BOXING De La Hoya wins easy decision Oscar De La Hoya showed he could still beat a contender. Next up is cashing in again like a champion. In what was little more than a tuneup for a much bigger fight, De La Hoya kicked off his retirement tour Saturday night before an appreciative crowd by pitching a near shutout over a game but overmatched Steve Forbes in Carson, Calif. De La Hoya got a chance to shake off ring rust and put on a show in front of his hometown fans, who came out in big numbers to cheer him on against a fighter whose previous biggest claim to fame was losing in the final of the Contender reality series. He didn’t disappoint, battering the smaller Forbes around on his way to an easy 12-round decision win in his first fight in a year. The victory set up a September rematch with Floyd Mayweather Jr., who beat De La Hoya by split decision last May in what was the richest fight ever. Even though De La Hoya was a 17-1 favorite, his dominating performance against Forbes will likely do what De La Hoya wanted by helping sell the second fight with Mayweather.
Firat Arslan earned a convincing decision against American Darnell Wilson in the first defense of his WBA cruiserweight title in Stuttgart, Germany. The German pressed the fight from the opening seconds, hitting Wilson with regularity from the second round when a left hook sent the American to the ropes. All three judges ruled the fight 117-111. The best round for Wilson (23-7-3, 20 knockouts ) was the seventh when he picked up the pace, catching the German several times and getting him to back off for a while. Arslan (28-3, 18 knockouts ) is a 37-year-old who won the title in November against Virgil Hill. Self-taught, he didn’t have a trainer and manager until his past six fights.
TENNIS Nadal-Ferrer in Barcelona final Three-time defending champion Rafael Nadal cruised past Denis Gremelmayr 6-1, 6-0 Saturday to reach his fourth consecutive Barcelona Open final. Today, Nadal will play secondseeded David Ferrer, who defeated Stanislas Wawrinka 7-6 (8 ), 6-3. Nadal defeated Ferrer in the quarterfinals at Monte Carlo last week en route to a fourth consecutive trophy.
Fernando Gonzalez of Chile remained unbeaten on clay this year, beating 36-year-old Younes El Aynaoui of Morocco 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 to reach the BMW Open final in Munich, Germany. Gonzalez, seeded second, will go for his 10 th title today against Simone Bolelli, an Italian who upset top-seeded Paul-Henri Mathieu of France 7-6 (1 ), 4-6, 7-6 (4 ). El Aynaoui is the oldest semifinalist on the ATP Tour since Jimmy Connors 15 years ago. Connors was 40 when he made the semifinals in San Francisco in 1993.
Top-seeded Anabel Medina Garrigues will face Gisela Dulko in the final of the Grand Prix SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem. Medina Garrigues defeated Greta Arn 6-3, 7-6 (3 ) Saturday to reach her first final of the year. Dulko stopped fourth-seeded Aravane Rezai of France 7-6 (6 ), 6-3. Top-seeded Vera Zvonareva reached her fourth final of the year by defeating Katarina Srebotnik 6-2, 6-4 in the Prague Open. The 13 th-ranked Zvonareva will face third-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus today. Azarenka defeated Klara Zakopalova 6-3, 6-2.
DIVING Wu earns victory at Canada Cup Australia’s Melissa Wu scored 9. 0 ’s on her last dive to take the gold medal in women’s platform at the Canada Cup competition with a score of 399. 25. Canada’s Emilie Heymans was second with 388. 90, followed by world champion Wang Xin with 379. 60. Wu Minxia and Guo Jingjing of China scored 350. 40 to win the three-meter synchronized event, beating Briony Cole and Sharleen Stratton of Australia. On men’s 10-meter synchro, Gleb Galperin of Russia and Dmitry Dobroskok of Russia won with 445. 08 points.
CYCLING De Bonis wins mountain stage Gerolsteiner rider Francesco De Bonis earned his first win in the 70-mile mountain stage Saturday and Andreas Kloeden retained the overall lead of the Tour De Romandie. The 26-year-old Italian won stage four from Sion to Zinal in the Valaisan Alps in 3 hours, 28 minutes, 6 seconds. The first-year pro outsprinted John Gadret of France to win by three seconds and Manuel Beltran of Spain was five seconds behind in third. Astana’s Kloeden extended his lead to 35 seconds. Giro d’Italia organizers have invited the Astana team to compete in the race in Geneva, reversing an earlier decision to ban it because of doping scandals. Astana officials confirmed Saturday they are hurrying to get elite American rider Levi Leipheimer from California to Palermo, Sicily, for the start of the three-week race next Saturday. Alberto Contador, winner of the 2007 Tour de France, will also be at the starting line for Astana. It was asked to leave the 2007 Tour after team leader Alexander Vinokourov tested positive for a blood transfusion. SWIMMING Ilchenko retains open crown Larisa Ilchenko of Russia defended her 10-kilometer open-water world crown on Saturday and amputee Natalie Du Toit of South Africa qualified for the Beijing Olympics by finishing fourth in Seville, Spain. Ilchenko swam the four loops of the Guadalquivir River course in 2 hours, 2 minutes, 2. 7 seconds. Britain’s Cassandra Patten finished 3. 1 seconds behind in second, while Yurema Requena of Spain was 4. 5 seconds back in third. Du Toit was only 5. 1 seconds behind Ilchenko. Hucles, Wambach lift US women over Australia BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Angela Hucles scored in injury time and Abby Wambach had two more to push closer to the 100-goal milestone, giving the U. S. women’s soccer team a 5-4 victory over Australia in Saturday’s friendly.
Cat Whitehill’s free kick went to Wambach, who headed it to Hucles coming up from behind. She poked it in between goalkeeper Melissa Barbieri and the left post for her first goal since 2004 with about 30 seconds left in the added time and the second consecutive survival victory over Australia.
Lindsay Tarpley scored twice in the first half at Legion Field for the U. S., which blew a 4-1 lead helped by two own goals before pulling it out.
The 27-year-old Wambach converted a header off an assist from Shannon Boxx 19 seconds into the second half for her 95 th career goal with the national team. Only eight players have scored 100 in international soccer.
Hucles hadn’t scored for the U. S. since another gamewinner Oct. 16, 2004 against Mexico.
The teams were meeting for the second consecutive weekend in the middle game of the Americans’ three-city friendly tour in the U. S. that ends next weekend against Canada in Washington D. C. ’s RFK Stadium.
The U. S. won the first meeting 3-2 on Carli Lloyd’s injury-time goal after another Australia comeback.
The Americans extended their home match unbeaten streak to 29, dating back to November 2004 against Denmark.
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