Oudin Stuns Dementieva

oudin

If you considered only Melanie Oudin’s age (17), size (she’s 5-foot-6), and lack of experience, she brought almost no obvious ammunition to her second-round United States Open match against No. 4 Elena Dementieva on Thursday. Her game has drawn sneers from other players who say she has no major weapons.

What Oudin did bring to Arthur Ashe Stadium, however, was an unquantifiable toughness and pulled off the biggest upset of the Open so far, topping Dementieva, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, in front of an electrified crowd rooting for an American success story. Oudin accomplished this despite an injured left thigh that required medical attention in the third set and was so painful it brought her to tears at one point.

“When I play with no fear, that’s when I play my best,” Oudin said. “I just try to play my game and not worry about anything else.”

It is no coincidence that Oudin’s hero is Justine Henin, the similarly tiny player from Belgium who was the world’s No. 1 player before she retired despite all the same knocks against her game and stature. “She proved you don’t have to be six-foot-something to win,” Oudin said. “She figures out a way to take down these players who could overpower her with her variety and her shots.”

Oudin, ranked No. 70, seemed unfazed by her surroundings and the strength of her opponent. She covered the court masterfully and dictated play, despite the strain in her quadriceps muscle. She took advantage of openings Dementieva gave her with a faltering serve. She pumped her fists and seemed to grow stronger mentally as the match progressed and the crowd matched her intensity with its fervor.

“I feel she had a very good attitude today in the court,” Dementieva said graciously after the match. “She was really using all the positive emotions from the crowd. She was really into the game and, you know, really playing at her best today.”

It was an even more unlikely upset because of all the highly ranked players chasing their first major, Oudin drew the one who seems to be getting her act together. Dementieva has reached the semifinals of four of the past five Grand Slams, including last year’s United States Open. And she got what she felt was a breakthrough victory at the Olympics last summer. In the two Slams this year, she ran into Serena Williams on Williams’s way to winning the title at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.

She warmed up for this tournament by winning the tournament in Toronto, beating Maria Sharapova in the final after toppling Serena Williams in the semifinal. But that final also showcased the one major weakness in Dementieva’s game: her serve. She and Sharapova, another notoriously bad server, combined for 17 double-faults. Heading into the Open, Dementieva was averaging 5.4 double faults a match.

But Dementieva said she did not believe any of that, good or bad, carried over to the Open. “It’s all new here,” she said before the match. “It’s a new challenge.”

Dementieva, who had never played Oudin, seemed to take control of the match early, breaking Oudin’s serve immediately and seeming to establish her game. But her serve started to wobble and Oudin collected two breaks of serve in the middle of the set to pull even at 5-5. From there, though, Dementieva steadied herself and closed out the last two games.

But Oudin did not falter, quickly gaining an upper hand in the second set and pouncing on every opportunity Dementieva offered her. Dementieva double-faulted to give Oudin a break point and although Oudin did not covert that one, she got another and crushed a forehand winner to take a 3-1 lead in the set. She broke Dementieva again in the final game of the set to push herself into a dramatic third with the Ashe Stadium crowd roaring its approval for the up-and-coming American star.

Oudin quickly took a 2-0 lead in the third, but then dumped a forehand into the net to get broken in the next game. That’s when Oudin, who has played her first two matches here with tape around her left thigh, called for the trainers, who adjusted the tape and added more.

In the next game, Oudin faltered on her leg after one point and her hand flew to her face as she wiped away tears. Still, she broke Dementieva’s serve in that game with Dementieva losing the grip on her game and spraying errors into the net and long.

Dementieva’s inability to hold serve — and Oudin’s mental toughness — was her undoing. Oudin closed out the match win a service winner and threw her arms to the sky.

“I just couldn’t believe it,” Oudin said. “The whole thing was just amazing.”

It was the biggest win of Oudin’s young career, which already includes an attention-grabbing victory over No. 5 Jelena Jankovic in the third round of Wimbledon, 6-7 (8), 7-5, 6-2. but even after that victory, Jankovic had sniffed at Oudin’s talent.

“She can play if you let her play,” Jankovic said. “But she cannot hurt you with anything. She doesn’t have any weapons, you know, from what I have seen.”

Oudin, though, is clearly not intimidated by the world’s top players. She advanced to this match with an easy first-round victory over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, 6-1, 6-2, which left her plenty of energy to battle Dementieva and was clearly the better player in this match. Oudin had 30 winners to Dementieva’s 22.

In contrast to Jankovic, Dementieva had nothing but kind words for Oudin’s game.

“I think she moves really well,” Dementieva said. “The footwork is really great. She was really fighting for every point, playing everything back. She’s very patient on the court. She knows what is her strength. She’s just waiting for the moment to attack the ball.”

Oudin’s match drew so much interest that it shoved Dinara Safina, the No. 1 seed, over to Armstrong Stadium.

It was a different court and a different opponent on a different day, but for Safina, the battle in her second round United States Open match against Kristina Barrois of Germany Thursday afternoon was the same as always. That battle happened less on the Armstrong Stadium court and more inside Safina’s own mind.

Safina, the world’s No. 1 player, grimaced and agonized and double-faulted on key points, but pulled herself together in time to win, 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-3, over Barrois. It was only one game shorter than Safina’s similarly agonizing first-round victory and it held all the same displays of Safina’s vulnerabilities. She seems to carry the No. 1 ranking — earned despite never winning a Grand Slam tournament — like a weight on her shoulders.

But again, she persevered not only over Barrois but over herself. Her body language was somewhat improved over her first-round escape against Olivia Rogowska of Australia. The yelling and grimacing remained but Safina did avoid constantly looking at her coach, the notoriously dour Zeljko Krajan, which only seemed to send her spirits plummeting even more.

On Thursday, Safina managed to keep her focus on the court, where she had enough problems to deal with, most notably with her serve.

After the struggle against Rogowska, who would have beaten Safina had she not committed an astounding 65 unforced errors, Safina vowed to move forward. But she quickly found herself stuck in the same rut. Safina double-faulted on the first point of the match, failed to close out the first set despite several opportunities and then when she found herself down, 5-6, in the tiebreaker, double-faulted again to lose the set.

It was an exact replay of how she lost the first set to Rogowska. Her serves on that double-fault against Barrois went a feeble 75 miles an hour, followed by a second serve at 74, a clear indication her nerves were getting the best of her.

But again, Safina found some rhythm in the second set and won it easily. Then she fell into another hole, dropping the first two games when she got a gift back from Barrois, who double faulted on break point to give Safina the opening she needed.

Still, Safina being Safina, there was drama ahead. Leading, 4-3, and seemingly looking calmer, Safina fell to 0-40 on her serve. That’s when Barrois helped her again with a flurry of errors, a bounce over the net cord for Safina and a final triumph after three deuces.

Safina closed it out and pumped her fist, living to battle herself another day.

Safina makes narrow escape at US Open tennis

rogowska tennis

NEW YORK — World number one Dinara Safina barely escaped suffering one of the greatest upsets in Grand Slam tennis history before edging Australian teen Olivia Rogowska on Tuesday in the first round of the US Open.

The 23-year-old Russian top seed, still searching for her first Grand Slam title to justify her ranking, outlasted the 167th-ranked wildcard entrant 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 6-4 after two hours and 35 minutes.

Instead of becoming the first US Open women's top seed to lose her opening match, Safina escaped from a 3-0 hole in the third set to reach a second-round match against either Poland's Urszula Radwanska or Germany's Kristina Barrois.

"I played 2 1/2 hours and I was down in the third set but I love playing here and I wanted to stay," Safina said.

Screaming with frustration at times, Safina nearly became only the fifth top seed in Grand Slam history to lose in the first round, the first since Martina Hingis was dumped by Spain's Virginia Ruano-Pascual at Wimbledon in 2001.

"I didn't break any rackets and I didn't get any warnings. That's already positive," Safina said.

The worst showing by a US Open top seed came last year when Serbian Ana Ivanovic lost in the second round.

Rogowska, an 18-year-old from Melbourne, would have been the second-lowest player in rankings to oust a top seed in any round of any Slam, 21 places above France's Julie Coin when she ousted Ivanovic from last year's US Open.

Reigning French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova shook off a slow start to advance, the Russian sixth seed ousting Germany's Julia Goerges 6-3, 6-2, and later saying that lumping Russians as "head cases" is unfair.

"Every Russian should get the respect. Everybody has their own problems," Kuznetsova said. "Dinara, she maybe has a real bad something missing in her game. I maybe have something missing in mine.

"That is the life, in and out of the court, for everybody."

Safina, 23, will stay atop the rankings after the Open regardless of how she fares in the Flushing Meadows fortnight, even if second-rated reigning champion Serena Williams takes her third Slam crown of the year and 12th of her career.

But her struggles to subdue unknown Rogowska simply reinforced the notion Safina does not belong at the top.

Safina, whose best US Open showing was last year's semi-final run, lost to Serena Williams at this year's Australian Open final, to Kuznetsova in the French Open final and to Venus Williams in a Wimbledon semi-final.

Rogowska, up 502 ranking spots from a year ago, beat Russian Maria Kirilenko in the first round of the French Open and almost pulled off a stunner for the ages to beat Safina.

Rogowska seized a 3-0 lead in the thrid set, the key point when her backhand down the line was overturned into a winner on a review challenge to break Safina in the second game.

Safina, who squandered four break points in the third game, fought off two break points to hold serve in the fourth and after an exchange of breaks was gifted a double fault break by the Aussie to pull within 4-3.

"I was like, 'Please just try to see the ball when you serve,'" Safina said. "That's why I didn't make a double fault."

Safina held serve, broke in an extended ninth game when Rogowska sent a forehand long, and held at love in the final game for a narrow escape.

Rogowska fought off a break point in the 12th game of the first set and swatted a forehand passing winner to force the tie-breaker, then saw Safina net a backhand and double fault on the last two points to surrender the first set.

Safina, whose 24 unforced errors in the first set were only three fewer than Rogowska, answered the challenge by breaking the Aussie upstart three times in the second set to force a third, each struggling to hold as tension mounted.

Kuznetsova, who won her first of two career Grand Slam singles titles at the 2004 US Open, next faces Latvia's 96th-ranked Anastasija Sevastova, who ousted Thailand's 90th-rated Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-3, 7-5.

Kuznetsova needed only 62 minutes to move on, winning 10 of the final 12 games and rescuing three break points in the second set to hold off 92nd-ranked Goerges.

"First match is always tough," Kuznetsova said. "It's very difficult when you don't know what to expect."

Kuznetsova, 24, and compatriot Maria Sharapova, 22, are the only prior Flushing Meadows champions in their half of the draw. Sharapova, the 2006 US Open winner, meets Bulgaria's 98th-ranked Tsvetana Pironkova in a night opener.

Other women's openers send Russian fourth seed Elena Dementieva, the 2004 US Open runner-up, against France's Camille Pin and Serbian fifth seed Jelena Jankovic, last year's US Open runner-up, against Italy's Roberta Vinci.

Chapter One: The Rise and Fall of Art Schlichter

art schlichter

Chapter One: The Rise and Fall of Art Schlichter

Art Schlichter’s book, “Busted,” is an unflinching autobiography of a life gut-punched by gambling.

He describes:
*his charmed rise as an athletic icon in Ohio; he was the center of a recruiting competition between Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler, and later threw the pass that got Hayes fired at Ohio State.
*his father, who lived vicariously through his accomplishments and later committed suicide.
* his harrowing (and sometimes comical) tour of some 40 prisons over a 10-year period.
* his failure as an N.F.L. quarterback.
* his lust for the high of gambling that Schlichter described this way:
“I had, and still have, an addiction. It’s a severe, severe addiction. It’s kind of like crack cocaine in that it takes away your soul and your character.”

He writes: “Some people say to me today, ‘Don’t worry, it’s all behind you.’ ”
“No, it isn’t, because you can’t just walk away from a disease like mine.
“Will I do bad things again that will send me back to prison? I admit the urge is always there.
“Today, I know I’m still only one wrong step away from imprisonment, insanity, or death.”

Schlichter now manages gamblingpreventionawareness.org and is a speaker on the dangers of gambling addiction. The first chapter of the book, which comes out today and which was written with Jeff Snook, is below:

Chapter 1

Locked in “The Shu”

God, I’m tired. I’m tired of prison. I’m tired of being shackled and chained. I’m tired of being told what to do and when to do it. And most of all, I’m tired of not being able to see my daughters, to hold them and hug them and to tell them I love them. Please watch over them God. Take care of them. Help them be happy. Wrap your arms around them and show them the way. Take care of my mom, too. You know she’s a good woman. She’s someone who deserves happiness. You have to keep me from going insane in here. Please help me survive this place. Please keep me from killing myself. I don’t want to go out this way. Please God … please don’t let me unscrew that light bulb.

It’s late January, 2005, and my life has come to this. I’m praying about a light bulb—a stupid, stinking, meaningless 20-watt light bulb.

Hanging over my head, it’s my constant companion. There are days it’s the only light in my life. Other days, I’m sick and tired of staring at it. It just dangles there as if it’s taunting me. Then there are the worst days, the days when the emotional stress of being imprisoned in this hell-on-earth are too painful for me.

Those are the days I want to unscrew it, break it into pieces and use a shard of it to slice my wrist. I know that shattered light bulb could be my deliverance. It could be my only way out of this dungeon. Maybe I’ll bleed to death all over this concrete floor before they can get to me. Then God can take my soul out of here. I can’t walk through those steel bars, but He will take me far away from this miserable existence.

Weeks ago, I was living in a detention camp, the lowest level of incarceration there is in the American correctional system. I had a nice bunk, good food, I worked in the yard, I felt the warmth of the sunshine. Then I bet on an otherwise meaningless college basketball game. I needed one team to beat another by more than 20 points. The team I bet on won the game 80-60. Typical.

I’d lost again, the latest in a lifetime filled with loss.

When the corrections officers discovered I’d gambled again, they chained me, shackled me, and threw me in here, The Hole—solitary confinement. On the inside, we call this horrible place The SHU—Special Housing Unit. This SHU is the absolute most horrible, darkest, dirtiest place I’ve ever seen. The corrections officers, or “hacks” as we call them, tell me I’ll be deadlocked in this dungeon, deep in the bowels of the Indiana Reformatory near the town of Pendleton, for twenty-three hours a day for the next six months. Pendleton’s a depressing concrete compound built in 1923. It once held John Dillinger. I’m housed in the most horrifying wing, locked in a six-by-eight feet cell, shut off from the rest of the prison … and the rest of the world.
I have nothing but a steel toilet, a tiny steel sink, and a wafer-thin pad that separates me from the cold concrete floor.

And my light bulb. I’ve spent ten years of my life in more than forty prisons. I’ve seen the beatings, the rapes, the common atrocities of prison life, but I’ve experienced nothing like this. This place is agony. This place is mental torture. This place will drive me insane if I’m left here for very long.

At night I can hear the rats running through the walls that are covered with messages and pictures drawn by the captives who preceded me here. Someone drew a perfect Jesus, his hands spread wide. I look at Him every day. A naked woman stares from another wall. Gang signs are all around me, but I can’t decipher them.

I’m locked down with no interaction with anyone, other than the inmate to my right. He’s been held in solitary for 17 years and surely is certifiably insane by now, if he wasn’t when he was free. They tell me he killed an entire family years ago and recently stabbed somebody in prison. He’ll never see the outside of this place.

When the hacks walk by his cell, he sometimes throws his own (expletive) on them. On the days he behaves, they allow him outside his cell to roam walkway. Somehow, he’s become a living sports encyclopedia and he knows every statistic from every game ever played. He stops in front of my cell and recites them to me.

I figure he must be about my age, even though he appears to be in his 60s. They tell me he has AIDS. He smells like death, but everyone smells bad in here, including me. The chemical they gave me as deodorant burns my skin, so I never use it. The entire place smells like a mix of feces and body odor.

I don’t experience much physical pain other than intense hunger and thirst. I’ve come to appreciate the slop they slide through the bars to feed me at four in the morning, ten o’clock, and three o’clock. Its arrival is how I tell time. I surely can’t judge time by my stomach because I’m hungry around the clock.

Sometimes I shake involuntarily from the cold. The thin, dusty blanket they give me wouldn’t keep a mouse warm at night. The emotional pain is much worse. It’s so boring in here. Time stands still.

The only thing that keeps me surviving from one day to the next is looking forward to the mail each weekday afternoon. I stash the letters from my mom and my children under my mat—my prized collection of pain and sorrow stuffed into tear-stained envelopes.

I write my mom and my kids almost daily, but there’s never much new to say. It just gives me something to do. In my mind, writing them somehow helps me stay connected to the outside …

Mom, I hope this finds you well. I’m still in the hole. I haven’t left my cell since last Friday for ten minutes to get some soap. They feed me the slop through the hole in the door. It’s pretty primitive. This is my fourth winter without seeing sunshine. I can’t wait for you to bring the girls to see me, but don’t know when they will allow me to have visitors. I can only imagine how
big the girls are getting. Mom, I can’t take much more of this. It’s tough sitting in here thinking about all I have lost. My freedom. My family. My integrity. The money. It all depresses me. I’m mad at myself. I can barely live with myself for doing the things I did. I can’t live with the guilt for all I have done in my life. I worry constantly about you and the girls. I love you Mom. I miss you. Be safe. Love, Art.

I have no real possessions now, other than utter despair. I’ve lost virtually everything in my life and now my hope is slipping away, too. All I have is time, seemingly endless time.
Time to sleep. Time to cry. Time to think of what I did to deserve this the place. When I sleep, I lie on the dirty pad with my head resting on a tiny plastic pillow at the base of the toilet, with my feet toward the steel bars. If I would lie the other way, I’d risk someone reaching through the bars and bashing my head during my sleep.

But when I sleep, I can dream. And when I dream, I’m free. There are times I pray that I wake up and discover this was a just a horrible nightmare. Those prayers never work. Those are the mornings I’m the most depressed. Those are the mornings when I want to unscrew that light bulb.

I never stop wondering, “How did it come to this? What happened to me?”
How did I become known as State of Indiana Inmate 954-154?
If only I could go back forty years to be Art Schlichter, the carefree kid growing up on a farm.

If only I could go back in time to when I had the world at my feet …

Dinara Safina narrowly avoids elimination against Australian teen Olivia Rogowska

olivia rogowska

Australian teenager Olivia Rogowska has gone agonisingly close to pulling off one of the biggest upsets in grand slam history, losing to world No.1 Dinara Safina in a thrilling US Open first-round match.

Safina fought back from 3-0 and 15-40 down in the deciding set to deny Rogowska 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 6-4 in 2hrs 35mins at Flushing Meadows.

In staving off defeat, the Russian avoided becoming the first women's top seed in 41 years of professional tennis to crash out in the first round in New York.

At No.167 world, Melbourne-based Rogowska was also bidding to become the third-lowest-ranked woman ever to defeat a world No.1 – and the first in eight years to knock the top seed out in the opening round at any grand slam event.

Anything but overawed, Rogowska had expressed her immense excitement at the prospect of playing on a centre court for the first time from the moment she drew the temperamental Safina.

Safina has a history of mental meltdowns, having crumbled in all three of her grand slam final appearances, and Rogowska had vowed to apply the blow torch.

But the young wildcard exceeded all expectations at Arthur Ashe Stadium, the largest arena in tennis with a crowd capacity of 23,763 fans, playing the match of her life and stunning Safina with her remarkable poise and power.

After nervously dropping her opening service game of the match, Rogowska returned serve – literally – to twice break Safina and charge to a 3-2 lead in the first set.

She was unable to sustain her advantage, giving up further breaks to fall behind 5-3 – but refused to lie down.

Troubling Safina with her deep and angled groundstrokes, Rogowska saved a set point before breaking the Russian for a third time in the ninth game.

Rogowska held serve from 0-30 to level at 5-5 and then staved off a further two set points in the 12th game – including one with a huge serve and fearless follow-up forehand winner – to force the tiebreaker.

Safina won the opening two points of the breaker and continued to lead until Rogowska unloaded a "bullet" – as Martina Navratilova called it – of a forehand pass to level at 4-4.

As the tension mounted, Safina dumped a backhand return into the net and then double-faulted, prompting the fist-pumping Rogowska to skip to her courtside chair in delight after snaring the opening set.

The youngster suffered an inevitable letdown in the second set, dropping four games in a row to allow Safina to put the match back on level terms.

But there looked to be no denying Rogowska when Safina coughed up four double-faults in one game to hand Rogowska an early service break and a 2-0 lead in the third set.

Rogowska then showed extraordinary composure to hold from love-40 down, fending off four break points in all, to go up 3-0.

Then she had the top seed facing two more break points at 15-40, but was unable to convert her advantage into what surely would have been an unassailable lead.

Safina drew back to 2-3 when Rogowska double-faulted on game point in the fifth game.

But the Russian returned the favour with her 12th double-fault, giving Rogowska a 4-2 buffer.

Alas, the Australian committed her 11th double-fault to hand Safina the seventh game and the Russian then held for 4-4.

The decisive moment in the match came in the ninth game of the deciding set when, despite gallantly fighting off three break points, Rogowska was unable to save a fourth.

Safina held her nerve – and serve to love – to close out the match with a forehand winner to keep her Open hopes alive.

Meanwhile, adopted Australian Jarmila Groth is out of the US Open after losing her first-round match to China's Shuai Peng. Slovakian-born Groth, who is expected to receive her Australian citizenship in the coming months, lost 6-2 6-3 to the world No.44.

Quality Road is one to beat in Travers Stakes

travers stakes

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (AP) — There's a reason Quality Road is the morning-line favorite over Belmont Stakes winner Summer Bird in Saturday's $1 million Travers: He was the Kentucky Derby favorite before hoof injuries sidelined him for the Triple Crown season.

Now he's back, and in record-setting form.

Earlier this month, Quality Road returned to the races for the first time in more than four months and won the 6½-furlong Amsterdam Stakes at Saratoga in track record time of 1:13.74.

Previously, the 3-year-old colt won the 1 1/8-mile Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park in track record time of 1:47.72.

The big question going into the 1 1/4-mile Travers is whether Quality Road is ready to stretch out in distance.

"He's a special horse," Todd Pletcher said of Quality Road, who was trained by Jimmy Jerkens but sent to Pletcher in June by owner Edward P. Evans. "It takes a special kind of horse, with both speed and the ability to carry that speed over a distance of ground, and I think he's that kind of horse."

Kiaran McLaughlin, who sends out Charitable Man, believes Quality Road is the one to beat in the "Mid-Summer Derby"

"I have to give Todd great credit in getting him ready to run, after the layoff to win so impressively at 6½ furlongs," McLaughlin said. "He (Pletcher) is trying to do all that he can do to ensure that he will get the mile-and-a-quarter, and I'm sure that he will."

Quality Road, the 8-5 choice, will be ridden by John Velazquez. Summer Bird, with Kent Desormeaux up, is 3-1, with Jim Dandy winner Kensei 7-2, followed by Charitable Man (6-1), Warrior's Reward (8-1) and Hold Me Back and Our Edge, both 15-1.

The National Weather service forecast for Saturday is calling for a 90 percent chance of rain — occasional showers with thunderstorms. Quality Road has never run on a wet track.

"It's like always with the weather," Pletcher said. "You wish that it was going to be perfect conditions, but you have absolutely no control over it so you just hope for the best."

Missing from the Travers is Preakness-winning filly Rachel Alexandra and Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird.

Rachel Alexandra is skipping the race because she will be taking on older boys next week in the Woodward Stakes, and the Derby winner is out as he continues to recover from throat surgery.

The field is still a strong one.

"Even if you go by what they say on paper — you have the Florida Derby winner, the Belmont winner, the Jim Dandy winner, the Peter Pan winner, the Barbaro winner (that's us) ..." says Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito, who will saddle Our Echo.

"There are so many great qualifications in there. If you had the Kentucky Derby winner in there, it would have been special, but it's a special race anyway."

Summer Bird's trainer Tim Ice is looking for a big race from his Belmont winner, who was a solid but distant runner-up to Rachel Alexandra in the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on Aug. 2.

"He's run a couple of big races, but I still think he has a lot left to show just how good he is," Ice said. "I'm really happy with the way he's coming into the race."

Kensei comes into the 140th Travers off victories in the Dwyer Stakes at Belmont on July 4 and the Jim Dandy on Aug. 1. The son of Mr. Greeley missed the Triple Crown races, but now has a chance to move out of the shadow of stablemate Rachel Alexandra.

"This is the defining moment for him," said Stonestreet Stables owner Jess Jackson, who also co-owns Rachel Alexandra. "It won't be the final moment, but it will be the defining moment."

Chip Woolley, who trains Mine That Bird, said Quality Road was the horse he would have feared most.

"You don't know how good that horse really is. He has shown great talent," Woolley said. "He's a very fearsome sight out there."

Arthur Ashe: A Life Dedicated to the Welfare of Others

arthur ashe kids day 2009

Arthur Ashe is more than the name on the stadium with all the luxury boxes. He is more than the inspiration for the Eric Fischl statue at the south gate to the United States Open.

Lately, Ashe’s widow has come to think of him as a Bodhisattva — “a beautiful Buddhist term for a person who is dedicated to the ultimate welfare of other beings,” as Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe put it the other day.

She considers the possibility that Arthur achieved Buddhahood, either during his 49 years or after his life was cut short in 1993 by AIDS from a blood transfusion.

Arthur Ashe remains the only man of color to win the United States Open (in 1968), the Australian Open (in 1970) or Wimbledon (in 1975). He is also the inspiration for the annual Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day, which will be held at the expensive bazaar on Saturday. And he is one of the founders of the National Junior Tennis and Learning network, which prepares young people for sport and for life.

He remains a presence. Every time I hear his name, I think of the slim young player, peering owlishly at the clubby world of the West Side Tennis Club at Forest Hills, which he had worked so hard to reach, and I also think of the wan retired athlete, stricken by the heart trouble that would indirectly kill him.

In the late 1980s, Ashe would wear a naval-officer-style cap with a gold braid on it — never asked him why — and he would sit in the press box and schmooze with the regulars. I miss him. Miss the stuff he would teach us, in a kind way. Books. Concepts. History.

“I began to see Arthur’s life journey as caring about all sentient beings,” Moutoussamy-Ashe said recently. “So much of Buddhism reminds me of Arthur’s goals in life, but while he certainly knew about Buddhism he was not a student.”

Moutoussamy-Ashe does not live in the past. She keeps her name (“Just like me: I could have a name with four letters but I choose to have one with 15,” she said) and continues to work as a photographer, her path when they met. He dropped the world’s worst line — “Photographers sure are getting cuter” — but he did not let her get away.

As an artist still taking stylish photographs in black and white, she has published three books, but does not yet work with a digital camera. (“I am a Neanderthal,” she said.) She had input into the statue the United States Tennis Association placed at the south end of the National Tennis Center, now named after Billie Jean King.

The statue by Fischl, known for his ability to shock, depicts a man, a nude man, coiled into the serve position, but with only the handle of a racket in his hand. Some people gasp or titter when they see the statue for the first time.

“This is a figure — serving,” Moutoussamy-Ashe said, patiently. “The message is service. There is no racket. It’s so metaphorical.” She paused and added, “I voted for it.”

A ball that Arthur tossed deftly into the air in 1969 remains in play. He and Charlie Pasarell, his college teammate and friend for life, and Sheridan Snyder, another friend, formed the National Junior Tennis League for children like Ashe, who had moved from Virginia to Missouri so he could play tennis beyond the bounds of overt segregation. Recently the word “league” has been replaced by “learning,” which was always part of the program.

In 1999, the network began a contest for the best essay about the life of Ashe. The winner was 12-year-old Blake Strode from St. Louis, who this year graduated from the University of Arkansas with a 3.972 grade-point average. Strode has delayed his entrance to law school at Harvard to try the tennis circuit for a year.

“The N.J.T.L. gave me a kick-start,” Strode said the other day. “I had already started playing tennis, but at 9 my mom dropped me off every morning in Forest Park. The clinics and the tennis were the highlight of my day.” He said the racial picture has improved greatly since the days of Ashe and Althea Gibson, the first black female champion, but added that tennis still presented economic and social barriers.

The junior tennis league, backed by the U.S.T.A., reaches an estimated 220,000 youths each year. “It’s family,” Moutoussamy-Ashe said. “It’s Thanksgiving. It’s Christmas. There may be some people you don’t want to see, but it’s family. It’s always there. It’s never not a part of me.”

Moutoussamy-Ashe told how she slipped 6-year-old Camera (now a student at Hunter College in Manhattan) into the hospital, against the rules, and how the little girl recoiled at the grim reality. Her bed-ridden father held her and called her Precious and told her it was all right to be scared.

“Arthur was a mixture of common sense, kindness and doing,” Moutoussamy-Ashe said. And she added, “Now everything is about you.” Ashe came from a time and place when people had a glimmer of some communal good. Only now is his wife able to put a name on what she thinks he achieved: a state of Buddhahood.

Solheim Cup Sunday pairings

solheim cup sunday pairings

New Delhi, Aug 23, 2009: Solheim Cup Sunday pairings. The Solheim Cup is a biennial golf tournament for professional women golfers contested by teams representing Europe and the United States. It is named for the Norwegian-American golf club manufacturer Karsten Solheim, who was a driving force behind its creation.

The US team is selected by a points system, with American players on the LPGA Tour receiving points for each top-twenty finish on tour. For the European team, up to 2005, only seven players were selected on a points system based on results on the Ladies European Tour (LET).

This allows top European players who compete mainly on the LPGA Tour to be selected to ensure that the European team is competitive. From 2007, only the top five players from the LET will qualify and another four will be selected on the basis of the Women's World Golf Rankings.

This reflects the increasing dominance of the LPGA Tour, where almost all top European players spend most of their time. In addition, each team has a number of "captain's picks", players chosen at the discretion of the team captains, regardless of their point standings, though in practice the captain's picks are often the next ranking players.

Solheim Cup pairings

Suzann Pettersen
Paula Creamer

Becky Brewerton
Angela Stanford

Helen Alfredsson
Michelle Wie

Laura Davies
Brittany Lang

Gwladys Nocera
Juli Inkster

Catriona Matthew
Kristy McPherson

Sophie Gustafson
Brittany Lincicome

Diana Luna
Nicole Castrale

Tania Elosegui
Christina Kim

Maria Hjorth
Cristie Kerr

Anna Nordqvist
Morgan Pressel

Janice Moodie
Natalie Gulbis

Tottenham Hotspur Boss Harry Redknapp Purrs Over Electric Form Of Jermain Defoe

hotspur

Following Tottenham Hotspur striker Jermain Defoe's onslaught at Hull City - where Spurs triumphed 5-1 with the 26-year-old tallying thrice - Harry Redknapp was quick to laud both the display, and the player, claiming "electric" Defoe was "unplayable".

"It was a terrific exhibition of attacking football," Redknapp reflected on the official website of FIFA.

"The movement, passing, pace - I played with four forwards and really took it to them. We looked dangerous every time we had the ball."

He continued, "Defoe looked almost unplayable, his form is absolutely electric.

"He looks stronger than I have ever seen him and I have known him since he was 14," Redknapp said, perhaps indicating to national manager Fabio Capello that Defoe is a worthy candidate for a first-team starting role with England should he continue to produce such scintillating performances.

"He has done a lot of work in the gym in the summer and he looks even more explosive.

"If he continues to play like that he has got no problems," he concluded.

Phil Mickelson feeling Minnesota love

feeling minnesota

CHASKA, Minn. – The roar echoed across Hazeltine National Golf Club.

That Phil Mickelson can conjure thunder under clear blue skies at the PGA Championship comes as no surprise, but this was a practice round.

Mickelson jolted the folks jammed into the bleachers at the 18th hole off their feet by holing a 12-foot putt.

And it wasn’t even for birdie.

It was an unremarkable putt to save par, though it was hardly inconsequential.

“That was a $100 putt,” Butch Harmon, Mickelson’s swing coach, said afterward.

Mickelson’s putt saved him from reaching into his wallet after an 18-hole match with long-hitting Dustin Johnson. Mickelson’s putt assured a push in their all-square match. As impressed as Harmon was with the nature of the fan reaction, he was more impressed by the nature of Mickelson’s last stroke. He believes Mickelson’s ball striking is sharp enough to win this week. He believes putting was the difference in Mickelson’s runner-up finish at the U.S. Open in June and his close call at the Masters in April, and he suspects it will make the difference again this week.

“Phil played really, really well at the U.S. Open,” Harmon said. “His ball striking's been good. He missed some short putts like he did at the Masters and that probably cost him winning.”

Wednesday marked Mickelson’s first practice round at Hazeltine National this week.

His day began almost as remarkably as it ended. He received a standing ovation.

There’s nothing unusual about Mickelson inspiring that, either, except it came on the driving range before he hit a shot.

Fans squeezed into the bleachers spotted him crossing the bridge to the range, and it was like some head of state had arrived. One by one, they began rising and cheering and even chanting his name.

Of course, it’s noisier than ever around Mickelson now because his fans are cheering for two. Though Amy, Mickelson’s wife, isn’t here as she recovers from breast cancer surgery, she’s here in spirit. Lefty’s legion of fans let him know at every turn that they understand that.

“It’s been flattering, but what’s been interesting is to see how this affects so many people,” Mickelson said. “Everybody has a personal story, because it’s affected everybody’s life. Whether it’s their mother, sister or whether it’s breast cancer or another form of cancer, it’s shocking to me to see how this disease has affected so many people.”

Mickelson will be looking to win the fourth major of his career this week. He skipped the British Open last month to be with Amy and the couple’s three young children. He said he isn’t sure he will be able to play the Presidents Cup in October, and he isn’t sure how many FedEx Cup playoff events he’ll play when they begin later this month. Amy’s treatment will dictate his schedule.

“It’s been an interesting year, and we’ve had some highs and lows,” Mickelson said. “And I think we’ll have some more highs and lows for the next year or two. I think in the end, everything’s going to be fine. But right now, things are day-to-day for us. That’s both golf and not golf.”

Minnesotans made it clear Wednesday that they love Mickelson as much as the New Yorkers who rooted him on at Bethpage Black at the U.S. Open.

With Mickelson making his way to Hazeltine National’s first tee to play with Fred Couples, club professional Ryan Benzel and Johnson, fans stampeded in herd-like fashion to see. They were stacked along the ropes almost the entire length of the first fairway.

Lefty is the opposite of homeless. Almost everywhere Mickelson plays, it feels like a home game. He’ll have a home-field advantage again this week, though he doesn’t necessarily see it that way.

“You still have to execute, you still have to hit shots,” Mickelson said. “You still have to hit the putts and shoot the low score if you expect to win, and nobody else can pull the trigger except for you.”

Dave Pelz focuses on Mickelson’s short-game as a coach, but he feels what the crowds mean to his player’s game.

“I think it’s part of Phil’s personality, and if the crowds weren’t there he would miss them,” Pelz said. “He can get inspired and play out of his mind. I think you saw it at the U.S. Open. I think he just ran out of gas there. If he had a fraction more energy, I believe he would have pulled it if off at the U.S. Open. It was a combination of emotional and physical factors, but he gave it everything he had.

“People say Tiger never gives up, but Phil’s the same way. I’ve never seen Phil give up. I’ve been coaching Phil’s short game for six years now, and I’ve never seen him not try his best over a shot. There’s no give up in Phil.”

It’s part of what Mickelson’s legion of fans love of about him.

“Phil feeds off them,” Harmon said.

Evelyn Stevens - the Cinderella of the biking world

evelyn stevens

Is she Cinderella on a cycle?

Little more than a year ago, Evelyn Stevens was working 50 hour weeks on Wall Street, trying to stay in shape by running when she could squeeze it in.

Then she bought a bike.

On Sunday, August 9th, the 26-year-old former college tennis player began the Route de France, a six-day race that draws some of the world's top female cyclists. And here's the part nobody, not even Stevens, could have imagined just a few months ago: She might just win!


How can that happen?

I suspect that Evelyn Stevens is blessed with a high VO2 max, that determining factor in how well her lungs and heart work to get oxygen to her working muscles. Being a virtual newcomer she hasn’t been submitted to a lot of testing but the ones she has done show she has an unusual amount of leg power for someone so small(120 pounds) and so inexperienced.Her light weight and high power output allow her to climb uphill faster than anyone she's faced so far.

She has been involved in athletics for some time. After playing college tennis at Dartmouth and landing a job at investment bank Lehman Brothers in New York, Stevens says she was content to leave sports behind. Her exhausting schedule left her with barely enough time for that occasional run.

But in November of 2007 her sister and brother-in-law persuaded her to try a cyclocross race, an muddy hybrid between mountain and road biking. After numerous falls, she ended the race dirty and sore. "But I had so much fun," she says.

For the next four months, Stevens contemplated buying a bike, finally settling on a low-end Cannondale with an extra "granny" gear to help beginners push themselves uphill. At the end of May, she got her first taste of racing at a clinic in Central Park organized by the Century Road Club Association. There, she found the experience "addictive." Within a month, she'd won the Union Vale road race, a gruelingly hilly jaunt in upstate New York. She capped the season with a victory over some of the top amateurs in the Northeast at the four-day Green Mountain Stage Race in Vermont.

This April, after hiring a coach and training hard all winter, she won the country's largest sanctioned one-day bike race (in participation), the Tour of the Battenkill in upstate New York. Last month, she won her biggest race yet — the Cascade Cycling Classic stage race in Oregon.

A big obstacle to success for female professional cyclists is the pay: Top women's professionals make about $30,000 a year, a figure that makes it almost impossible to train without working a “real job”.Most people agree Stevens could be one of the next great American women cyclists, but there's no guarantee that she will conquer the world. Connie Carpenter, an Olympic gold medalist in cycling in 1984, calls her ascent "remarkable," but adds she still has work to do. "The difficult part will be to go from being good to being great," she says. To become world-class, Miller says, Stevens will have to bump up her power anywhere from 6% to 13%.

Stevens is willing to put in the work. At the end of June, Stevens left Wall Street and devoted herself to cycling full-time. The sport's governing body, USA Cycling, sent her to do training sessions on a velodrome with competitors who are almost 10 years younger. She's now in Italy, training with the U.S.A. Cycling National Development Team, living the life of a professional athlete; working out, eating, and resting up for that next workout. "I just feel fresher when I get on the bike," she says. Instead of going to the office, she says, "Today, I came back from a ride, ate, surfed the Web, wrote emails, read books, hung out. It's really nice, actually."

Stevens pulled off her first major European road stage race victory with a win in stage four of La Route de France on Thursday.

Can you imagine what she will be able to do with some proper training? Remember the name! You'll be hearing more about this special athlete with the Cinderella story.

UFC Releases Five Fighters Following Losses at the UFC 101 Pay-Per-View

ufc 101

Thales Leites (14-3 MMA, 5-3 UFC) has been released from his UFC contract. Leites was the top middleweight contender just four months ago, but after a “lackluster” unanimous-decision loss to Silva at UFC 97 and a loss via split decision at UFC 101, he is now gone.

Tamdan McCrory has also been cut from his UFC contract. The Barncat is 11-3 overall, but only holds a UFC record of 3-3 with the loss he suffered at UFC 101. McCrory is a victim of the UFC freshening up their roster with roughly 20 Affliction fighters, as well as the usual mid-level talent pruning.

Also released following UFC 101 losses were Dan Cramer, George Roop and Danillo Villefort.

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar: Milan Is Perfect For Me

huntelaar milan

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar signed for Milan from Real Madrid last week and is already enjoying his new surroundings.

"Before accepting a transfer to Milan, I spoke at length with management and Leonardo," he explained to the Corriere dello Sport on Tuesday.

"There are no guarantees on the number of games I will play, but I will play plenty. Several clubs were interested in me, but I am sure I've made the right choice."

The Dutch striker was only at Real Madrid for half a season, before president Florentino Perez's re-instatement saw a massive spending spree that brought in stars such as Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema, pushing out Huntelaar after just 20 appearances.

"It's true, I didn't expect things to end like that, but in Italy it will be fine. I have carefully chosen my new team and Milan will be perfect," the 25-year-old concluded.

According to the latest reports, it's possible the former Ajax star could make his debut for the Rossoneri on August 14 against Pescara.

Manning's deal still not completed

eli manning

ALBANY - On Wednesday, Jerry Reese said he was "hopeful" about completing the Eli Manning contract extension soon. Saturday, he maintained that hopefulness.

"There are a lot of details in this kind of a deal," the Giants general manager said on his way to lunch. "I'm not concerned at all."

The two sides agreed to a deal in principle Wednesday, according to sources. That six-year extension is worth $97.5 million and, coupled with Manning's salary of $9.4 million this season, would pay him $106.9 million over the next seven years. At $15.2 million per season, that would be the highest multiyear contract in the NFL.

Sources have said the holdup on the deal is a "language" issue. Reese said the basic structure of the agreement has not fallen apart. "But a contract's not a contract until the name is on the line," he added.

Manning walked through the cafeteria, but all he said was, "Nothing new, nothing new," as he stepped inside.

Reese said he didn't know when Manning would actually sign the extension.

"There's no timetable on it," he said. "We're hopeful that it's sooner rather than later."

Pellegrini says Real Madrid can win a treble

cristiano ronaldo madrid

Real Madrid coach Manuel Pellegrini believes his team can win the treble this season.

The capital club finished the last campaign empty handed for the fourth time in six years and saw bitter rivals Barcelona sweep all before them on the way to the Champions League, Primera Division and Copa del Rey.

It has been a summer of change at the Bernabeu with club president Florentino Perez spending over 250million euros on Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Raul Albiol, Esteban Granero, Alvaro Arbeloa, Alvaro Negredo, Karim Benzema and Xabi Alonso.

It will also be Pellegrini's first season in Madrid after moving from Villarreal, and the Chilean insists his new team can emulate Barca's success.

"The responsibility of coaching Madrid is always the same," he said.

"You always have to finish first, but your options grow bigger with the players that have arrived.

"We have a great squad, but now we have to show it.

"There are two aims: go for the three trophies and at the same time make sure people enjoy the game.

"I am happy with those who are already here who are great players and those who came in.

"We can aim for the three trophies."

Madrid are currently on a pre-season tour in Toronto, where over 18,000 fans turned up to see them train on Thursday night.

Tiger Woods farts video: Practical joke or David Feherty?

tiger woods fart

Two days after the fact, and controversy still lingers over Tiger Woods famous "fart" on the 18th fairway of the 2009 Buick Open. But was it real or a practical joke played by a someone in the gallery?

CBS has been pulling the videos down off of YouTube as quickly as they are uploaded, and as of this writing this is the highest quality video out there.

On first pass through the video, it looks like Tiger is trying to work out a kink in his gastrointestinal tract, leading up to a massive ripper that causes he and caddy Steve Williams to share a laugh. Given how long these guys stay out on the course, and the types of foods they ingest to maintain their energy levels, it is easy to believe that someone could accidentally "let one get away" while trying to discreetly fart.

Here's what would make sense: it's a practical joke, perpetrated by a fan in the raucus gallery at the very last Buick Open to be played at Warwick Hills. Tiger is stretching out his legs, yes. And as he is just getting to the bag, someone in the gallery squeezes off a massive whoopee cushion.

Tiger and Stevie immediately begin laughing, and Tiger even laughingly states, "Are you serious?"

Watch the video and see where Tiger and Stevie's eyes shoot to as soon as the sound erupts: it's off camera, and to the right. Off camera, and to the right: proving that there was one perpetrator, outside the ropes.

Here's what Foxnews is claiming: it's David Feherty. Seriously. Feherty has a microphone on, and he's a notorious jokester. All you have to do is see the video of Feherty calling Woods "A loser" after Woods' loss at Quail Hollow this year (and Woods laughing about it) to know that Feherty and Woods have a great relationship. Something like this makes complete sense, and probably happens more often than we ever get to peek behind the velvet curtain and find out about.

More sense, anyways, than the proportions this story has grown to. Fartgate has become the biggest golf news story since Woods won the U.S. Open, but only for the golf blogs. Mainstream media seem to be shying away from it, with an unusual show of decorum and taste.

Initially, I thought the incident was just indicative of how rowdy and partying the crowds can be at Warwick Hills, and how good a time everyone was having at the Buick Open's farewell party. Once Tiger birdied the 16th hole and sealed the win, he started laughing and interacting with the crowd. Tiger went so far as to throw his ball to the crowd after his putt on #17, a rare act of coming out of his "zone" mid-round.

The fart incident seemed to be the illogical culmination of a special week of golf, and the final hurrah of a tournament that has offered 51 years of stellar golf. Thanks to Tiger Woods' epic comeback, the Buick Open was able to go out with a bang. Thanks to someone's most well-timed expulsion of wind ever, it will be remembered for going out with a poot.

Galatasaray has announced that they have paid their debt to former forward Necati Ates.

galatasaray

Ateş, who has an agreement with Galatasaray until the end of the season, appealed to the Turkish Soccer Federation (TFF) to annul his agreement as Galatasaray had not paid his salary. Ateş reportedly received payment after his complaint. He has been out on loan to Ankaraspor, İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyespor and Spanish team Real Sociedad for the last two seasons. He is not considered part of the Galatasaray squad.

Diva Federica Pellegrini emerges as Italy's national darling

federica pellegrini

The Stadio del Nuoto at the Foro Italico seats 13,000 people. During this week's world swimming championships, it has been full three times, for each of Federica Pellegrini's three finals.

In fact, it was more than full on each of those three nights – it was overflowing. The seats had long since been filled and the stairways and aisles were thronged not by paying spectators, but by catering staff, security guards, policemen and a small army of student volunteers. When Pellegrini starts, Italy seems to stop.

The sound of the crowd when she swims is overwhelming, 10-times louder than normal. Not many overseas fans make the trip to the world swimming championships, so the near-entirety of those 13,000-plus is there simply to scream for Pellegrini, to stamp their feet and pound their fists as she swims.

She is the biggest star at these championships, a diva who lives her life on the front pages of newspapers and glossy magazines, which revel in revealing the intimate details of her life. Pellegrini has been at the centre of a pool-side love triangle and, of late, has been prone to pulling up during races after suffering panic attacks. There is more than a little soap-opera about the way she lives.

Last Sunday, Pellegrini became world champion in the 400m freestyle and the first woman to break the four-minute barrier at the distance. It seemed, afterwards, as though Rebecca Adlington had never had a chance of winning gold at all, despite being Olympic champion.

"The way that crowd was cheering for her tonight, it was just amazing," Adlington said after taking bronze. "I'm just so happy to have been in that race. It was definitely Pellegrini's moment. It is something I'm going to remember for the rest of my life."

Next, on Wednesday, Pellegrini became the world champion in the 200m freestyle and broke her own world record as she did so. Joanne Jackson, who had come second behind Pellegrini in the 400m, finished in fourth. Like Adlington, she was overwhelmed by what she had seen. "That was just amazing. That time she did tonight was unbelievable. It was like a bloke's time."

The three women are similar ages. Pellegrini turns 21 on Wednesday. Adlington is 20, Jackson 22. Pellegrini, though, seems to have been around for longer. Aged 16, she swam for Italy at the Athens Olympics in 2004 and won silver in the 200m.

Five-foot nine inches tall and with looks that could have come straight from the pages of a vintage Vogue (she posed nude, spray-painted gold, for Vanity Fair last year), Pellegrini has been a star ever since.

Her fiancé is a fellow Italian swimmer, former European 400m individual medley champion Luca Marin. Before they started dating, though, Marin was in a relationship with one of Pellegrini's great rivals, France's Laure Manaudou. Pellegrini and Marin are often pictured kissing pool-side, just as he and Manaudou once were. In 2007, Manaudou won gold in the 200m, ahead of Pellegrini, at the world championships.

That same year, Manaudou quit France to live and train in Italy with Marin, saying she "wanted to have his babies". It did not work out. She and Marin fell out and, on the same day she won that gold, a sex-tape of the pair was released to the Italian press.

Pellegrini started dating Marin shortly afterwards and, all the while, she and Manaudou were swapping the world record for the 200m, back and forth between them. Manaudou quit swimming at the beginning of this year saying she had "lost the pleasure and will to swim". Pellegrini ended up with the man and the world record. But she was also suffering.

In Beijing, she lost badly, shockingly, to Adlington in the 400m, ending up fifth in the final. Later on the same day she lost that final, she broke the world record in the heats of the 200m freestyle and then went on to win gold in the event. Still, twice last year Pellegrini pulled up during races after suffering panic attacks. The first time was in November 2008, when she climbed from the pool wheezing and heaving to receive medical attention. She was later diagnosed as asthmatic and started to use an inhaler. But the problem was not solved. The next month, she pulled up again during a 400m race.

The 400m seemed to inspire in her a particular fear. She said the event made her feel caught in two minds, unable to trust her own pace because it attracted sprinters who would swim hard early on and endurance athletes who would attack in the later stages.

Since then, Pellegrini has been seeing a sports psychologist. Before last Sunday's record-breaking 400m, she said she was pleased the race was on the first day of the meet. "Let's pull the tooth right away, get rid of the pain."

She certainly did that. In the past seven days, the diva has become Italy's national darling.

CAF Confederation Cup: Bayelsa Fall At Home To Stade Malien

la caf

Bayelsa United are blaming a delayed kick-off for their 2-1 loss at home to Mali's Stade Malien on Saturday in a CAF Confederation Cup Group B match.

Substitute referees from Algeria, who are slated to handle Sunday's CAF Champions League match between Heartland and Monomotapa of Zimbabwe, had to be brought in from neighbouring Owerri to officiate, after the South African referees for the Bayelsa game were refused visas to enter Nigeria.

This match, therefore, kicked off several hours behind schedule and so was played under floodlights.

The goals were also late in coming, after a first half in which Stade Malien took full control of the midfield.

Bayelsa took the lead in the 72nd minute, through promising youth international Osas Okoro, who hooked home after the Malian goalkeeper failed to hold on to a shot.

However, the Malians drew level four minutes from time, courtesy of an opportunistic Coulibaly Bakere, who went on to net the match winner right on the stroke of full-time in almost similar fashion, as the Bayelsa defence gifted two soft goals.

Leading scorer Stanley Ohawuchi wasted a number of scoring chances for the home team.

The Nigerian club are rooted at the bottom of the standings, pointless after two rounds of matches.

Stade Malien shoot to the top of the group on four points, ahead of Angola's Primeiro Agosto, who also have four points after they edged past third-placed Egypt's Harras Hadoud.

Schumacher Visits Injured Massa In Hospital

massa

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Michael Schumacher visited injured Ferrari driver Felipe Massa in a Budapest hospital on Saturday, a day after starting testing for his return to Formula One racing with the Italian team.

The seven-times champion, who will replace the injured Brazilian while he recovers from a head injury suffered in a crash during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix a week ago, did not speak to reporters.

Former Ferrari boss Jean Todt, who is standing as a successor to Max Mosley as president of motorsport's world governing body the International Automobile Federation (FIA), also visited Massa and left without speaking to the media.

Dino Altmann, Massa's personal physician, said the Brazilian's recovery was on track and he was due to fly back to Brazil on Monday where he would continue the process.

Altmann declined to predict when Massa could get back to racing but dismissed speculation that he had suffered an eye injury which could slow his return.

"I'm not concerned about (the eye), it's okay, it shouldn't be a problem," Altmann told reporters outside the hospital. "I should be more concerned about his brain, not his sight. He's doing very well in all aspects of his recovery."

More NCAA trouble for USC football?

USC football

USC football Coach Pete Carroll employed a former NFL tactician last season to help with the team's punting and kicking game, an arrangement that may have violated NCAA rules that prohibit consultants from coaching, The Times has learned.

Carroll's action could widen a continuing investigation by the NCAA, the governing body of major college sports, which has been looking at USC football for more than three years and the school's basketball program for the last year. The probe has been examining specific allegations of improper payments to two players as well as the broader question of whether USC has lost "institutional control" of its athletics department.The new issue involves the employment of Pete Rodriguez, who has coached for several professional franchises. In an interview with The Times, he acknowledged that he attended USC practices, monitored games and offered Carroll behind-the-scenes advice on matters ranging from the needs of individual players to avoiding penalties during punt returns.

"I would watch practice and tell Pete, 'Hey, this guy needs this and this,' " Rodriguez said. He said he believed that his work complied with National Collegiate Athletic Assn. regulations that cap the number of coaches a team can have and that restrict consultants.

But experts contacted by The Times said the type of assistance that Rodriguez described could constitute a serious violation.

"That's coaching," said J. Brent Clark, a onetime NCAA investigator who practices law in Oklahoma, when told of Rodriguez's statements.

"The rules are designed to level the playing field for all institutions regardless of the size of their budgets. It would make no sense for the rich and powerful to be able to compensate coaches with NFL backgrounds outside the coaching-limitation rules."

James Grant, USC's media relations director, issued a brief statement Wednesday in response to questions from The Times.

"We are aware of this issue and are looking into the matter. We will have no further comment at this time," the statement said.

A spokesman for Carroll and USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett said both were on vacation and unavailable.

There has been no indication to date that the NCAA's investigation has touched on the use of consultants. But Rodriguez's employment could change that, said Clark and others familiar with NCAA procedures, several of whom spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of damaging their relations with USC or Carroll.

An NCAA spokeswoman declined to answer questions about USC.

If USC is found to have lost institutional control of athletics, the NCAA could levy severe penalties on the school, including a ban on post-season play and television appearances that generate millions of dollars in revenue.

Any probe involving Carroll takes on particular importance because his sustained success has made him enormously popular and influential at USC and one of the most recognizable figures in sports. The Trojans won national championships in 2003 and 2004.

Now in his ninth year as coach, Carroll has sought to remain above the NCAA probe, which is centered on allegations of illicit payments involving former football star Reggie Bush as well as ex-basketball standout O.J. Mayo and his former coach, Tim Floyd.

Carroll had tapped at least one NFL-pedigree coach before Rodriguez. Early in his tenure, Carroll brought in NFL journeyman coach Alex Gibbs to help the Trojan staff.

During the off-season, Gibbs met with coaches and analyzed game videos, according to a source familiar with Trojan football operations, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was concerned about alienating USC.

Gibbs, now an assistant head coach for the Houston Texans, did not respond to interview requests.

NCAA bylaws bar consultants from participating "in any on- or off-field or on- or off-court coaching activities," unless they are counted against a team's coaching limits. The rules specifically forbid consultants from "attending practices and meetings involving coaching activities, formulating game plans [and] analyzing video involving the institution's or opponent's team."

The bylaws say teams may retain temporary consultants "to provide in-service training for the coaching staff, but no interaction with student-athletes is permitted."

The rules limit teams in USC's division to nine assistant coaches and two graduate assistants. Last season, Carroll decided not to assign an assistant coach full time to special-teams duty, overseeing the punting and kicking squads.

Andrew Zimbalist, a Smith College professor who specializes in sports economics, said he was "not surprised" that Carroll turned to Rodriguez, given the pressure on big-time football programs to get a leg up on the competition.

"Whenever you impose a rule that says you can't do what you want to do, that the marketplace can't do its magic, somebody finds a way to twist it or get around it," he said. "I'm sure that the infractions committee at the NCAA will look at it."

In the telephone interview, Rodriguez said, "I didn't coach the players at all. . . . The players knew who I was because I'd show up for practice now and then. They'd say, 'Hi.' "
Rodriguez said he did not analyze videotapes of contests, but "basically watched all the games."

He said Carroll "knew what I could do and what I couldn't do. He said, 'We have to be very careful.' I was allowed to be able to talk to Pete. I gave him my thoughts.

"I gave them some thoughts on how to avoid penalties. Just simple, basic football."

Clark said Rodriguez's mere presence at practices could have given USC another potentially unfair advantage -- boosting the school's reputation as a gateway to the NFL, a key selling point in recruiting and retaining top talent.

"It said, 'Hey, look what you get when you come to USC -- you get access to the NFL,' " he said.

Rodriguez recently signed on as special teams coach for the New York franchise of the start-up United Football League. His NFL employers have included the Jacksonville Jaguars, Seattle Seahawks and Washington Redskins.

The biography posted on the UFL's website does not mention Rodriguez's USC stint. Rodriguez described his work for Carroll as something that did not require many hours.

But another source familiar with the situation said that Rodriguez, who lives in San Diego County, turned down a job with the University of San Diego because of his arrangement with USC.

In the interview, Rodriguez initially denied that he had any contact with the University of San Diego, but later said he remembered an overture but had never formally been offered a job.

University of San Diego Coach Ron Caragher declined to comment about Rodriguez's statement, saying it was his policy not to discuss interviews with coaching candidates.

For the upcoming season, USC has hired a full-time special teams coach, Brian Schneider, who held that position with the Oakland Raiders.

"We've worked for years to create the opportunity to have a special teams coordinator," Carroll said in a January statement on Schneider's arrival.

Rodriguez said he had not been interested in joining USC full time and had offered no input in Schneider's selection.