Venus Williams loses Olympic tuneup singles match
WASHINGTON — Venus Williams lost an Olympic tuneup Monday during a World Team Tennis match attended by first lady Michele Obama.
Williams, playing for the Washington Kastles, lost 5-0 to the Boston Lobsters’ Irina Falconi in the women’s singles portion of the match. In the best-of-five games format, Williams — ranked No. 68 — struggled with her serve, double-faulting several times to the 85th-ranked Falconi.
Obama and daughters Sasha and Malia, who entered Kastles Stadium to applause, saw Williams help the Kastles to 5-1 mixed doubles and 5-1 women’s doubles victories, but left before Williams lost her singles match.
Radwanska upsets No. 6 seed Hantuchova at Carlsbad
CARLSBAD, Calif. — No. 6 seed Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia lost 6-4, 7-5 Ursula Radwanska of Poland in a first-round match Monday night at the Mercury Insurance Open.
Hantuchova lost the match when she made an unforced error, sending a forehand long.
Earlier, U.S. Olympian Varvara Lepchenko cruised to a 6-3, 6-1 win over NCAA champion Nicole Gibbs in another first-round match.
London-bound Olympians
making stop in Atlanta
ATLANTA — Organizers had good reason to worry that the field for the Atlanta Open would suffer if top players took this week off to prepare for the Olympics.
Instead, Atlanta has attracted all four Americans who will play singles in London: Ryan Harrison, John Isner, Andy Roddick and Donald Young.
Roddick and Isner also will play doubles at the London Games. Isner, the top seed, won last week’s ATP tournament in Newport, R.I.
It’s the best-case scenario for the Atlanta tournament in its first year in a new midtown location. Jack Sock, 19, of Lincoln, Neb., upset Bogomolov, the No. 7 seed, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 in the first match to be completed following an afternoon rain delay.
Young was the first of the four Olympians to lose. Steve Johnson, who won two straight NCAA singles championships at Southern California, beat Young 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 on Monday night.
Other Olympians in the field include: Alex Bogomolov Jr. and Dmitry Tursunov, Russia; Lukas Lacko, Slovania; Yen-Hsun Lu, Taiwan; and Gilles Muller, Luxembourg.
Reds 1B Votto needs
knee surgery, out 3-4 weeks
CINCINNATI — Reds first baseman Joey Votto will have surgery to repair torn cartilage in his left knee, leaving the NL Central leaders without their best hitter for the next three to four weeks.
The 2010 National League MVP hurt the knee while sliding into third base June 29 in San Francisco, but has continued playing. Votto started for the NL in the All-Star game last Tuesday.
A medical exam Monday night detected the tear, and Votto will have arthroscopic surgery today.
General manager Walt Jocketty said Votto didn’t have an MRI earlier because the first baseman didn’t think he needed one.
AFC suspends bin Hammam because of bribery
The Asian Football Confederation accused its disgraced president Mohammed bin Hammam of bribery after an internal audit revealed fresh allegations of financial wrongdoings by the Qatari football official.
The AFC said late Monday it enforced a provisional suspension of 30 days from the continental body for bin Hammam, who is already fighting a lifetime ban from football imposed by FIFA. The suspension comes three days before sport’s highest court is set to rule on the FIFA ban, meaning bin Hammam would be denied an immediate return to office even if he wins his appeal.
The Qatari was ousted from FIFA for trying to buy votes while challenging Sepp Blatter for presidency of football’s world governing body last year.
James helps US basketball
team win after bad start
WASHINGTON — LeBron James scored 30 points, and the U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team rallied from an early 10-point deficit to beat Brazil 80-69 on Monday night.
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden watched the Americans get off to a dismal start, then turn it around by holding the Brazilians to two baskets in the second quarter.
James helped the U.S. pull away in the final four minutes after they led by only seven, getting his final point on a free throw with 31 seconds left as Obama departed.
Kevin Durant added 11 in his hometown for the Americans, who will leave Tuesday for Europe to complete their Olympic preparations. They face Britain in Manchester, England, on Thursday before traveling to Barcelona to play Argentina and Spain.
It’s a solid exhibition schedule, and this game showed the Americans have some work to do before they get to London.
They were just 1 of 12 from 3-point range in the first half and struggled offensively when forced to play in the halfcourt.
Whalen leads US women
to 99-67 rout of Brazil
WASHINGTON — Lindsay Whalen scored 21 points, and Diana Taurasi added 16 to help the U.S. women’s Olympic basketball team rout Brazil 99-67 on Monday night in an exhibition game.
Whalen started in place of Sue Bird, who missed the game because of a death in her family. Bird, who will be playing in her third Olympics at the London Games, practiced with the team this weekend before leaving Sunday.
USA Basketball officials did not say when Bird would be rejoining the team.
Whalen had 10 points and three assists in the first quarter to help the Americans jump out to a quick 13-2 lead. The U.S. led 27-14 after one period and built the advantage to 51-31 at the half. They coasted the rest of the way.
By wire sources
