Robin Haase
CHENNAI, India – Top-seeded Rafael Nadal beat Mathieu Montcourt 6-2, 6-4 Tuesday in the first round of the Chennai Open, and second-seeded Marcos Baghdatis lost to Robin Haase 6-3, 6-4.
Serving at 5-2 in the second set, Nadal wasted four match points and the 123rd-ranked Montcourt won the game but the Frenchman was too inconsistent to pose any threat.
FED Cup rookie Casey Dellacqua has vowed to use Australia’s shattering home loss to Ukraine in July as motivation to help her country fight back into the World Group play-offs.
Dellacqua was on Wednesday named in the Fed Cup women’s team in the absence of Australia’s top-ranked player Samantha Stosur for the upcoming Asia/Oceania zone group one competition.
World No.46 Stosur is still recovering from viral meningitis which has prevented her from playing professional tennis since late August.
FOX Sports on MSN
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) – The loose balls? Southern California came up with them. Those crazy plays? They all went USC’s way, too. The Trojans were every bit as good as advertised and the Rose Bowl was even more lopsided than expected. Freshman tailback Joe McKnight finished with 170 of USC’s 633 yards in a record-setting romp Tuesday, 49-17 over outmatched Illinois.
Sixth-ranked USC (11-2) tied a Rose Bowl record with the 49 points and the total offense was a record, too. The blowout gave the Trojans 11 wins for an unprecedented sixth straight season and made them 5-1 in their last six bowl games, all of them BCS affairs.
The 2008 ASB Classic is in progress, and we have three excellent things to help us follow this Tier IV tournament in Auckland, New Zealand – those are the ability to watch the tournament live on the internet (for free!), great reports of R.C. French who goes to the tournament every day, and daily ASB Classic’s podcasts.
You can watch a free 150kbps stream of the ASB Classic via PlanetStream; of course, the video quality may vary depending on your connection and computer hardware. A premium, high quality bandwidth stream is also available, at the cost of $14.95 for the entire tournament.
Throughout 2007, we have asked you to contribute top sporting soundbites for our Quotes of the Week pieces.
Here, we showcase some of the best.
From the pass rush to going with what works to a key late decision that went wrong, here are 5 Thoughts on the Tennessee win over Wisconsin in a fantastic 2008 Outback Bowl.
5 Thoughts – Outback Bowl
Tennessee 21 … Wisconsin 17
Boxing
SEOUL, South Korea – A South Korean boxer who lost consciousness after winning his WBO intercontinental flyweight bout last week was likely to be declared brain dead, a hospital official said Wednesday.
Choi Yoi-sam has been in a coma since shortly after winning his fight against Indonesian challenger Heri Amol in Seoul on Dec. 25.
In winning the Challow Hurdle at Newbury, Souffleur has some impressive hoofprints to follow. Two seasons ago none other than Denman took the novices’ Group One prize, last year it was Wichita Lineman, and before them the likes of Cornish Rebel, Bindaree, Large Action and Bonanza Boy.
ARSENAL began the new year in the same ominous fashion as they finished the old one as they cruised to a 2-0 win over West Ham at the Emirates Stadium.
The north London club cemented their two-point lead over Manchester United at the top of the English Premier League thanks to first-half goals from Eduardo and Emmanuel Adebayor.
Arsene Wenger’s team were well short of their polished best against their near-neighbours in this New Year’s Day clash but their new-found ruthlessness – integral to their 4-1 win at Everton on Saturday – was evident again as they showed no mercy to West Ham’s poor first-half defending.
CARLOS Tevez sealed a narrow victory for Manchester United as the Premier League champions opened 2008 with a 1-0 victory against Birmingham City at Old Trafford.
But the joy United felt at staying just two points behind leaders Arsenal was tempered by the sight of Argentina striker Tevez having to be helped off into the dressing room at full-time with what appeared to be an ankle injury.
Tevez’s first-half goal was enough to secure all three points for United, but the home side should have emerged with a far greater winning margin after dominating the game against Alex McLeish’s strugglers.