the opening round at Dubai.
The 26-year-old Fish, who ended Federer’s 41-match win streak against Americans dating to a 2003 loss to Andy Roddick, moved into today’s final against Djokovic, a 6-3, 6-2 winner over defending champion Rafael Nadal.
Winter sports
White wins halfpipe title
Executing a series of near-flawless tricks, Shaun White captured his third consecutive halfpipe title at the U.S. Open Snowboarding Championships in Stratton, Vt.
A day after winning the slopestyle event, White scored a 91 on his first run to edge up-and-comer Kevin Pearce and Mason Aguirre.
Australian Torah Bright took top honors in the women’s division with an 84.17, besting 2002 Olympic gold medalist Kelly Clark, who had a fall on one run and finished with a 79.33. Gretchen Bleiler took third.
•Lindsey Vonn, the overall women’s World Cup champion, and Jimmy Cochran won slalom titles at the U.S. Alpine Championships in Carrabassett Valley, Maine, in a competition delayed because of rain, snow and wind.
Vonn led both runs to win the event, which is not her strongest, with a combined time of 1 minute, 26.31 seconds for her first career win at Sugarloaf. Hailey Duke was second in 1:28.21 and Jenny Lathrop finished third in 1:28.42.
Cochran successfully defended his title with a combined time of 1:26.69, with Cody Marshall (1:27.90) second and Tim Jitloff (1:28.16) third.
Miscellany
Minnesota-Duluth wins hockey title
Kim Martin stopped 28 shots to lead Minnesota Duluth past Wisconsin 4-0 at the NCAA women’s hockey championship in Duluth, Minn.
The win was the school’s fourth championship in eight years, and first since 2003. Wisconsin beat UMD 4-1 in the women’s Frozen Four final last year for its second straight crown.
Haley Irwin, Emmanuelle Blais, Sara O’Toole and Karine Demeule scored for the Bulldogs (34-4-1), who beat Wisconsin (29-9-3) five out of six times this season.
•Adriano, an A.P. Indy colt trained by Graham Motion, raced to the biggest win of his career, winning the $500,000 Lane’s End Stakes at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., after taking control at the top of the stretch.
Jockey Edgar Prado put Adriano in contention going into the far turn, after running in midpack, then held off challengers down the lane and drew clear, finishing 2 1/2 lengths ahead of Halo Najib. Medjool was third, another three-quarters of a length back.
•French swimmer Alain Bernard broke the 100-meter freestyle world record for the second time in two days, setting a mark of 47.50 seconds in the final at the European swimming championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
•At Columbus, Ohio, Lacey Nymeyer won the 100 freestyle to help Arizona earn its first national title at the NCAA Women’s Division I Swimming and Diving Championships.