Sports News
June 26, 2008Here are the sports results from Thursday:
NEW YORK - The Chicago Bulls selected Derrick Rose with the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft Thursday night, choosing the Memphis guard over Kansas State forward Michael Beasley.
Rose, a Chicago native, led the Tigers to the NCAA championship game in his lone college season. The Bulls opted for the point guard's playmaking ability over the scoring and rebounding of Beasley, who ranked in the top three in the nation in both categories as a freshman.
VIENNA, Austria - Spain scored three second-half goals Thursday to beat Russia 3-0 and reach the European Championship final, giving the team a chance to shed its status as football's biggest chokers.
Xavi Hernandez, Dani Guiza and David Silva scored a goal each to give the Spaniards a shot at their second European title when they play Germany on Sunday at Ernst Happel Stadium.
LONDON - Former champion Maria Sharapova and two-time runner-up Andy Roddick were upset in the second round in a day of big surprises at Wimbledon on Thursday.
Sharapova was ousted by a 154th-ranked Russian, marking her earliest exit from a Grand Slam tournament since her first full season on tour in 2003.
LONDON - Canada's Aleksandra Wozniak dropped a 6-1, 6-1 decision to Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki in second-round play at Wimbledon on Thursday.
Wozniacki, the 2006 junior Wimbledon champion, took the opening set in just 18 minutes. Wozniak, who made it to the third round of the French Open earlier this year, went down an early break in the second set and could not get on track, bowing out in 45 minutes.
EDINA, Minn. - South Korean Ji Young Oh surged to a two-stroke lead Thursday in the first round of the U.S. Women's Open, using seven birdies to shoot a 6-under 67 in dry and calm conditions at Interlachen Country Club.
Louise Friberg was tied for second with a 69 when she just missed a birdie on No. 9 after her putt skimmed the left side of the cup on the sloped green. The Swede was tied with Colombian amateur Maria Jose Uribe.
INDIANAPOLIS - The Indiana Pacers are trading six-time all-star forward Jermaine O'Neal to the Toronto Raptors for point guard T.J. Ford, centre Rasho Nesterovic, the 17th pick in the draft and a player to be determined.
O'Neal confirmed the trade Thursday, saying he was pleased with the move by team president Larry Bird.
Scott Niedermayer is back for another season, and this time maybe his last in the NHL.
"If I had to place a guess, I would say yes," the Anaheim Ducks star said Thursday after announcing his return. "I've been wrong before, I guess, in my thinking. "But if I had to make a decision on that now, I would say this will probably be it."
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - Martin Straka has not signed a contract with HC Lasselsberger Plzen, his agent said Thursday, despite an announcement to the contrary from the Czech club.
"Marty has made it clear that he will wait until after July 1 to evaluate all his options and make an informed decision at that time," Ritch Winter, Straka's longtime agent, told The Canadian Press on Thursday.
After enduring two years of chaos wheelchair athlete Jeff Adams may finally have found a little clarity in his life.
Adams paid about $8,000 out of his own pocket to organize a meet in Atlanta on Wednesday night where he managed to set two times in the 1,500 metres that made the qualifying standard for this summer's Paralympic Games in Beijing.
LAS VEGAS - O.J. Simpson says he's being victimized by an ambitious Nevada prosecutor pressing an armed robbery case that even the alleged victims don't want to pursue.
Simpson let loose this week in comments to a Fargo, N.D., radio station KFGO.
BEIJING - Yao Ming will return to light training with China's national team Friday, and expects to play in pre-Olympic warmup games.
The fitness of the Houston Rockets centre for the Beijing Olympics has been a subject of national concern in China since he suffered a stress fracture to his left foot in February, ending his NBA season and threatening his star turn as part of China's team at the games.
ROME - Marcello Lippi was reappointed as Italy's coach Thursday, following the removal of Roberto Donadoni.
The coaching change came four days after Italy was knocked out of the European Championship quarter-finals by Spain on penalty kicks. A statement on the Italian football federation's website said that president Giancarlo Abete had appointed Lippi after meeting with Donadoni to terminate his contract.
LAS VEGAS - The man accused of robbing and beating NFL player Javon Walker was scheduled to be in court Friday, his second appearance this week.
Arfat Fadel, 30, was to appear before a justice of the peace. Fadel told a judge Wednesday that police pressured his girlfriend to press separate domestic violence charges against him before he was arrested in the Walker case.
LONDON - Former champion Lindsay Davenport withdrew before her second-round match at Wimbledon on Thursday with an injured right knee.
The 32-year-old American pulled out before her scheduled match on Court 3 against Argentina's Gisela Dulko, who advanced to the third round by walkover.
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - The deadline for South African double-amputee runner Oscar Pistorius to qualify for the Beijing Olympics has been extended.
Pistorius' manager Peet van Zyl said Thursday the South African athletics federation moved its deadline from July 11 to July 17, giving the runner time to compete in four European races as he tries to meet the 400-metre qualifying time of 45.55.
ZURICH, Switzerland - Viktor Kuzkin, a three-time Olympic champion, has died after a diving accident earlier this week. He was 67.
Kuzkin won gold medals with the Soviet Union teams at three Winter Olympics from 1964 to '72, and eight world championships.
TORONTO - On the verge of their biggest comeback win of the season, the Toronto Blue Jays instead gave new manager Cito Gaston a first-hand look at their all-too-familiar problem of hitting with runners in scoring position.
Erasing the early 5-0 hole uncharacteristically left for them by ace Roy Halladay, they proceeded to waste a bases-loaded, no-out opportunity in the seventh to bury the Cincinnati Reds and eventually lost 6-5 in 10 innings Wednesday night.
