22 Monday, April 3, 2017 SPORTS Gilbert bags Tour of

FlandersOudenaarde . peloton around 90km from the elgian champion has also won major finish as another team-mate, Gilbert carried his bike one-day classics including three-time winner Bover the line above his head Amstel Gold, Fleche Wallonne , accelerated up as he won the prestigious Tour and Clasica de San Sebastian, the iconic Muur climb. of Flanders for the first time but this victory tops the lot. It Both Van Avermaet and yesterday with a remarkable was his seventh participation at Sagan were caught out and left in solo breakaway. Flanders and first for five years the peloton, which quickly lost Gilbert, 34, attacked alone having previously come third a minute. They had started to with 55km of the 261km race to in 2009 and 2010. close in when, with 55km to go go and held on to win as world But while a BMC team- and on the second ascent of the champion and mate of Belgian compatriot 2.2km-long Oude-Kwaremont Olympic gold medallist ’s he was forced climb, Gilbert turned on the Van Avermaet crashed 17km to ride the Ardennes classics after-burners and broke clear from the end of the cobbled rather than the cobbled ones. on his own. A crash took out classic. Belgian Sep Vanmarcke also Van Avermaet, the in-form After-burners taking down Briton Luke Rowe rider this spring, picked himself He was part of a group of 14 and forcing Maciej Bodnar off up to take second place ahead riders who broke clear of the the road.(AFP) of Gilbert’s Quick Step Floors team-mate but Results the crash with Sagan and potentially robbed the 1. Philippe Gilbert (BEL/Quick-Step) 6hr 23min 45sec race of a grandstand finish. 2. Greg Van Avermaet (BEL/BMC) at 28 sec Instead, Gilbert’s audacious 3. Niki Terpstra (NED/QST) same time solo breakaway paid dividends. 4. Dylan van Baarle (NED/CAN) s.t. Victory in Flanders added 5. Alexander Kristoff (NOR/KAT) 52 to the 2012 world champion’s 6. Sacha Modolo (ITA/EAU) s.t. impressive resume that 7. John Degenkolb (GER/TRE) s.t. includes stage wins at all three 8. (ITA/WIE) s.t. Grand Tours and victories in 9. Sylvain Chavanel (FRA/DEN) s.t. two other ‘Monument’ races -- 10. Sonny Colbrelli (ITA/BAH) s.t. Philippe Gilbert Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the

Miami ohanna Konta defeated 6-4, Sindhu lifts India Open title J6-3 to win the on Saturday - the New Delhi change of ends to take a one- game at 21-16 to lift the title. biggest title won by a British woman in 40 years. Konta beats ndia’s PV Sindhu defeated point lead 18-17 before Sindhu The maiden title win helped Konta, who had never won an elite WTA premier Itop seed Carolina Marin of rallied to seal the game at 21-19. the Indian shuttler narrow mandatory event, will move to number seven in the Spain in straight games to win The lanky Indian raced to down her head-to-head record world rankings with the victory. Wozniacki the final match of the India a 4-0 lead in the second game against the Olympian Spaniard The -born 25-year-old, who beat Venus Open badminton tournament and maintained a five-point to 4-5. Williams in the semis, began superbly, breaking to in New Delhi yesterday. lead at 15-10. She locked the Sindhu had last defeated love in the opening game before Wozniacki swiftly Third seed Sindhu Marin in the BWF broke back to level at 2-2. beat the Spaniard Super Series in Dubai After another break each, the Briton took 21-19, 21-16 in a last year. advantage of two double-faults from the Dane to match that lasted 46 She won her semi- break to 5-4 and serve out for the set. minutes at the Siri Fort final clash against There was a similar pattern to the start of the Sports Complex. second-seeded Sung Ji second set, with the pair exchanging breaks in the The 21-year- Hyun of South Korea first two game. The key moment came when Konta old Olympic silver on Saturday. broke to go 4-3 up, with a little help from the net medallist took an early In the men’s singles cord. lead in the match and final, Viktor Axelsen Clearly full of confidence, Konta then broke continued to dominate of Denmark clinched again, with a lob on match-point, to secure the the game throughout the title beating biggest win of her career and the best by a British in front of a cheering Chinese Taipei’s Tien woman since won Wimbledon in home crowd. Chen Chou in straight 1977. No British woman had ever won a premier Sindhu took a games. mandatory event since the elite tier was introduced crucial 5-1 lead in the Third seed Axelsen in 2009 and this was only the second time that Konta first game but a fight took just 36 minutes had even qualified for the Miami tournament. back by Marin left the to edge past Chou The Briton said her quick start had really helped score 11-9 at the mid 21-13, 21-10 to claim her in what was just her second premier mandatory break. his maiden India Open final, following her loss to Agnieszka Radwanska in Marin came back title at the Siri Fort Beijing in 2016. (AFP) Johanna Konta strongly after the P V Sindhu Sports Complex. (AFP)