Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/881840
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 1 OCTOBER 2017 57 POWERBOAT RACING - UIM CLASS VI WORLD POWERBOAT CHAMPIONSHIP TENNIS Sports Chaudron wins opening day races WILFRED SULTANA 55 Chaudron, the 41-footer Mal- tese entry challenging for the UIM Class VI World Powerboat Cham- pionship had a fantastic start on the first of the 3-days Event. With Aaron Ciantar as driver and Frenchman Dominique Mar- tini as throttle-man, 55 Chaudron opened up the day's appointment by winning the Class VI pole posi- tion with a good timing of 3'09.66. Following this encouraging start Aaron and Dominique even went on to win the first race of the Championship on 36'21.2 fol- lowed by the Italian boat Tommy One on 38'03.0, with Karl Piu' (It- aly) on 38'47.4 in third place. The Class VI classification after the first day reads; 1. 55 Chaudron (Malta) 20 points; 2. Tommy One (Italy) 15 pts; 3. Karl Piu' (Italy) 12 pts; and 4. Searex Baltec (Germa- ny) 9 pts. The 2017 UIM World Power- boat Championships for Class I, Class VI and Class 3D are being contested by more than 25 teams from various nationalities as part of the 'Grand Prix of Italy' and held at Chiaggio about 25 kilome- tres south of Venice. 55 Chaudron starts on track for another World Title Sharapova takes revenge on Sevastova in Beijing FORMER world number one Maria Sharapova avenged her U.S. Open loss to Anastasija Sev- astova with a 7-6(3) 5-7 7-6(7) victory over the Latvian in the China Open first round yester- day. The 30-year-old Russian, re- turning to court for the first time since her fourth-round exit at Flushing Meadows, came back from a break down three times before clinching the first set 7-3 in the tiebreak. Despite dropping her serve in the opening game of the second, Sevastova, seeded 16th, rallied back to force a decider. Sharapova, who had never lost a third-set tiebreak, needed a brave forehand winner at 6-5 be- fore sealing a second-round spot in just over three hours. She will take on the winner be- tween American qualifier Jennif- er Brady and Ekaterina Makaro- va of Russia in the second round. Earlier in the day, second seed Simona Halep snapped her three-match losing streak with a hardfought 6-3 3-6 6-2 win over American Alison Riske. The Romanian, who had not won a match since her defeat in the Cincinnati final to Garbine Muguruza, overcame a sloppy start before claiming 12 of the final 14 points to set up a second round clash against Magdalena Rybarikova or Eugenie Boucha- rd. Germany's Angelique Kerber began her campaign with a 6-2 7-5 win over Japanese teenager Naomi Osaka. Kerber, the former world num- ber one, came back from a break down to win five consecutive games in the second set to seal a second-round spot. Twice Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, seeded 12th, pro- duced an impressive array of powerful groundstrokes to beat fellow Czech left-hander Kristy- na Pliskova 6-3 7-5 in the open- ing round. Maria Sharapova of Russia hits to Simona Halep of Romania