* At the $600,000 WTA tournament in Amelia Island, Florida (through April 9):
- Fifth seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova, who won the $3.45-million Nasdaq-100 Open title in Miami last weekend, advanced to the third round of the women's singles by defeating Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden, 6:1, 5:7, 6:2.
- Dinara Safina (9) cruised to the third round of the women's singles with a win over Shahar Peer of Israel, 6:2, 6:0
- Yelena Vesnina beat Flavia Pennetta (8) of Italy in the second round of the women's singles, 6:2, 6:1
- Vera Dushevina beat Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine in the second round of the women's singles, 6:1, 6:4,
- Elena Likhovtseva (6) failed to advance to the third round of the women's singles losing to unseeded Julia Schruff of Germany, 4:6, 4:6
- Vera Zvonareva lost to Anna-Lena Groenefeld (7) of Germany in the second round of the women's singles, 3:6, 4:6
* At the 8th FINA World Swimming Championships in Shanghai (through April 9):
- Anastasia Ivanenko won the bronze in the women's 400m medley bringing Russia its first medal of the tournament. China's Qi Hui won the gold, and Italy's Filippi Alessia finished in second place.
* Russian boxer Yury Romanovich will fight against Valdemir Pereira of Brazil for the IBF Featherweight (126 lbs) title. Current title-holder Pereira, 31, won all of the 23 previous fights, whereas 21-year-old Romanovich won 16 of the 18 fights. The title-fight is set for Brazil, April 9.
* Ak Bars Kazan, the No. 3 team in the regular season in Russia's SuperLeague hockey championships, advanced into the finals with a win over Lokomotiv Yaroslavl (2) in the third straight match of the best-of-five semifinals series, 5:2 away. Metallurg Magnitogorsk, winner of the regular season, will play the away fourth leg against Avangard Omsk (4), April 6. Avangard leads in the series 2-1.
* Dinamo Moscow beat Universitet-Ugra Surgut, 94:63 at home, in the Russian men's basketball national championships regular season.
Russian men's basketball SuperLeague Division A standings:
1 CSKA Moscow - 42 points (after 22 games)
2 Khimky Moscow Region - 41 (23)
3 Dinamo St. Petersburg - 40 (22)
4 Dinamo Moscow - 39 (23)
5 UNICS Kazan - 37 (21)
6 Dinamo Moscow Region - 36 (23)
7 Ural-Great Perm - 35 (22)
8 Lokomotiv-Rostov Rostov-on-Don - 31 (23)
9 Sibirtelekom-Lokomotiv Novosibirsk - 29 (23)
10 Spartak VGUES Primorye - 29 (23)
11 CSK VVS Samara - 28 (23)
12 Spartak St. Petersburg - 27 (23)
13 Universitet-Ugra Surgut - 27 (23)
