Sports News
May 15, 2008Here are the sports results from Wednesday:
ROME - Defending champion Jelena Jankovic of Serbia and 2002 winner Serena Williams advanced to the Italian Open quarter-finals Thursday.
The fourth-seeded Jankovic routed Maria Kirilenko of Russia 6-1, 6-1 and Williams overcame some erratic moments before eliminating Italian wild card Sara Errani 6-4, 6-3. Also advancing was 2005 runner-up Patty Schnyder of Switzerland, who edged last year's Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli of France 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7).
ROME - Maria Sharapova will assume the No. 1 ranking in women's tennis as a result of Justine Henin's retirement.
Henin, who announced her retirement Wednesday at the age of 25, has asked to be removed from the rankings, the WTA Tour said Thursday. That means Sharapova will automatically become No. 1 when the next rankings are released Monday.
HALIFAX - Ken Hitchcock knew he was leaving Halifax. He just didn't know what mode of transportation he'd be taking.
The Canadian coach went through some nervous moments during an 8-2 quarter-final win over Norway at the IIHF World Hockey Championship on Wednesday. The victory earned his team a semifinal game with Sweden a few hours away in Quebec City.
DALLAS - Maybe it was payback, maybe it was just good fortune. The Dallas Stars aren't going to quibble.
All that matters is Tomas Holmstrom's rear end - and possibly his reputation - cost the Detroit Red Wings a goal and the Stars took full advantage, avoiding the humiliation of getting swept out of the Western Conference finals.
MINNEAPOLIS - The Toronto Blue Jays are starting to catch some breaks.
Fredericton's Matt Stairs hit a grand slam and Roy Halladay rebounded from a shaky start to help the Blue Jays beat the Twins 6-5. "You got to get some breaks. There's no questions about that," said Toronto manager John Gibbons, whose team took advantage of several Twins' miscues for the second straight night. "More importantly, you need to take advantage of them."
Tom Glavine earned his first win for Atlanta in six years on Wednesday night.
Glavine pitched 5 2-3 effective innings and the Braves held on for an 8-6 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies. "The mistake I made is when I went out there in the sixth inning, I pitched to the score," said Glavine, who hadn't won a game with the Braves since beating the Phillies on Sept. 19, 2002.
LOS ANGELES - Just when it appeared the Los Angeles Lakers needed Kobe Bryant the most, he provided the least.
The strategy, planned or otherwise, worked to perfection. Bryant scored 26 points despite not attempting a field goal in the fourth quarter, and the Lakers extended the stunning home success by NBA teams in the second round of the playoffs by beating the Utah Jazz 111-104 on Wednesday night to take a 3-2 lead in the Western Conference semifinals.
BOSTON - Someone is going to have to beat the Celtics in Boston to keep them from winning their 17th NBA title.
Cleveland is hoping for one more chance. Kevin Garnett had 26 points and 16 rebounds, and Rajon Rondo added 20 points and 13 assists as the Celtics beat the Cavaliers 96-89 on Wednesday night to move within a win of the Eastern Conference finals. Game 6 is Friday night in Cleveland.
PHILADELPHIA - One win away from their first Stanley Cup final berth in 16 years, the Pittsburgh Penguins are far removed from Michel Therrien's famous tirade just two and a half seasons ago.
"I think we've come a ways," Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said Wednesday. On the night of Jan. 10, 2006, after a 3-1 home loss to the Edmonton Oilers, Pittsburgh's eighth defeat in 11 games since Therrien took over behind the bench, the former Montreal Canadiens head coach exploded.
ROME - Maria Sharapova moved a step closer to the No. 1 ranking, overcoming some erratic moments before beating Dominika Cibulkova 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 Wednesday in the second round of the Italian Open.
With top-ranked Justine Henin announcing her retirement, Sharapova is poised to move to No. 1 next week - depending on if and when Henin asks the WTA Tour to remove her from the rankings.
MANCHESTER, England - Russia is becoming a growing force in European club soccer.
Zenit St. Petersburg won its first European trophy - and Russia's second - by beating Rangers 2-0 Wednesday in the UEFA Cup final. Three years ago, CSKA Moscow won the UEFA Cup title to become the first Russian team to earn a European honour.
BALTIMORE - Strange things always seem to happen at the Preakness. A drunken fan runs onto the track and punches at speeding horses. Barbaro breaks down in 2006. A race day power outage costs Pimlico millions of dollars.
It's enough to make everyone hold their collective breath when the gates open Saturday for Big Brown's attempt at winning the second leg of the Triple Crown.
BALTIMORE - Big Brown was installed as the 1-2 early favourite for Saturday's Preakness, with the Kentucky Derby winner going for a victory that could set up a Triple Crown try three weeks later in the Belmont Stakes.
A field of 13 three-year-olds was entered Wednesday, with Big Brown drawing the No. 7 post for the 1 3-16th-mile race at Pimlico. Eleven winners have come from that post, the last being Silver Charm in 1997. Silver Charm also won the Kentucky Derby, but was outduelled in the stretch run of the Belmont by Touch Gold to lose his Triple Crown bid.
CLIFTON, N.J. - Annika Sorenstam's decision to leave the LPGA Tour left Lorena Ochoa with mixed emotions and her own exit strategy still in place.
"My plans are the same ... I want to win tournaments, I want to break records this year," Ochoa said Wednesday, a day after Sorenstam announced this would be her last season. "I know the competition is going to be very tough. But like she does, I want to finish No. 1, not only in the world ranking, but on the money list."
VANCOUVER - In his refrigerator in Fredericton, Mayor Brad Woodside still has a bottle of champagne from the 1988 Calgary Olympics torch relay.
Somewhere else in his basement is the outfit he wore to cheer on the Olympic flame when it reached his city on its coast-to-coast journey. He, like many other Canadian mayors, have only positive memories of the excitement and energy the relay generated.
OTTAWA - Protesters hit a lot closer to home than they could have hoped for as they took their message of Chinese human-rights abuses to Parliament Hill on Wednesday.
The Global Human Rights Torch relay ran right into the middle of scores of Chinese tourists.
LIMELETTE, Belgium - The determination that helped Justine Henin beat bigger, stronger opponents time and again was fading.
"I decided," the 25-year-old Belgian said, "to stop fooling myself and accept it." Henin retired from tennis Wednesday, an abrupt ending to a career in which she won seven Grand Slam singles titles and spent more than 100 weeks ranked No. 1.
