6B SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
U.S. OPEN
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2007
ASSOCIATED PRESS
David Ferrer of Spain reacts after winning a point against Rafael Nadal of Soina during their match Tuesday at the U.S. Open tennis tournament.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Somber end for Serena
NEW YORK — A sullen Serena Williams exited the locker room, her racket bag slung across two shoulders, her U.S. Open over after a third consecutive Grand Slam loss to Justine Henin.
Finding all the right angles and hanging tough on long rallies. Henin beat Williams 7-6 (3), 6-1 Tuesday night to reach the U.S. Open semifinals.
Henin defeats Williams, advances to U.S. Open semifinals
That high-powered match was followed by the biggest surprise so far on the men's side. No. 2 Rafael Nadal's body broke down and he lost to No. 15 David Ferrer, who reached his first U.S. Open quarterfinal. Ferrer's 6-7 (3), 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-2 victory, which finished at 1:50 a.m. Wednesday, means there won't be a third consecutive major final between Nadal and No. 1 Roger Federer.
While Williams waited for a courtesy car at the player exit, her mother, who also is her coach, put an arm around her neck for a quick, consoling hug. Mom whispered something, and Williams looked straight ahead, apparently still not in any mood to dissect the defeat an hour after it ended.
The formerly No. 1-ranked Williams is the active leader among women with eight Grand Slam titles, but current No. 1 Henin now has a chance to claim her seventh major.
Williams' postmatch news conference began with a query about whether she could explain what went wrong. Her reply: "No. I can't. I'm sorry. Any more questions?"
"I was a bit concerned during the first set because I wasn't aggressive enough. Then from the tiebreak until the end, I played unbelievable tennis," Hienn said after compiling a
"She made a lot of lucky shots," Williams said a moment later, "and I made a lot of errors."
30-17 edge in winners. "My tournament is not over — far from that."
Her next opponent could be another Williams; Serena's older sister, Venus, faces No. 3 Jelena Jankovic in the quarterfinals Wednesday night. Not much question for whom Henin will be rooting — she's 1-7 against Venus Williams, 7-0 against Jankovic.
"Every match is a final for me now," Henin said. "If I have to play Venus, it will be a good challenge for me to play both sisters in the same tournament." Henin said.
The match turned out to be far less competitive than the men's
fourth-round action. That included Ferrer's defeat of Nadal.
Put it this way: A weary Novak Djokovic was relieved to pocket his victory.
The No. 3-seeded Djokovic reached the U.S. Open quarterfinals for the first time by beating No. 23 Juan Monaco 7-5, 7-6 (2), 6-7 (6), 6-1 in a match that included the unusual sight of Monaco losing a point because a tennis ball fell out of his shorts.
"I went nuts! I was cursing at me. I was yelling at my pants," Monaco said.
>>NFL
Serena Williams walks off the court after losing to Justine Henin of Belgium Tuesday in two sets at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hamilton hopes to get back in Broncos lineup soon
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Ben Hamilton's streak of 5,407 consecutive snaps since becoming the Denver Broncos' starting left guard in 2002 is about to end.
Chris Myers will get the start Sunday at Buffalo because doctors have ordered Hamilton not to do any type of physical activity for two weeks in hopes his post-concussion symptoms will finally fade.
Hamilton, who banged helmets with a teammate in camp a month ago and sat out the entire preseason, remains optimistic he'll be back in the lineup soon.
"I'm feeling good. It's kind of a day-by-day deal, and once I start feeling better, I'll definitely be practicing and ready to go." Hamilton said Wednesday. "I'm not too scared. The doctors say I will definitely feel better."
Hamilton has had a tough time dealing with being sidelined, however.
"I've never had to miss any time with any injury or anything that's happened to me in the past, or any adversity," he said. "This is just something I've learned that you can't just push through it, like when you sprain your ankle or something like that. You have to wait until you're 100 percent. If you try to fight against it, you're going to lose every time."
Hamilton gets dizzy whenever he does any cardiovascular work and he'll revisit specialists in Pittsburgh next week for more medical tests to determine whether he can return to practice.
The NFL has implemented tough new guidelines on players who get concussions.
"But I think even without those rules the Broncos would be pretty cautious with me," Hamilton said. "I felt no pressure that I must get back or we need you by this time. They're going to let it run its course, just like the doctor said. And I will get better."
GYMNASTICS
U.S. tops China and Romania for world title
ASSOCIATED PRESS
STUTTGART, Germany — Nastia Liukin couldn't watch. She knew she might be the one who had let another world title slip away.
Alicia Sacramone couldn't wait. She wanted to get out on the floor, show 'em what she had, and see if it was good enough to save the day.
Sacramone did it, coming through with a floor routine full of attitude and glitz, one good enough to rally the Americans to a world championship Wednesday and prove that winning gold medals in gymnastics is more about determination than perfection.
And Liukin could finally breathe again.
"These are not machines," national team coordinator Martha Karolyi explained after her team overcame two big mistakes on the balance beam that could have cost them the meet. "As much as we strive for perfection, it's still not possible because we're just human people."
That came shining through during a crazy, dramatic, emotional roller-coaster of an ending, filled with tears of joy, anguish and relief.
The Americans finished with 184.4 points, beating defending champion China by .95 for their second world title, and the first they've won on foreign soil. Romania took the bronze after getting shut out of team medals last year for the first time since 1981.
Sacramone powered through her flip combinations and landed without looking down, knowing shed stayed inside the lines. And in the corners, there she was, seductively running her hand down her leg and flinging her arms open to the crowd as if to say "I'll be appearing here nightly at 9."
Sacramone's winning floor exercise was as clutch as any pass ever thrown by Peyton Manning or basket made by M.J.
"I told them, 'Everyone makes mistakes, but we still have one more event and it's one of our best events, so we might as well go out there and have fun and show everybody what
Though in this case, the coup de grace was every bit as much a stage show as an athletic performance.
we've got," she said.
The American comeback became necessary when Liukin, a former world champion on beam, couldn't close out what had been shaping up as one of the best routines of her life on the sport's most difficult event.
Could it have been too good?
"I guess I just got too excited too early," she said.
The landing of her last flip resulted in an awkward thud. Later, she said she thought her foot slid halfway off the beam. Instead of poising
She scored a 15.175, losing about a point off her usual mark. She rattled the team, and national champion Shawn Johnson followed with an equally costly and unexpected mistake, a fall off the beam that knocked her score down about a point, as well.
Liukin didn't want to be part of that experience again. Making it more difficult was that she was not slated for the floor exercise, leaving her stuck in the corner and forced to watch — well, sort of watch — as her teammates tried to bail her out.
That's two misses out of 12 in a meet where scores from every routine count. Last year, two mistakes cost the Americans the gold, leaving them befuddled as they walked out of the gym in Denmark, feeling they were better than the Chinese team that won.
herself for a flip with 2½ twists on the dismount, she settled for a back tuck — the kind of thing you see at the kid's meet down the street on Saturday mornings.
"Honestly, it's so much harder watching and not being able to compete," she said. "I felt like I was nervous on beam, but when I was watching the girls on the floor, I was more nervous because it was ours to grab and there was nothing I could do about it."
Li Shanshan put way too much power into her last tumbling pass, two piked somersaults. She stumbled backward, topped onto her backside and riccheted wildly out
The Chinese went into the last event leading but made a mistake on floor that brought the
Americans right back into contention.
MARTHA KAROLYI National team coordinator
"These are not machines.As much as we strive for perfection, it's not possible because we're just human people."
of bounds.
"I certainly want to win the gold, and in Beijing also," Chinese coach Lu Shanzhen said of next year's Olympics. "But it's competition. There's only one gold, and you can-
ready herself for a roundoff onto the springboard. But she suddenly cut her speed, stayed upright and touched the springboard then stopped.
About the same time Shanshan was falling, Russian vaulter Ekaterina Kramarenko flew down the runway and put her arms up to
She received a 0.0 for that unheard-of mistake. The sight of her weeping on the sidelines wasn't as jarring as that of her teammate, Elena Zamolodchikova, heaving with sobs as she stood on the runway to prepare for her now-meaningless vault.
not always keep the gold."
Russia led the meet halfway through, but finished in last place.
The United States finished in first, and Johnson, the national champion, also deserves heaps of credit.
She had to recover from her error on beam to put together a floor routine that would give Sacramone a chance to win it. She came through.
Her floor routine was a perfectly steady, high-flying roam around the mat, her face always gleaming with
a smile. She scored a 15,375, and when she stutted off, she stopped to hug Sacrament as if the Americans had already won.
"All the girls were like, 'You can do it, it's fine,' Sacramento said. 'I was like, 'C'mon guys, I'm fine.' I am like 'OK, I've done this routine so many times.'"
She did it once more with feeling. This time, it resulted in a team gold medal — the first in a competition this big since 2003.
Since then, there have been two close-call losses, first to Romania in the Olympics, then to China last year. (The 2005 worlds was not a team competition.)
This victory establishes the United States as the team to beat next year in Beijing.
"We're going into the Olympic Games as world champions," Luukin said. "How much better can you feel?"
PHONE 785.864.4358
1999 Suzuki GSXR Motorcycle. 16K miles. Burnt Orange. $2500.00 Please call 785-421-8650 or 913-471-7188
2000 Toyota Celica GT-S. 127k, all highway,
leather, rear spoiler, sunroof, alloy wheels,
fun carl (785) 408-2776
hwachi.com/3133
96 Toyota Camry 155K 3 owners, AC,
Power everything, AM/FM, CD PLAYER
RUNS GREAT 812-2306. Will provide
CARFAX hawkcalch.com/3108
20" iMac G6 PowerPC for sale (2.1 GHz
200GB DVD-R DVR Bluetooth) Asking $950
OBO. For more info or if interested email
Geoff at ggleason@ku.edu
hwachkcal.com/3093
100 FREER $10.00 Gift Cards for my web site.
E-mail dusktodtown51@msn.com
www.dusktodwaltgifts.com  Over 3000+
items-Halloween, Christmas & much more
hawkchalk.com/3121
32" Sony TV, surround sound system, picture in picture, remote control, will email photos, 842-0309 evenings.
Lmontgomery@ku.edu.
hawkchalk.com/3125
60lb male Rotty-Husky mix needs new home. Outdoor only dog, needs big yard and exercise. Neutered, supplies included. Jamie41901@msn.com, 913-221-6175 hawkchalk.com/3118
1