Venus beats Sharapova in Hong Kong final (AP) Venus Williams beat Russia's Maria Sharapova in straight sets 6-4, 6-3 Saturday to win the JB Group Classic exhibition in Hong Kong -- a warmup for the Australian Open. Both players were holding serve comfortably in the early games, but the Russian faltered first. Serving at 4-5 in the first set, Sharapova sent a backhand into the net after a long rally and then missed another backhand to give the... Publish Date: Sat, 05 Jan 2008 00:46:38 PST Read more...