Briefs | Speed skating: Apolo Ohno crashes in World Cup opener

Speedskating

Fourth-place finish for Seattle skater: Apolo Ohno of Seattle crashed Saturday in the opener of the short-track speedskating World Cup season.

Ohno, the defending overall world champion, lost an edge during a turn in the men's 1,000 meters and tumbled into the new pads around the rink at the Utah Olympic Oval. He got up after a few moments and skated the rest of the race.

Ohno was the only skater in the final who wasn't from South Korea, which got an easy sweep when Ohno wiped out with four laps to go. Kwak Yoon-gy was the winner, finishing in 1 minute, 30.821.

Wang Meng won the women's 1,000 in 1:29.766. American Kimberly Derrick fell well off the pace in the final few laps, but she took third when Liu Qiuhong of China was disqualified after a collision at the finish line with South Korea's Shin Sae-bom, who finished second.

Zhou Yang of China was first in the women's 1,500 in 2:21.445. Sung Si-bak won the men's 1,500, beating Canada's Charles Hamelin and Jeff Simon of the U.S.

Tennis

Powerhouses had played four finals this year: Rafael Nadal will end the year at No. 1 after he and Roger Federer both lost in the semifinals of the Madrid Masters.

Andy Murray and Gilles Simon will meet in today's final. The resilient Simon upset Nadal 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (8-6) after the fourth-ranked Murray beat Federer 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 to prevent what would have been the fifth Nadal-Federer final this season.

Williams tops Ivanovic: Venus Williams rallied from a set down to beat Ana Ivanovic 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the Zurich Open semifinals. Williams will face Flavia Pennetta in today's final, after the Italian beat Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) in an earlier match.

Boxing

A dominant performance: Bernard Hopkins used lightning-quick combinations and a cagey, near-perfect defense to embarrass and confuse Kelly Pavlik (34-1) in a 12-round, nontitle bout at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J.

Hopkins, 43, made the 26-year-old Pavlik — the WBC and WBO middleweight champion — look slow and powerless in fighting at 170 pounds, 10 pounds over his weight class. Hopkins (49-5-1) won with scores of 119-106, 117-109 and 118-108 from the judges.

"I think this was my best performance, better than [Antonio] Tarver, better than [Felix] Trinidad, better than Oscar [De La Hoya], better than my 21 defenses," Hopkins said. "I am extremely happy."

The mismatch was obvious from the opening bell. By the fifth round, Pavlik was bleeding from the nose, and by the seventh Hopkins was taunting him.

Klitschko to fight Povetkin: Wladimir Klitschko (51-3) will defend his IBF heavyweight title against Alexander Povetkin of Russia on Dec. 13 in Mannheim, Germany. Povetkin, undefeated in 16 fights, is the mandatory IBF challenger.

Cycling

Contador to join Astana: After a meeting with team boss Johan Brunyeel, Alberto Contador confirmed he will ride for Astana in 2009. The Spaniard's future had been unclear after Lance Armstrong joined the team.

Third Giro for Cunego: Damiano Cunego won the Giro di Lombardia for the third time after breaking away from a group of riders with 10 miles left. The Italian covered the 150-mile route from Varese to Como in an unofficial time of 5 hours, 37 minutes, 4 seconds.

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