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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 21, 2009
TENNIS
Nadal changes shirts, not style in Aussie Open win
Spaniard shows strength in first-round victory; Williams sisters advance to next round
BY ED WHITE Associated Press
MELBOURNE. Australia — Rafael Nadal ditched his trademark sleeveless top in favor of a more conservative T-shirt.
His bulging biceps may no longer be exposed to view, but they're certainly still driving the top-ranked player's muscular approach to the game.
The 22-year-old Spaniard bullied Christophe Rochus around Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday night with some brutal forehands and 10 aces in a 6-0, 6-2, 6-2 first-round win at the Australian Open.
He hit 47 winners in 22 games and Rochus, a Belgian who turned 30 last month, could get nowhere near most of them.
Having the last match of the opening round had its advantages for Nadal. He'd already had a chance to see how Roger Federer, defending champion Novak Djokovic and fourth-ranked Andy Murray had progressed.
He would get another look at Federer and Djokovic in the second round Wednesday. Match two in Federer's quest to tie Pete Sampras' record 14th Grand Slam title is against Russian Eugeny Korolev.
Nadal deflected a question about his intentions with such an aggressive start. He was less interested in upping the ante on his highly ranked rivals, he said, than in gauging himself after a 1½-month layoff for tendinitis in his right knee.
"I am no thinking nothing about this," he said. "I just think about try to play well myself. Roger and Novak and Murray, they are far (away) in the draw.
"I just can play with them in semifinals or finals, no? I have to think (only) about next match right now."
His next match is against 26 year-old Croatian Roko Karanusic, who was ranked 92nd and has never gone past the second round at a major.
No. 9 James Blake beat Canadian Frank Dancevic 6-4, 6-3, 7-5 in the other night match, joining fellow American men — No. 7 Andy Roddick, Mardy Fish and Amelie Delic
— in the second round. The other three are in action Wednesday.
The Williams sisters navigated the first step in the path to a potential semifinal showdown and, rather than do their own thing on the days between singles matches, have decided to team up in the doubles.
Serena Williams opened her campaign for a 10th major — and to continue her odd-year pattern of Australian titles that stretches back to 2003 — with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over 123rd-ranked Yuan Meng.
The temperature topped 104 degrees during the match, prompting Williams to finish points quickly, spend time in the shade and conserve fuel.
"I was able to just take my time and play a lot slower, not giving 1,000 percent," she said. "I think it was pretty important for me not to ... go crazy out there."
The temperature had dropped to 79 degrees for Venus Williams 6-3, 6-3 win over Angelique Kerber of Germany.
Olympic gold medalist Elena Dementieva beat Germany's Kristina Barrois to extend her winning streak to 11 matches. No.13 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus and 2006 champion Amelie Mauremo of France also made it through.
Murray needed only 12 games and 45 minutes to reach the second round, advancing when Andrei Pavel retired while trailing 6-2, 3-1 due to a back problem.
Since his career-best run to the final at the U.S. Open, he's grown in confidence and is now taking openly about "going one better."
He lost to Federer at the U.S. Open, but has beaten the Swiss star three times since then. He's also had two wins over Nadal and one over third-ranked Djokovic.
The 21-year-old Scotsman is not the only one encouraged by the run: British bookmakers are listing him as co-favorite to win the Australian Open.
Nadal didn't say whether the new white, gray and blue T-shirt he wore against Rochus was an attempt for a more mature look, or that it would be a permanent fixture.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Spain's Rafael Nadal returns to Belgium's Christophe Rochus in a men's singles match at the Australian Open Tennis Championships in Melbourne Australia, on Tuesday.
All tangled up
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ecuador's Deison Mendez, left, and Hamilton Shasi, right, push Perus Reimond Mcano during their under-20 South American soccer championship game in Maturin, Venezuela, on Monday.
WASHINGTON — Muhammad Ali and Magic Johnson had prime seats at the Capitol. LeBron James watched from a hotel room in Los Angeles with his two sons. Across the country, coaches rescheduled practices, and even the Super Bowl had to take a back seat Tuesday to the inauguration of Barack Obama.
ELECTION 2008
Athletes change plans for inauguration
Ray Allen, Muhammad Ali attend ceremonies while others watch in hotel rooms
ASSOCIATED PRESS
"This day will last forever. It will be in books. It will be in schools. It will be in classes. It will be on test questions. It means a lot not only on this day, but for the rest of the days to come and the years to come."
"This day means a lot to innercity kids, to African-American kids, to everyone," said Cleveland Cavaliers star James, who contributed $20,000 to Obama's campaign but couldn't attend the swearing-in because his team is on a West Coast road trip.
It takes a lot to bring the sports world to a standstill, but there was
The Boston Celtics, on the way to Miami for a road game, voted to change their flight schedule and arrive in time for the players to watch the ceremony from their hotel, even though coach Doc Rivers offered to tape it for them.
no ignoring the magnitude of the moment. Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin pushed back his first pre-Super Bowl news conference one hour so it wouldn't conflict with the inauguration.
"They said, 'No, we want to see it live. We think it's that important.' Rivers said, "One of them said, 'Twenty or 30 years from now, I want to say I saw him speak live when he came in'. I guess it will be like JFK in a lot of ways. I'm glad our guys have the awareness of real life."
"What we're doing here today pales with what's going on in our nation's capital." Tomlin said.
Guard Ray Allen upped them all, attending the inauguration in person with Celtics owner Steve Pagliwuca before rejoining the team in
Florida.
"It was people coming together; kind of a peaceful feeling came over the crowd." Pagliuca told The Associated Press. "The crowd had a hope and a joy. For that many people to be that peaceful was very moving."
Pagliuca said he was proud to represent a Celtics team that was the first in the NBA to draft a black player and to hire a black coach.
In Fairfax, Va., George Mason men's basketball club Jim Larranaga used "Yes, we can!" as his thought for the day when practice began at 11:30 a.m. He pulled his players off the court 27 minutes later and took them to the locker room to watch the swearing-in and Obama's speech. The players broke out in applause several times, then returned to finish practice.
Even ESPN deviated from its sports programming to broadcast the swearing-in, and ESPN Classic followed with a 10-hour "Breaking Barriers" marathon featuring African-American athletes.
BIG 12 FOOTBALL
Cowboys hire former Kansas coach
Bill Young returns to Oklahoma State as defensive coordinator after one year at Miami
BY MURRAY EVANS
Associated Press
OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma State hired Bill Young on Tuesday to be its defensive coordinator, luring him back to his alma mater from Miami.
Young played at Oklahoma State from 1965-67 and has had two previous stints on the coaching staff.
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Young, 62, had told a Miami newspaper earlier this week that deciding between coaching with the Hurricanes or Cowboys left him "very torn."
"It means a lot to me to come back to OSU because I am a graduate, I played there and now we are back as part of the Cowboy family," Young said in a statement. "My wife and I are very excited to get back to
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Stillwater and Oklahoma State."
Young fills the last of four vacancies on coach Mike Gundy's staff. The defensive coordinator's job was the most prominent, vacated in early December when Tim Beckman left after two seasons to become the head coach at Toledo.
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Oklahoma State finished 9-4 last season, losing to Oregon in the Holiday Bowl, and was ranked No.16 in the final Associated Press poll. But the Cowboys struggled defensively.
They finished 93rd among 119 teams in total defense, allowing 405.54 yards per game, and 76th in scoring defense at 28.1 points per game.
Miami was 28th in total defense (317.46) and 56th in scoring defense (24.1) last season.
Young spent one season at Miami. In 2007, he was defensive coordinator for Kansas and the Jayhawks ranked 12th in the country in yards allowed.
"He's been successful everywhere he been," Gundy said in a statement. "It's great to have an OSU graduate and a former player as an addition to the staff."