Sports News
May 9, 2008Here are the sports results from Thursday:
ISTANBUL, Turkey - Ferrari led both practice sessions for the Turkish Grand Prix on Friday and Heikki Kovalainen rebounded from a violent crash in Spain with the second fastest lap time of the morning session.
Two-time defending champion Felipe Massa led Ferrari in the first session with a time of one minute 27.323 seconds - the fastest time of the day - before Kimi Raikkonen recovered from a gearbox problem that left him last in the morning session for an afternoon's best time of 1:27.543.
BERLIN - Dinara Safina ended Serena Williams's 17-match winning streak with a 2-6, 6-1, 7-6 (5) victory on Friday to reach the German Open semifinals.
The 17th-ranked Russian kept pressuring Williams' backhand, the same tactic that worked a day earlier in an upset of top-ranked Justine Henin of Belgium.
DETROIT - The memory of their demise in the NHL's Western Conference final a year ago continues to spur the Detroit Red Wings on to greater things this spring.
"We've got a group that wants to win bad and we're determined," says coach Mike Babcock. "We've been here before and never got the job done.
LONDON - Zara Phillips, a granddaughter Queen Elizabeth, will compete for Britain in equestrian at the Beijing Olympics.
The 26-year-old Phillips was among five riders named to the equestrian eventing team Friday by the British Olympic Association.
HALIFAX - Any team looking to beat Canada at the IIHF World Hockey Championship should study tape of this game.
Norway entered as a heavy underdog against the unbeaten hosts but found itself with a chance for an upset after clogging the neutral zone and playing a tight-checking game. It wasn't pretty but it kept the Canadians at bay until Rick Nash made an incredible solo effort late to pull out the win.
TORONTO - They're sick of talking about it and really, what more is there left to say about an enigmatic offence that can't even bring home the winning run from third base with nobody out?
An out-of-nowhere three-run rally in the ninth gave the Toronto Blue Jays a chance to pull out a game they looked sure to lose Thursday, but instead they were left to once again rue missed opportunities in an eventual 8-3 defeat in 13 innings to the Tampa Bay Rays.
Brandon Webb's bank account is growing with every win.
Webb became the first pitcher in three years to win his first eight starts, pitching his 13th career complete game to help the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Philadelphia Phillies 8-3 on Thursday. The 2006 NL Cy Young Award winner struck out four and didn't walk a batter in his first complete game of the year. He hit one batter.
MILAN, Italy - The recent domination of the Giro d'Italia by cyclists from the host nation could be about to change as an especially strong field gets set to begin the 2008 edition Saturday.
Non-Italians at the starting line in Palermo with hopes of arriving first in Milan after the 21-stage race include last year's Tour de France winner Alberto Contador, his teammate Andreas Kloden and Russia's Denis Menchov, who won the 2007 Spanish Vuelta.
SAN ANTONIO - The San Antonio Spurs' Big Three congregated around the scorer's table during a timeout in the fourth quarter, not long before they put the game away for good.
Tim Duncan patted Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. They all laughed. The NBA's defending champions were not going into an 0-3 hole against the New Orleans Hornets.
BOSTON - Paul Pierce and Ray Allen found their shooting touch. LeBron James can only hope he left his in Cleveland.
Pierce scored 19 points, Kevin Garnett added 13 with 12 rebounds, and Allen broke out of a seven-quarter scoring drought with 16 points to help the Boston Celtics beat the Cavaliers 89-73 on Thursday night and take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. - The flag was in a tempting location, back and left on the 13th green at the TPC Sawgrass with a pond running alongside the left side. Sergio Garcia took dead aim with a seven-iron and the ball never left its target.
This is nothing new with Garcia, who rarely struggles to make solid contact.
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - The booming drives were there, but more often than not, Michelle Wie didn't know where they were going in her first round on the LPGA Tour since February.
The best scores, as usual, belonged to just about everyone else - a course record-tying 63 by Scotland's Mhairi McKay, and a potential battle looming between Lorena Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam in the Michelob Ultra Open at Kingsmill.
TORONTO - On a couple of occasions, it looked like emotion was going to get the best of Paul Maurice during his final news conference with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
He met with the media at the Air Canada Centre on Thursday after losing his job as head coach, paying the price for missing the playoffs for a second straight season.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida - The Chinese didn't bring their top team to Fort Lauderdale, but the world's best diving nation has so much depth that it didn't really matter.
Luo Yutong and Xinhau Zhang of China won the three-meter synchronized event at the USA Diving Grand Prix, surging to an early lead on the second of six dives. They finished with a total of 441.39 points.
With the preliminary round of the IIHF World Hockey Championship in the books, here's a look at some of the surprises and disappointments so far:
TORONTO - Ray Clark admits it's tough not to be intimidated any time players step on the pitch against soccer powerhouse Argentina.
Clark will coach Canada's under-20 men's team Sunday in an international friendly against world champion Argentina, marking the one year anniversary of the first game played at BMO Field.
Stubby Clapp's memorable run as the heart and soul of the Canadian national team may be coming to a premature end.
The scrappy infielder from Windsor, Ont., is likely to miss the upcoming Beijing Olympics in order to fulfil his responsibilities as a hitting coach in the Houston Astros organization, becoming the latest Canadian baseball player to get caught between career and country.
