Inland Waterways » reminder about how talented she is when shes at

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Andrea Petkovic remembered why she started playing tennis and along the way gave everyone else a reminder about how talented she is when shes at her best. The 26-year-old from Germany, who fell from ninth in the world in 2011 to 177th two years later, capped a stunning run to the Family Circle Cup title on Sunday, Petkovics first win in three years. She outlasted Jana Cepelova 7-5, 6-2 in the finals. "I just wanted to get back to why I started playing tennis, because I had fun playing it and because I love the sport," said Petkovic, whose progresses was slowed by several injuries that cost her much of 2012. The climb back was painful at times. Petkovic wanted to quit the game after falling in French Open qualifying last year and wondered if shed ever feel success at the sport again. So she decided to play for fun and not for the wins. "I just needed to remind myself and it came together this week, and Im very thrilled about that," she said. Petkovic entered this one seeded 14th, ranked 40th in the world and with few expectations about her first clay-court event of the season. Instead, Petkovics powerful forehand and grind-it-out mindset helped her oust three straight top 10 seeds in No. 4 Sabine Lisicki, No. 9 Lucie Safarova and No. 6 Eugenie Bouchard on the way to the finals. Petkovic used that same formula against Cepelova, a rising 20-year-old from Slovakia competing in her first WTA final. Cepelova led 5-4 and was a point away from capturing the first set. But Petkovic rallied to win that game and begin a run of eight in a row to take control of the match. "I have to let loose and play like I can," she told herself. Petkovic was energized after winning the crucial game and quickly broke serve to move in front. She took the set a game later and continued her run to build a 5-0 lead that Cepelova could not overcome. For Petkovic, the victory was more gratifying than her two other career WTA wins because of all her struggles. This "is a different feeling," she said. "Now, Im much more grateful. Its more rewarding." Petkovic dropped to the ground when Cepelovas final shot landed out of play. She jogged to the net to hug her opponent, waved to the crowd and did a celebration dance as fans applauded. She let her fun side shine through all week. She joked in postgame comments she might get a bit crazy on the flight back home, dancing with flight attendants and drinking champagne from her latest trophy. "Im going to have champagne and I dont even drink champagne," she said. "But Im going to have it for the heck of it." Petkovic earned $120,000 for her third career WTA victory, which was her first since winning in Strasbourg in 2011. Petkovics victory closed a week of surprises at the Family Circle Tennis Center. Only one of the tournaments top 10 seeds made it through to the final four and it was the first time a WTA tournament included three semifinalists 20 years old or younger since Amelia Island in 2008. Cepelova had a stunning run of her own, topping world No. 1 Serena Williams on Tuesday night to set the stage for plenty more unexpected results. Cepelova became the Family Circle Cups first unseeded finalist since Elena Vesnina in 2011. Cepelova didnt expect a long visit here, arriving without her coach, trainers and hitting partners. She typically ordered room service at the hotel and had to scrape around to find hitting partners to warm up before matches. "Before the tournament, if somebody told me youll be in the tournament finals I would not believe them," Cepelova said with a smile. "But it was a really nice week." Cepelova is also projected to move up some 30 spots in the rankings to around 50th in the world when the new list comes out next week, the WTA said. Petkovic won the title in her second appearance here. She had reached the round of 16 last year, but had to withdraw from a match against Caroline Wozniacki. She was on the phone with her father, Zoran, after the win. Father and daughter now have Palmetto State success in common. Zoran Petkovic was one of the leading singles players at the University of South Carolina in the early 1980s. He told his daughter stories of how Americans on campus loved wearing "cowboy boots and blue jeans," she recalled, laughing. "He was very happy, very emotional," Andrea Petkovic said of their phone call. "I dont know if he was tearing up, though." Joe Greene Youth Jersey . MLB.com reported that the Dodgers locked the left-hander in for one year at $10 million with up to $4 million in incentives. Justin Layne Steelers Jersey . 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Felix Doubront and four relievers combined kept Baltimores potent lineup in check, and David Ortiz had three of Bostons 12 hits off Wei-Yin Chen in a 4-3 victory Thursday night.EL SEGUNDO, CALIF. – It may end up being the key matchup in the first-ever playoff series between the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks. A stingy defence led by Drew Doughty against an explosive offence led by Hart Trophy nominee Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry. "Hit and hope," is all Kings head coach Darryl Sutter would say on Friday when asked how his team can slow down the Ducks dynamic duo. Luckily, Sutters top defenceman was willing to go a bit more in-depth. "Ive played Getzlaf and Perry so many times," said Doughty. "Ive played with them [most recently at the Sochi Olympics], I know exactly how they play. I study how they play. Theyre two of the hardest players to play in the league, no matter who is the third guy on that line. Its such a hard line to play against. But, like I said, Ive studied how they play so many times that I know exactly what theyre going to do and it just comes down to out-competing them, being a better player in every situation. "Its going to be tough for me to do, but I have to do it." Doughty, who averaged 26:31 of ice time per game during the first round win over the San Jose Sharks, will see a lot of Anaheims top line along with his defence partner Jake Muzzin. "Those two have been together for a long time," said Muzzin when asked about Getzlaf and Perry. "They have a lot of chemistry between each other and they kind of know where theyre going to be on certain plays. So you have to be very clear on where they are on the ice and be very vocal with each other on defending that top line." But the adjustment shouldnt be too tough for the Kings. Doughty is expecting a similar series to what his team experienced against the Sharks. "Theyve got really good forwards, especially their top guys are really good like San Joses," he said. "I think we can take advantage in some parts of the game with their defence, like we could with San Jose as well. I think Anaheim has maybe a little bit better of a goalie, so itll be harder to get it past him. I think its going to be the same type of game. Theyre going to get in on the forecheck. Their forecheck is a little bit different, but they actually come harder than San Jose, surprisingly. So we know theyre going to create off that." And Doughty warned against focusing too much on the Ducks dynamic duo, who combined for 74 goals in the regular season (28 per cent of Anaheims league-leading 263 goals). "For most of the season it wasnt really Getzlaf and Perry, who dominated our team," explained Doughty, "it was kind of the third, fourth-line guys like [Nick] Bonino, [Andrew] Cogliano and [Patrick] Maroon and guys like that so we got to pay special attention to them to." Getzlaf had one goal and one assist in the five regular season games against the Kings while Perry had two goals and two assists. Bonino had one goal and two assists, Cogliano had one goal, while Maroon had two goals in four games. Doughty remembers the Ducks secondary scoring being a key factor in the season series, which saw Anaheim win four of the five encounters, including an outdoor game at Dodger Stadium. But what stood out to Sutter during the regular-season showdowns? "We played two really good games in their building," Sutter said, leaving it at that. The teams split the two games at the Honda Center where the series will open on Saturday and where Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau will have the advantage of last line change. Sutter was in fine form on Friday in his meeting with the media, which lasted a little under three minutes with a good chunk of that being awkward silence following short answers. The fiirst question to Sutter was: whats the biggest challenge your team will face in the second-round series? "Were playing indoors," a deadpan Sutter stated.dddddddddddd "We heard originally the whole series was going to be played at either the Angels stadium or at the Dodgers. So now we found out today that theres actually four in Honda and three at Staples [Center], so weve got a lot of work to do to get that figured out." Its a little warm to play outside, a reporter retorted referencing the high of 35 degrees celsius in Orange County. "Its supposed to cool off, though," Sutter responded, not missing a beat. The Kings had no problem handling the heat against the Sharks as they became just the fourth team in NHL history to win a best-of-seven series after losing the first three games. And one player who has adapted well to the Hollywood spotlight is the 25-year-old Muzzin. Muzzin has proven worthy of the top-pairing assignment during just his second trip to the NHL post-season. Last year, Muzzin picked up three assists in 17 playoff games while averaging 15:50 of ice time per game. This year, Muzzin already has two goals and three assists through seven games while averaging 18:26 of ice time. "I think its just probably a little bit more experience," Sutter said. "If you take last years playoff where he was in and out of the lineup or didnt play that much, this year weve had to rely on him a little bit more to get him ready for playoffs and thats sort of just a continuation of that." "Jake was only on for one goal against in the whole series [against San Jose], shows you how good he was playing," said Doughty. "We did well offensively too [combining for 12 points]. The good thing about me and Muzz is when a teams emphasis is so hard on the forecheck, our breakout ability is really good where one of us can do it on our own. We can talk to each other, help out and I think that is the strength of us. We dont spend a lot of time in our D-zone. And when we do, were both physical, big guys who can pin a guy to have a loose puck and we can get it that way. We did really well in our D-zone, and thats why we were successful as a pair." Joe Pavelski, Joe Thornton, Logan Couture, Patrick Marleau and Brent Burns were held to just one goal over the final four games of the series against the Kings thanks in large part to the work of Muzzin and Doughty. "We were a lot better in our zone," said Muzzin when asked about the reversal in fortune in the series. "Getting pucks in and out, not giving them chances to create cycle opportunities and chances like that. [Jonathan Quick] made some big saves when called upon. But as a whole team, we definitely limited their chances by being quick in our zone and I think we had better gaps on the rush and better awareness on our changes and on the rush as well." NOTES: Jeff Carter and Willie Mitchell (lower body) did not take part in Fridays practice at the teams facility in El Segundo. Sutter said it was an optional skate and Carter took the option after working out off the ice on Thursday. Carter did see his ice time dip in the final few games of the Sharks series, playing 13:07 in Game 6 and 14:06 in Game 7 ... Anze Kopitar on whether theres any difference between facing Frederik Andersen and Jonas Hiller: "No, I dont think its going to matter too much, except for the left catch (Andersen) and the right catch (Hiller). Thats the biggest difference." ... Forward lines at practice minus Carter: Gaborik-Kopitar-Brown; Pearson-Nolan-Toffoli; King-Stoll-Williams; Clifford-Richards-Nolan. ' ' '