Lourdes Dominguez-Lino from Spain was the winner of the first Vogue Athens Open in tennis. The world’s No 114 upset favorite Sorana-Mihaela Cirstea from Romania in Sunday’s final and won in straight sets (6-4, 6-4) to clinch her first title after two years. The Spanish player won $15,000 as well 75 points in the WTA list. “All week I was in great shape, but today [Sunday] I had my best game. Last night when I went to bed, I kept thinking I could do it and I did it indeed,” said a happy Dominguez-Lino. Cirstea, along with Russia’s Galina Voskoboeva, won the trophy in the doubles, beating Germany’s Kristina Barrois and Julia Schruff 6-2, 6-4 to claim the $5,000 prize.

US international volleyball star Tom Hoff is an Olympiakos player for the next year, the Reds announced. The gold medalist in Beijing returned his signed contract and will play at the Piraeus club for the next season. The former Iraklis player is one of the best central blockers in the world. Separately, after 15 years, the presidency of the Hellenic Volleyball Federation has changed hands. Thanasis Beligratis lost the election on Saturday, with former national coach Stelios Prosalikas becoming the new head of EOPE. It followed a bitter election campaign and leaves the federation with some wounds to heal.

Vasso Karadassiou and Vicky Arvaniti had a perfect end to the season when they won the gold medal in the English Masters tournament in Blackpool. The Greeks defeated Finnish sisters Emilia and Erika Nystrom in the final. The pair of Thalia Koutroumanidou and Maria Tsiartsiani also made it to the podium, winning the bronze medals.

Trikala, newly promoted to the A1 basketball division, has appointed Yiannis Christopoulos as its coach. After the departure of Yiannis Tzimas for personal reasons, Trikala announced yesterday it has hired the 34-year coach who has had spells at Olympiada, Apollon Patras and AEL Larissa.

Greek champion Doukas has advanced to the Champions League group stage since its 26-19 loss to Estonia’s Polva Serviti on Sunday did not overturn its first-leg 12-goal advantage.