Sunday, November 29, 2009 LONDON: Russia's Nikolay Davydenko won the ATP World Tour Finals title with a straight sets victory over Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro at London's O2 Arena. Last year's beaten finalist Davydenko won 6-3, 6-4 in an hour and 24 minutes to claim the season-ending title, disputed among the world's top eight players. The win meant Davydenko jumped up the rankings to finish the season as the world number six, while Del Potro remains at number five. The Russian scooped 1,510,000 dollars in prize money, while the Argentinian collected 740,000 dollars. Davydenko became the first Russian to win the season-ending tournament. "Coming here as number seven and winning the tournament, I surprised myself," said Davydenko, who downed the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open champions en route to claiming the title. Del Potro told him: "Congratulations, you had a great, great week, you beat everybody, you are a great, great champion."
Sunday, February 28, 2010 HAVANA: Hundreds of wealthy merchants and cigar aficionados from all parts of the world gathered in Havana this week to bid high stakes for humidors full of premium cigars. Cuba's annual Habanos festival ended on Friday night with an auction of ornate humidors of cedar and mahogany stacked with hand-rolled stogies that raised 800,000 euros ($1.09 million dollars). Habanos S.A. executives this month said cigar sales fell 8 percent to $360 million in 2009, so they have created the Julieta, a smaller, milder version of the Romeo y Julieta cigar, aimed specifically at female smokers. Women now make up only 5 to 10 percent of customers for Habanos. But even with the creation of the Julieta, Garcia said Habanos has only modest hopes for 2010 sales, due largely to a weak economy in Spain, the biggest market for Cuban cigars. The flavor of premium tobacco relies on the soil and climate in which it is grown. The western province of Pinar Del Rio, famous fo...
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