U.S. Ousted From Davis Cup in a Marathon

After nearly five hours of punishing, draining tennis, the United States was left with an unmistakable fact: It is out of the Davis Cup again, and the days of relying on Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi are long gone.

The latest loss came in the semifinals Sunday when Andy Roddick lost, 17-15, to Russia’s Dmitry Tursunov in a fifth-set marathon at Russia.

“You feel like you let your teammates down and your country down,� Roddick said. “It’s not an easy thing, especially to fight back all that way and to lose.�

The U.S. trailed, 2-1, entering the last day of the best-of-five competition and needed singles victories from Roddick and James Blake on the clay court at Olympic Stadium to advance.

But Tursunov put Russia into the title match against Argentina by winning, 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 3-6, 17-15 in the clincher. Blake defeated Marat Safin, 7-5, 7-6 (4), in an inconsequential finale, leaving Russia with a 3-2 victory.

The Russians will play host to Argentina in December in their first Davis Cup final since they beat France in 2002 for their only title. Argentina ousted Australia in the other semifinal, completing a 5-0 rout in which Sunday’s last match was declared a walkover.

The 72 games by Roddick and Tursunov tied a record for the most in a World Group match since the tiebreaker was introduced in 1989; France’s Arnaud Clement defeated Switzerland’s Marc Rosset in the 2001 quarterfinals in 72 games. Sunday’s match lasted 4 hours 48 minutes.

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Top-ranked Amelie Mauresmo was beaten in the China Open, losing 6-4, 6-0 to second-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova in a final interrupted by rain for 75 minutes in the first set at Beijing.

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Martina Hingis defeated first-time finalist Olga Poutchkova, 6-0, 6-4, at Kolkata to win the Sunfeast Open for her second title since coming out of retirement last year.

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Fifteen-year-old Tamira Paszek won her first WTA Tour title, beating sixth-seeded Maria Elena Camerin, 7-5, 6-1, in the Slovenia Open at Portoroz.

HORSE RACING

Valenzuela Is Without a Ride for Santa Anita

Jockey Patrick Valenzuela was not named to any mounts for opening day of the Oak Tree meet Wednesday at Santa Anita, but agent Tom Knust said he hopes to name Valenzuela to ride Thursday after the jockey took a physical requested by the California Horse Racing Board and agreed to provide additional medical information.

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Southern Africa won the $125,000 Ralph M. Hinds Invitational Handicap at Fairplex Park in Pomona, running 1 1/8 miles in 1:52.19 and beating Top This and That and Itstufftobegood by half a length. Today is the last day of the 16-day meet.

MISCELLANY

Rono Wins Swift Marathon in Canada

Kenyan Daniel Rono ran the second-fastest marathon in Canada, finishing in 2 hours 10 minutes 14 seconds to win the Scotiabank Waterfront Marathon at Toronto.

Malgorzata Sobanska of Poland won the women’s division, also in a course record of 2:34.31.

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The Ducks lost, 4-3, when Brendan Morrison scored the winning goal in the first extra round of a shootout to lift host Vancouver in an exhibition.

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Playing in front of 12,112, the second-largest crowd for a regular-season NCAA women’s volleyball match, top-ranked Nebraska defeated Creighton, 27-30, 30-24, 30-13, 30-18, at Omaha. Nebraska has the all-time record of 12,504 for a match against Colorado in 2000.