6B
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAIRY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23, 2008
TENNIS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Russia's Maria Sharapova returns the ball to Belgium's Justine Henin during their Women's singles quarter final match at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia.
Tuesday. Sharapova beat Henin 6-4, 6-4 and advanced to the semifinals.
No love for pros at Australian open
Williams sisters slump, Sharapova shines as competition advances
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MELBOURNE, Australia — Serena Williams stumbled one round short of a rematch, so Maria Sharapova had to unload a year's worth of retribution on somebody else.
Justine Henin caught the brunt of it.
Sharapova advanced to the Australian Open semifinals for the fourth straight year with a convincing 6-4, 6-0 win over top-ranked Henin, snapping the Belgian star's 32-match winning streak.
"Even though I beat Justine, it's definitely not over," the 20-year-old Russian star said. "I still have a lot of business to take care of."
Defending champion Williams had slumped 6-3, 6-4 earlier in the afternoon to third-ranked Jelena Jankovic, who reached the semifinals at Melbourne Park for the first time and only the third time in a major.
Williams was unseeded and ranked No. 81 when she made her stunning run to an eighth Grand Slam title 12 months ago, punctuating that with an emphatic 6-1, 6-2 win over Sharapova in one of the most lopsided Grand Slam finals.
It was a big setback for Sharapova, who struggled with a shoulder problem for most of the season and her ranking slipped outside the top 5.
But the winner of two Grand Slam events started returning to her best at the WTA championships in November before losing in three sets to Henin in 3 hours.
24 minutes — among the dozen longest women's tour matches in the Open era.
She turned the tables in only 1:38 on Tuesday, inflicting the first 6-0 set on Henin since 2002.
"I really felt like I was in a bubble",
Sharapova said. "I think it was one of the most consistent matches where I did all the things I wanted to do, and I did them correctly from the beginning to the end ... and just played the way I can play."
Henin, who struggled with her serve and was broken five times by Sharapova, said she had a minor concern over a lingering knee injury but put the loss down as an inevitability.
"It's very hard to be at your best level all the time," she said. "I'll have to think about that and build again for the future."
Jankovic has two Serbian compatriots in the quarterfinals Wednesday.
No. 4-ranked Ana Ivanovic is aiming to end the run of another Williams when she plays Serena's sister, Venus, for the right to meet the winner of the other quarterfinal between No. 9 Daniela Hantuchova and No. 29 Arnieszka Radwanska.
On the men's side, Serbia's Novak Djokovic plays David Ferrer of Spain and defending champion Roger Federer goes against No. 12 James Blake.
But he's taking heart from Federer's last two matches, when he was taken to 10-8 in the fifth set
Blake is 0-7 against Federer, who beat him in the 2006 U.S. Open quarterfinals.
against Serbia's Janko Tisparvic and had to save set points against Tomas Berdych.
No. 2 Rafael Nadal, the only player to beat Federer at the last 10 Grand Slams, advanced to his first Australian Open semifinal with a 7-5, 6-3, 6-1 win over No. 2 Jarkko Niemiens of Finland.
"Maybe I wasn't playing my best match, my best tennis today, but it was enough," the three-time French Open champion said. "It's a good moment for me, first semifinals on hard court, Grand Slam."
He will play 22-year-old Jo-William Tsonga, who beat No.14 Mikhail Youzhny 7-5, 6-0, 7-6 (6) late Tuesday.
The 38th-ranked Tsonga has only played four previous majors due to a combination of back, shoulder and abdominal injuries and never won a title at the elite level, but has already upset No. 9 Andy Murray and No. 8 Richard Gasquet so far at Melbourne Park.
"It's just amazing. I played just unbelievable." Tsonga said. "It's a very big event. It's very difficult to stay on this world."
Despite being in better physical condition this time around, she still could not go beyond the quarters for the fourth consecutive major.
Williams looked sluggish and her serve misfired against Jankovic, contributing to seven service breaks.
Serena Williams was that cestatic last year after her amazing run.
She had time to reflect on the singles loss when she combined with Venus in a 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 doubles
quarterfinal loss to Chinese pair Yan Zi and Zheng Jie.
"I think that I went crazy, maybe, and I made a lot of mistakes. I didn't really play the game I wanted to play," Williams said, adding that she had some physical issues she didn't want to elaborate on. "I don't like to make excuses. We won't discuss those."
MLB
New Royals pitcher ready to get out of the bullpen
ASSOCIATED PRESS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Brett Tomko agreed Monday to a $3 million, one-year contract with the Kansas City Royals, promising his worked out the problems that led to failure with the Dodgers last year.
A right-hander who turns 35 during the first week of the 2008 season, Tomko will compete for a spot in the rotation but is also a candidate for bullpen duty for a club seeking to climb out of the AL Central basement.
"Ive done both and I'm comfortable with both," he said. "But that was one of the main things we talked about this winter. We talked with other (clubs) for bullpen and setup positions."
Tomko's contract calls for an additional $1.5 million in performance bonuses.
"We like the power in his arm and the experience that he brings to a very young pitching staff". Royals general manager Dayton Moore said.
In his worst stretch since breaking into the majors with Cincinnati in 1997, Tomko was 2-11 with a 5.80 ERA last year for Los Angeles. After being designated for assignment, he signed with San Diego and was 2-1 with a 4.61 ERA as the Padres competed for a playoff berth.
Changes he made in style and delivery at the urging of the Dodgers led to his problems.
"They asked me to try a couple of things," Tomko said. "They wanted to see a little more movement, change my mechanics a little bit. I went into it with an open mind and thought I'd try whatever they asked."
At first, the changes looked good. He had 10 strikeouts in his first start.
"But over the next few starts, it wasn't working," he said. Soon, bad habits were formed and he could
not escape a self-imposed rut
"I got put in the bullpen and was mopping up games," he said.
Finally, he was cut and went home for 16 days.
"I revamped everything and tried to go back to what I was doing," he said.
Then Tomko was signed by San Diego and with the Padres and went back to his old style.
"I watched film of those first five months and it didn't even look like me. I was topping out at 86-87 (mph)" he said. "But once I got back to the basics of what I'd been doing, my velocity jumped back to the mid-90s."
Now, after saying no thanks to some other clubs who approached him about bullpen duty, he's ready to report to the Royals' camp in Surprise, Ariz., and compete with Jorge De La Rosa, Luke Hochevar, Kyle Davies and Luke Hudson for one of the two remaining jobs in the rotation behind Gil Meche, Brian Bannister and Zack Greinke.
If Tomko doesn't start, he would join a bullpen that includes left-handers Jimmy Gobble, Ron Mahay and John Bale. In 20 2-3 innings last year as a relever, Tomkado three strikeouts and just seven walks.
"More of his recent success has been in the bullden," Moore said. "It gives us a power arm from the right side."
Tomko is 93-92 with a 4.62 ERA for six major league teams in 11 seasons and is among just three pitchers since 2005 with 115 appearances and 60 starts.
Moore said the Royals likely wouldn't make any more moves before the start of spring training in mid-February.
"As spring training evolves, I'm sure there will be more things that we try to do." Moore said. "But right now I look for us to be pretty much set as we go into spring training."