Sports 2000

The WTA Tour Championship has reached the semifinal. In group play, Elena Dementieva beat Venus Williams, 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-2. Serena Williams defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova, 7-6 (5), 7-5. Victoria Azarenka defeated Jelena Jankovic, 6-3, 6-2.

Serena beat Venus, 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (4). Caroline Wozniacki edged Azarenka, 1-6, 6-4, 7-5. Jankovic beat Dinara Safina after Safina retired at 1-1 of the first set due to a back injury. Vera Zvonareva replaced her. Wozniacki trounced Zvonareva, 6-0, 6-7 (3), 6-4. Zvonareva withdrew from the tournament after the match due to an ankle injury. Agnieszka Radwanska replaced her.

Serena beat Dementieva, 6-2, 6-4. Venus defeated Kuznetsova, 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-4. Kuznetsova beat Dementieva, 6-3, 6-2. Jankovic beat Wozniacki, 6-2, 6-2. Radwanska won when Azarenka retired due to cramps at 4-6, 7-5, 4-1.

Jankovic (2-1) and Wozniacki (2-1) advanced from the White Group. Serena (3-0) and Venus (1-2) survived the Maroon Group. Jankovic battles Venus in one semifinal while Serena meets Wozniacki in the other semifinal in Doha, Qatar.

Milwaukee is the 30th and final team to begin its NBA regular season. The Bucks lost tonight at Philadelphia (1-1), 99-86. Elsewhere, Charlotte (1-1) edged New York, 102-100, in double overtime. Atlanta (2-0) handled Washington (1-1), 100-89. Boston (3-0) crushed Chicago (1-1), 118-90. New Orleans (1-1) outlasted Sacramento (0-2), 97-92. Oklahoma City (2-0) won at Detroit (1-1), 91-83.

In other NBA games, Miami (2-0) dispatched Indiana (0-2), 96-83. Cleveland (1-2) dismissed Minnesota (1-1), 104-87. Orlando (2-0) triumphed at New Jersey (0-2), 95-85. Memphis (1-1) beat Toronto (1-1), 115-107. Utah (1-1) rallied past the L.A. Clippers (0-3), 111-98. Phoenix (2-0) crushed Golden State (0-2), 123-101. Dallas (1-1) defeated the L.A. Lakers (1-1), 94-80.

Anthony Kim, Robert Allenby, Angel Cabrera and Ross Fisher advanced to the semifinals of the World Match Play Championship in Spain. Kim won Group A on a tiebreaker despite losing to Scott Strange, 3 up, Friday. Retief Goosen beat Paul Casey, 1 up. Allenby claimed Group B by beating Oliver Wilson, 2 up. Sergio Garcia defeated Martin Kaymer, 4 up, in the other group match.

Cabrera lost to Henrik Stenson, 2 up, Friday morning but recovered to thrash Simon Dyson, 7 up, in the afternoon. Rory McIlroy defeated Dyson, 2 up, and Stenson, 4 up, but Cabrera advanced on a tiebreaker. Fisher lost his first match today to Lee Westwood, 2 up, but defeated Jeev Milkha Singh, 1 up, in the afternoon. Camilo Villegas beat Singh, 3 up, and halved his match with Westwood to finish one point behind Fisher.

Rain has delayed the Singapore Open. Ian Poulter leads midway through the second round. John Cook’s 62 today lifted him to a three-stroke lead after two rounds of the Champions Tour Cup Championship. First round co-leaders Phil Blackmar and Jeff Sluman are three and five shots behind Cook, respectively.

Na-Yeon Choi leads midway through the second round of the LPGA event in South Korea. First round co-leaders Meaghan Francella and Anna Grzebien are both several shots over par today. The 54-hole tournament is set to end Sunday.

The PGA Tour event in Madison, Mississippi won’t start until Sunday at the earliest. A Friday rainstorm combined with a soggy course means there will be no play Saturday. A press conference is scheduled for 11 a.m. central Saturday to further address the situation.

California (2-2) edged host New York (0-3), 20-13, and Florida (4-0) squeaked past visiting Las Vegas (1-2), 27-24, in this week’s UFL action. Edmonton (8-9) throttled guest Toronto (3-14), 36-10, in a CFL game tonight. South Florida (6-2, 2-2 in the Big East) upset #21 West Virginia (6-2, 2-1), 30-19, in Tampa Friday.

Justine Henin announced today that she’ll end her 18-month retirement and return to competitive tennis next year. Henin is the only player to retire while ranked number one. Her retirement left a vacuum at the top of women’s tennis that really hasn’t been filled.

Maria Sharapova seemed poised to become number one in January 2008 but she’s been injured most of the past 20 months. Serena and Venus Williams play well at Grand Slam events but don’t play enough other tournaments to garner the computer ranking points necessary to be at the top of the standings. Jelena Jankovic got to the top but dropped from the perch almost as fast. Dinara Safina has been number one most of the year but has never won a major title.

New York beat Los Angeles, 6-5, tonight to maintain its lead in the American League East. Earlier Tuesday, the Yankees clinched a playoff berth when Texas lost at Oakland, 9-1.

Plaxico Burress began a two-year prison term today. The former Super Bowl champion wide receiver pled guilty this morning to charges related to shooting himself in a New York nightclub.

Kim Clijsters will face Caroline Wozniacki in Sunday’s U.S. Open final after each won rain-delayed semifinals tonight. Wozniacki defeated a fellow 19-year-old who was in her first Grand Slam semifinal, Yanina Wickmayer, 6-3, 6-3. Clijsters, who received a wild card from the U.S. Tennis Federation, beat Serena Williams, 6-4, 7-5. Clijsters is a former number-one player coming off a 2.5-year layoff during which time she married and gave birth to a child.

Rafael Nadal needed barely 30 minutes at midday Saturday to finish his quarterfinal against Fernando Gonzalez. Nadal won in shockingly easy fashion, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (2), 6-0. Saturday’s biggest story though was Williams’s losing her last two points without putting the ball in play. When serving at 15-30 in the 12th game of the second set, Williams was called for a foot fault on her second serve attempt. The call meant a double fault, changing the score to 15-40.

Williams used obscenities while berating the lineswoman who called the foot fault. Williams received a code violation, her second of the night. Her first came when she spiked her racket to the ground after dropping the first set. By rule, two code violations call for the opponent to win a point. That meant Clijsters claimed match point and the final berth.

Tiger Woods roared to a third-round 62–tying the course record–today to take the PGA Tour playoff event in Boston by storm. Woods leads Brandt Snedeker and Marc Leishman by seven strokes entering the final round. Peter Hanson leads the European Tour event in Germany. Song-Hee Kim leads the Northwest Arkansas Championship with one round to play.

Denny Hamlin won tonight’s NASCAR Cup race in Richmond. He’ll be among the 12 drivers competing in the Chase for the Championship starting next week in New Hampshire. The others are Mark Martin, Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, Brian Vickers, Carl Edwards, Ryan Newman, Juan Pablo Montoya and Greg Biffle. Mike Skinner won the Truck Series race in St. Louis.