Former No.1 Justine Henin-Hardenne reached the final of the Family Circle Cup on Saturday in just her second event since returning from illness and injury, beating Tatiana Golovin 7-6 (4), 7-5.
Henin-Hardenne spent most of last year ranked No. 1 but after last year's U.S. Open suffered a viral illness and then a knee injury. She is ranked No. 43 and was unseeded going into the Family Circle.
"It's great to feel this again," Henin-Hardenne said. "It's been a very hard time and I'll have to keep going. It's only one step, another step, but a very important step."
Henin-Hardenne advances to today's championship match against second-seeded Elena Dementieva, who defeated eighth-seeded Patty Schnyder 3-6, 6-4, 6-0.
MONTE CARLO MASTERS: Rafael Nadal rallied past Richard Gasquet 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-3 at the Monte Carlo Masters, reaching his fourth final of the season and earning a shot at defending champion Guillermo Coria.
Coria beat two-time champion Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-2, 7-5 and will play for an ATP title for the first time this year.
FED CUP: Serena Williams' ankle, sprained last week at Amelia Island, is fine, and she will play in the Fed Cup against Belgium on April 23-24 at the Delray Beach Tennis Center.
SOCCER: Arsenal in Cup final
Arsenal reached the FA Cup final for the fourth time in five years, beating Blackburn 3-0 in Cardiff, Wales, behind two goals by substitute Robin van Persie in the last 4 minutes.
Arsenal will play in a record 17th FA Cup final May 21 against Manchester United or Newcastle, who meet in the other semifinal today at the same venue.
CRACKDOWN ON VIOLENCE: Knives, clubs and a banner were confiscated from fans entering AS Roma's game against Reggina in Rome, the first high-profile match since Italy adopted tougher steps to curb soccer violence.
On Thursday, the government backed zero-tolerance measures to end matches immediately if objects are thrown from the stands and penalize the team whose fans threw the objects with an automatic 3-0 loss.
RUNNING: Walters wins Pat's Run
Keith Walters, a first lieutenant in a Phoenix-based Army Reserve unit, beat more than 5,200 other competitors to the finish line of the inaugural race in Pat Tillman's memory in Tempe, Ariz.
Tillman, who left a lucrative NFL contract to join the elite Army Rangers, died in a friendly-fire incident in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004.
Walters, 28, finished in 21 minutes, 2 seconds, beating 17-year-old Dane Wood by 1:18 for the race title. Arizona State's Jessica Crate, 19, was the women's winner in 24:13.MORE ON TILLMAN: Four months before he was killed , Tillman was told he could opt out of extending his military service because NFL clubs were interested in him. Tillman instead chose to stay in the Army Rangers for a final tour of duty BOSTON MARATHON: Kenya's Robert Cheboror, runner-up in last year's event, pulled out of Monday's race because of visa problems.
Cheboror finished 1:12 behind Timothy Cherigat last year.
BOXING: Hasegawa captures title
Japanese challenger Hozomi Hasegawa defeated Thailand's Veeraphol Nakhonluang in Tokyo to capture the WBC bantamweight title.
Hasegawa(18-2-0) stunned Nakhonluang (47-2-2) with a series of blows to the head and won in a unanimous decision. Judges scored the bout 115-113, 115-113, 116-112 all in favor of Hasegawa.
WBA MINIMUMWEIGHT: Japanese champion Yutaka Niida (18-1-3) successfully defended his title, beating challenger Kim Jae-won (19-2-2) of South Korea by unanimous decision in Tokyo.
ET CETERA
TAEKWONDO: Ruben Montesinos of Spain took the men's heavyweight title at the World Taekwondo Championships in Madrid, and Sin Kyung-hyeon of South Korea won the women's gold with a knockout victory over Iniabelle Diaz of Puerto Rico.
