Kvitova keeps semi loss in perspective (AP)
Kvitova keeps semi loss in perspective (AP)
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP)—Bob Bryan plays for his record 12th Grand Slam doubles title with his brother Mike on Saturday, but he’s advising wife Michelle not to watch on television at home in Miami. He doesn’t want her to go into labor until he’s back in the country. The couple is expecting the birth of their first child—a girl—and Michelle’s due date just happens to fall on the same day as the doubles final. “I’ve been telling her, ‘Don’t watch the matches, it will get your heart rate going and you might spit that baby out,”’ Bob Bryan said after the brothers’ tight semifinal win on Thursday. “She knows she’s a few days away from me coming home. She’s not going to risk it, not now.” Bryan almost caught an earlier flight back to Florida. The top-seeded brothers had to fight off a match point and rally from a 5-2 deficit in the third-set tiebreaker to beat Robert Lindstedt of Sweden and Horia Tecau of Romania. “I think we maybe got a little lucky,” Mike Bryan said. “Played kind of our best tennis at the very end.” The brothers were coming off a tough, three-set quarterfinal win over Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski of Poland that didn’t finish until 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday because they followed the 4-hour-plus men’s singles quarterfinal between Rafael Nadal and Tomas Berdych at Rod Laver Arena. “It was tough to sleep last night because we were used to being up,” Mike Bryan said. The Americans now play the unseeded pairing of Leander Paes of India and Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic in the final for a chance to make history. They’re currently level at 11 career Grand Slam titles with the Australian doubles team of Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge, known at home as the “Woodies.” “They’ve always seemed like they’ve been happy for us and our success,” Bob Bryan said. “They seem very secure with their own achievements and career. They’ve had an amazingly decorated history on the court.” Whatever happens on Saturday, Bob Bryan will be on the first flight out of Melbourne on Sunday morning. “(Michelle’s) been so happy and supportive of what we’re doing,” Bob Bryan said. “That makes it really easy.” ——— RANKINGS SHUFFLE: If Maria Sharapova wins the Australian Open title on Saturday, she’ll rise to the top of the women’s rankings for the fifth time in her career. The 24-year-old Russian has only been No. 1 for a total of 17 weeks in her lengthy career, but those stints at the top have come in three different seasons. Sharapova first reached No. 1 on Aug. 22, 2005, but lost it a week later to Lindsay Davenport. The Russian then moved back into the top spot on Sept. 12 and held it for six more weeks before Davenport supplanted her again. Sharapova returned to No. 1 for seven weeks after losing the Australian Open final to Serena Williams in 2007, and again for three weeks in May 2008 when then-No. 1 Justine Henin retired and took her name off the rankings. Sharapova must beat Victoria Azarenka in the final Saturday to get the ranking back; if Azarenka wins, she’ll become No. 1 for the first time in her career. Current No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki, who lost in the quarterfinals, will fall out of the top spot when the new rankings are released next week after spending 67 weeks as No. 1. She’s projected to fall to No. 4, behind Sharapova, Azarenka and Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova. Defending champion Kim Clijsters, meanwhile, is expected to fall from No. 14 to approximately No. 30-32 after her loss to Azarenka in the semifinals. ——— AUSTRALIA’S GOT TALENT: Bernard Tomic isn’t the only tennis phenom Australia is getting excited about. Luke Saville, the world’s top-ranked male junior player, advanced to the semifinals of the boys’ singles competition at the Australian Open with a 7-5, 7-5 victory over Kyle Edmund of Britain on Thursday. Saville, who turns 18 on Feb. 1, is aiming for his second junior Grand Slam title. He captured the Wimbledon junior crown last July and also made the 2011 Australian Open final. The 19-year-old Tomic, who made it to the fourth round of the men’s singles draw this year, was the last Australian champion in the boys’ event in 2008. Saville said after his match Thursday that he doesn’t feel any pressure coming in as the top seed. “Obviously everyone is kind of shooting for me now, trying to take me down, but from a young age I’ve kind of been top in Australia for my age group … so I’ve experienced that feeling of being the top dog,” he said. Saville plays 17-year-old Adam Pavlasek of the Czech Republic in the semifinals Friday. Pavlasek may have a famous face in his corner for the match— he’s dating Petra Kvitova, who lost in the women’s semifinals on Thursday. When asked if she’d stick around to watch her boyfriend play, Kvitova said, “Maybe tomorrow.”
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Bolt to run at Rome’s Golden Gala in May (AP)
Bolt to run at Rome’s Golden Gala in May (AP)
ROME (AP)—Usain Bolt will run the 100 meters at the Golden Gala in Rome again this year as he prepares to defend three sprint titles at the London Olympics two months later. Organizers of the May 31 meet announced the Jamaican’s participation on Thursday. “I’m training hard, the offseason has been good. Everything is going according to plan. The aim is to defend my Olympic titles in London,” Bolt said in a statement provided by Rome organizers. “Rome’s race will be a good early season test and tell me what I need to do on the way to the Olympic Games.” Bolt made his season debut in Rome last year, winning the 100 in 9.91 seconds to narrowly beat former world record-holder Asafa Powell. Tyson Gay (left) ended Usain Bolt’s two-year unbeaten streak last August.(Getty Images) Bolt has also confirmed he will run the 100 at another Diamond League meet in Oslo on June 7. Rome is the first European meet of the Diamond League season, which opens in Doha, Qatar on May 11. Another meet is scheduled in Shanghai on May 19, then Rome is the third stop. Heats for the 100 at the London Games begin Aug. 4. At the 2008 Beijing Games, Bolt swept the 100 and 200 sprints and helped Jamaica to gold in the 4×100 relay—all in world-record times. He then improved his 100 (9.58 seconds) and 200 (19.19) records at the 2009 world championships in Berlin. At last year’s worlds in Daegu, South Korea, Bolt was eliminated from the 100 final for a false start but he then won the 200 in 19.40 and helped Jamaica to another world record (37.04) in the relay. Bolt has said he also wants to run the 4×400 in London and become the first male athlete since Carl Lewis at the 1984 Los Angeles Games to win four gold medals in track and field at the Olympics. Finland’s Paavo Nurmi won five at the 1924 Paris Games.
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Speeds top 200 mph at Daytona test session (AP)
Speeds top 200 mph at Daytona test session (AP)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP)—NASCAR is making gains toward breaking up the two-car tandem racing that has taken over at Daytona and Talladega, but the fix sent speeds soaring over 200 mph Friday in a test session. Kurt Busch posted the fastest lap of the day at 206.058 mph, but was being pushed around Daytona International Speedway in a two-car tandem by Regan Smith. Kyle Busch was clocked at 205.813 while pack racing. NASCAR has traditionally shied away from the 200 mph mark, and four-time series champion Jeff Gordon said he approached series officials about the speeds because he was certain the cars would be slowed. He said he was surprised when NASCAR indicated it was comfortable over 200 mph. “It’s embedded in our minds we can’t go out there over 200 mph in race conditions,” he said. “Somehow it’s become accepted and I think that’s a good thing. It’s very comfortable. It’s extremely comfortable.” But it’s unclear what the racing will actually look like when the season opens with the Daytona 500—NASCAR’s version of the Super Bowl—on Feb. 26. Fans are clear that they want pack racing at Daytona and Talladega, NASCAR’s two biggest and fastest tracks. Drivers figured out about three years ago that hooking up in two-car tandems was the fastest way around the track, and the style evolved so quickly, NASCAR couldn’t stop it. The end result was a two-car hookup in which the trailing driver was pushing the lead car around the track. Only one spotter worked for both cars, as the pushing driver was unable to see anything ahead. Overheating issues forced the cars to swap positions every few laps, and that maneuver added an element of danger because separating slowed the two cars dramatically. NASCAR Chairman Brian France vowed to move away from the two-car tandems in November, and a series of aerodynamic rules changes have done just that. NASCAR also banned driver-to-driver communications over their scanners. It’s all part of a continuous process, that could go all the way up to race day. NASCAR has changed specifications during each of the first two days of testing, and officials summoned the drivers to a Friday meeting during the lunch break to strongly urge them to pack race during the afternoon session. Based on the data gleaned from the two drafting sessions, NASCAR made yet another series of technical changes that will be applied Saturday in the final day of testing. Last year, NASCAR made changes during actual Speedweeks in an effort to break up the tandems. More changes were made before the other three restrictor-plate races on the schedule, too. Earlier Friday, NASCAR President Mike Helton indicated speeds will likely be much different when teams return for the Daytona 500. “(Speed) is one of those things that we have to kind of monitor,” Helton said. “It is a test, so we may be a little bit more lenient at a test than we would be on race weekend. But we’ll see how everything settles out and what kind of rules package we come back with … 204 is OK for a test. It’s OK for now. “But we’ll have to take back everything we learn and then make a decision after that.” But Sprint Cup Series director John Darby said after the drafting sessions that the final product will likely be right around the 200 mph mark. “We’ll still be over 200 mph. We’d like to stay as close to that mark as we can,” said Darby, adding that NASCAR’s confidence of keeping cars from going airborne at those speed has improved through wind tunnel testing. “If we were to put a target mark, it would be right around 200, which the drivers like, the excitement level of 200 mph is always present for the fans.” The drivers seemed comfortable over 200 mph, and most were thankful to run in packs again. Gordon said it was “just reminds me of the good `ol days.” But, most of the drivers admitted the two-car tandem will never go away completely. “Everybody was really having a good time, and trying to get everything they could out of it before we went back to pushing around each other,” said Dale Earnhardt Jr., who pushed teammate Jimmie Johnson to a win at Talladega last year. “Maybe, just maybe, you don’t have to be in a two-car tandem to stay with the lead pack. The two-car tandem is probably the preferred way to go as far as speed. But maybe you don’t have to do it for 500 miles. Maybe you can just kind of save your car, save the tail and the nose of your car and yourself. “That might be the way to go just to get through the race, and be there at the end. But that tandem stuff is what is going to win the race.”
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Pats’ O’Brien agrees to become PSU coach (AP)
Pats’ O’Brien agrees to become PSU coach (AP)
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP)—New England Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien has agreed to become Penn State’s first new head football coach in nearly a half-century. Two people in the NFL with knowledge of the search told The Associated Press on Friday that O’Brien has told them he plans to replace fired coach Joe Paterno. Another person told the AP terms and details still needed to be set, that nothing was official and there was no signed contract. The persons spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the search. ESPN, citing unnamed sources, first reported Thursday night an official announcement would be made Saturday, and that O’Brien would remain with the Patriots as an assistant through the postseason. Two people have told the AP the report was credible. Division I’s winningest coach with 409 victories, Paterno was fired Nov. 9 by university trustees following 46 seasons in the aftermath of child sex abuse charges against retired defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. O’Brien has no apparent ties to Penn State and a proud program tarnished by a scandal that also led to the departure of school President Graham Spanier. Penn State coaches had not received any word on O’Brien or anything else related to the two-month long search as of Friday morning. A Patriots spokesman declined comment Thursday night. Messages left Friday for Penn State spokesmen were not immediately returned. Penn State athletics spokesman Jeff Nelson on Thursday night cited department policy to not comment on reports to “protect the integrity of the search.” O’Brien interviewed on Thursday, his agent said. Joe Linta told The Associated Press, earlier Thursday, that O’Brien was “flattered by the interest.” This was O’Brien’s first year coordinating the Patriots’ high-scoring offense, but he has also coached star quarterback Tom Brady since 2009 and spent 2008 coaching receivers. O’Brien recently was in the spotlight when he and Brady got into a heated argument, shown on national television, after Brady threw an interception in the end zone in the fourth quarter of the Patriots’ 34-27 win over the Washington Redskins on Dec. 11. “He’s been a great coach and friend. We have a great relationship; probably a very unique relationship in that we communicate all the time,” Brady said Sunday about O’Brien. “I always enjoy working with him and he’s done an incredible job with this team and this offense.” The Patriots are off this week, and will host a divisional round playoff game next weekend. They went 13-3 this season, won the AFC East championship going away, and secured the conference’s No. 1 seed throughout the playoffs. New England closed the regular season on an eight-game winning streak, and scored 513 points, the most in the AFC. Brady threw for 5,235 yards and 39 touchdowns, while being picked off just 12 times. “I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Brady said when asked if he would miss O’Brien’s coaching. “I hope he’s here for a long time and I told him that, too.” But the selection of a coach without Penn State ties may not sit well with several prominent former players or some alumni. Former standout linebackers LaVar Arrington and Brandon Short had organized a petition in support of interim coach Tom Bradley’s candidacy. Short said the petition only included about 100 names after he was informed by a member of Penn State’s search committee it was enough to sway their opinions. He said he planned to meet with Acting Athletic Director David Joyner on Friday in a meeting scheduled before reports began to surface about O’Brien. He would consider cutting ties with his alma mater if the O’Brien reports were true, and he said some former players—operating independently of the official Football Letterman Club for football alumni—might consider a lawsuit that would prevent the school from using their likenesses or images in the future. Now an investment banker in New York, Short played seven seasons with the New York Giants and Carolina Panthers. He called Bradley the best candidate for the job. “There are thousands of other players who will tell you the same thing. The administration is under the belief that if they hire an NFL coach, or someone flashy, that they will fill seats,” Short said in phone interview Thursday. “As an NFL player I can tell you that there is a big difference between developing young men and recruiting, then the combine and free agency. It’s two different universes.” D.J. Dozier, a running back on the 1986 title team, said Thursday the search committee should poll current and former players and high school coaches in the region. He planned to sign the petition if more signatures were taken. “Give that person and that staff a chance. I believe the current staff has done a good job,” Dozier said. “Unless there’s politics involved, give them a chance.” Some alumni also lobbied for Bradley, a 33-year veteran of the Penn State staff and defensive coordinator since 2000. Prominent donor Anthony Lubrano, a Penn State graduate, questioned the school’s hiring process. “Bill O’Brien might well be a fine football coach and more importantly an even finer human being,” Lubrano wrote in an email. “But by excluding the football (lettermen) from the search process, this administration has effectively communicated to them that their contributions to the Penn State family don’t matter.” O’Brien joined New England in 2007 following 14 seasons on the college level, including stops at Duke, Maryland and Georgia Tech. He played football at Brown—Paterno’s alma mater. The Patriots are third in the NFL overall in scoring (32.1 points per game), and second in total offense (428 yards) and passing (317.8 yards). Penn State finished a 9-4 campaign with a 30-14 loss in the TicketCity Bowl to Houston on Jan. 2. The Nittany Lions relied on defense much of the year after the offense struggled with a two-quarterback system. Penn State officials had termed the search “methodical and deliberate.” Joyner said earlier Thursday he would like to have Paterno’s replacement in place by Jan. 13, the start of 16-day recruiting window before high school seniors can begin to announce their official intentions to attend college on Feb. 1. Bradley, who took over for Paterno on an interim basis, was among the candidates interviewed. He was on the road recruiting Thursday.
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Beltran, Cardinals agree to 2-year deal (AP)
Beltran, Cardinals agree to 2-year deal (AP)
ST. LOUIS (AP)—Carlos Beltran and the World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals agreed to a two-year contract pending results of a physical, a move that would fortify the team’s lineup following the departure of Albert Pujols. The team disclosed the agreement Thursday night and said it expects to make a formal announcement shortly after the holidays. KMOX, the Cardinals’ flagship radio station, reported the deal is for $26 million over two years—the same figure cited by a person familiar with the negotiations who spoke to The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because financial details of the agreement were not announced by the team. The 34-year-old Beltran batted .300 with 22 home runs, 84 RBIs and a .385 on-base percentage for the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants this year. He likely will be the opening-day right fielder for the Cardinals next season. Lance Berkman is expected to move to first base, taking Pujols’ spot. Beltran and Berkman are switch-hitters, giving new manager Mike Matheny lineup flexibility. Earlier this month, St. Louis re-signed shortstop Rafael Furcal to a two-year, $14 million contract and added left-handed reliever J.C. Romero with a one-year, $750,000 deal. The Cardinals appear to need only a few spare parts to finalize the roster. After Pujols signed a $254 million, 10-year contract with the Los Angeles Angels, Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. said he expected his team’s payroll to perhaps exceed this year’s total of $110 million. Allen Craig, coming off an impressive postseason, gives the Cardinals another strong option in the outfield but will miss at least the first month of the season while recovering from knee surgery. A six-time All-Star, Beltran began his career with the cross-state Royals in 1998, three years after Kansas City drafted him in the second round. The switch-hitter has a .283 career batting average with 302 home runs and 1,146 RBIs. “Beltran is a proven outfielder who obviously has been a tough opponent against the Cardinals for many years,” St. Louis general manager John Mozeliak said in a statement. “It is going to be nice to have his bat and competitive nature working for us instead of on the other side of the field for the next couple of years.” Beltran faced the Cardinals in a pair of NL championship series, in 2004 with Houston and 2006 with the Mets. St. Louis won both series despite several big hits by Beltran. With a chance to put the Mets in the World Series, however, he struck out looking to end Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS against Cardinals right-hander Adam Wainwright. ——— AP Sports Writer Ronald Blum contributed to this report.
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Edwards could be guy to end second-place curse (NASCAR.com)
Edwards could be guy to end second-place curse (NASCAR.com)
Karma could be on Cousin Carl’s side. It has been 10 years since the driver who finished second in a Sprint Cup season went on to claim the championship in the following season. Carl Edwards, who lost this year’s championship in a tiebreaker to Tony Stewart, plans to buck the decade-long trend in 2012. He said everyone in and around his No. 99 Ford team—from the manufacturer itself to Roush Fenway Racing team owners John Henry and Jack Roush—are already thinking about how they’re going to get it done. “Everyone is pretty pumped up. [Attending the end-of-year banquet] was the last thing about 2011. Now it’s all about 2012,” Edwards said. “Ford’s pumped. John Henry and the Fenway Group guys are pumped and ready to do some neat things with Ford on the marketing side. Jack’s ready to go. He’s thinking motor oil and gear ratios and rocker-arm ratios already. I mean, he’s ready to rock.” If Edwards can take that next step in 2012, he will become the first driver since Stewart to accomplish it. Stewart finished second to Jeff Gordon in the Cup standings in 2001, and then came back to earn his first of what is now three titles in 2002. That may be part of the karma that makes it appear Edwards has a strong shot, but more importantly, most of the remainder of it rests in his own head. What might have been? After technically tying Stewart for this year’s championship, only to lose out on the tiebreaker [Stewart posted five race wins this season to Edwards’ one], Edwards admitted he has been spending some sleepless nights thinking about how and when he could have gained that one extra point that would have made the difference. Under the new NASCAR points system introduced prior to last season, all it would have taken is one more pass, one more improved position in the Chase. “There were a lot of places where I could have gotten one point. Of course. But you can’t go back and change that,” Edwards said. “And truly, we did try. It wasn’t like we had an off day down the stretch where we said, ‘Wow. We really screwed that up.’ We were on it. “Pit-road speeding at Dover [in the third of 10 Chase for the Sprint Cup races] was probably the biggest mistake we made, and we still recovered from that in a huge manner. I was really proud of that.” Edwards didn’t win in the Chase, but he did finish second in each of the final three races at Texas, Phoenix and in the season finale at Homestead, where he qualified on the pole. He lost out on the championship because Stewart won two of those three and five of 10 overall in the Chase, including Homestead. “That’s the one thing that’s nice about this. It’s not like I missed a gear or screwed up qualifying at Homestead, or did something wrong,” Edwards said. “I felt like we kept our heads in the game until the checkered flag and it just didn’t work out for us.” Recent history Edwards is well aware of the recent history of second-place finishers in the standings suffering setbacks the following year. Denny Hamlin, winner of a series-high eight races in 2010, struggled mightily in 2011 and finished ninth, winning only one race. Mark Martin, runner-up in 2009 with five race wins, finished 13th in points and failed to win a single race in 2010. Then there is Edwards’ own experience. He won a series-high nine races in 2008 and thought he was poised to win it all the next season. Instead, he didn’t win a single race in 2009 and placed a disappointing 11th in points. Edwards remembers the frustration of 2009 all too well. But he said, at age 32 and married now with two children, he also has learned to keep everything in racing in proper perspective. “Here’s the deal: I’ve learned to think of this not only not in terms of each race or even each season. This is a career. This is a lifetime career path that I’m on, and I want to get better all the time,” Edwards said. “And my mission is to be able to look back on this season and look at our run as a stepping stone—as something that helped me learn and become better. “And I’m going to treat next season just like I treated that last race: I’m not going to let someone or something slow me down and cause me to make mistakes. We’re going to go out and do the best that we can—and I swear to you right here: if we don’t run well next season, it won’t be because we got messed up in the head over not winning. We’re truly going out there and focusing on what’s important. That’s not just because of me. I’ve got truly good people around me who will keep reminding me.” One of those is his wife, Kate. “She’s said, ‘You’re good. You can beat these guys.’ I think without that support, I might be worried. But I’m not,” Edwards said. One other piece of karma that Edwards appears to have going for him: Stewart said it’s only a matter of time until Edwards wins the first of what Stewart figures will be multiple Cup championships. Edwards obviously hopes that Stewart is right, and that his time is up in 2012. The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer. Watch all of Edwards’ highlights from the 2011 season:
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