The Star Online: Sports

04 Aug 2011 05:06 PM PDTWASHINGTON (AP): A traditional backhand probably would have sufficed.Instead, Gael Monfils opted for something worthy of a highlight reel, spinning and wrapping his racket around his body for a behind-the-back shot that somehow cleared the net.

Alas, Monfils lost the point seconds later by missing a regular old forehand.Still, that was only a minor blip in a dominant performance Thursday.Finally on court at the Legg Mason Tennis Cla*sic, the top-seeded Monfils hit 17 aces and beat 66th-ranked Ryan Sweeting of the United States 6-3, 7-6 (3) in a match postponed a day because of rain.

Monfils' usual entertaining brand of tennis drew kudos from Sweeting."I laughed a little bit today.He hit some great shots," Sweeting said, then clarified that his chuckles came "out of respect."

"He hit a shot behind his back.He jumped 10 feet in the air," Sweeting said."He's just so athletic.I was laughing because it's just amazing."

Monfils was broken only once and won 39 of 47 points on his first serve.He helped himself by delivering at least one ace in 10 of his 11 service games.And he didn't do it with overpowering speed, staying generally around 120 mph.

It was the Frenchman's first match at Washington's hard-court U.S.Open tuneup since 2007, when he reached the semifinals.

Because rain wiped out half of Wednesday's schedule, Monfils was slated to play again about six hours later Thursday, facing 15th-seeded Dmitry Tursunov of Russia in the third round.They both received first-round byes, as did all 16 seeded players.

Tursunov beat Flavio Cipolla of Italy 6-1, 6-4 Thursday.

In other early results, 10th-seeded Michael Llodra of France quit because of sore ribs while trailing Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 4-3.

Llodra joins a growing list of seeded players who either stopped playing - No.4 Jurgen Melzer and No.14 Xavier Malisse - or never played a point - Andy Roddi*k, Mardy Fish, Fernando Gonzalez - at the tournament, citing injuries.

Also Thursday, No.7-seeded Marcos Baghdatis, last year's runner-up in Washington, beat Somdev Devvarman 6-2, 0-6, 7-5, and was scheduled to play No.12 Thomaz Bleach, who eliminated Tommy Haas 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-3.04 Aug 2011 05:04 PM PDTAKRON, Ohio (AP): Tiger Woods said his left knee felt as strong as he thought it was.His game didn't look bad either.

Playing for the first time in nearly three months, Woods made a strong opening statement Thursday that his health is no longer an issue by going after any shot from any lie in a round of 2-under 68 at the Bridgestone Invitational.

"It feels great," Woods said."As anybody who's been off and who's been injured, first time back it's a little nervous to see what happens.But my practice sessions were good, so there's no reason why I should be worried out there.I went out there and let it go, let it rip, and see what happens."

His ex-caddie saw the kind of golf he was used to seeing at Firestone, too.

Steve Williams, now working permanently for Adam Scott after Woods fired him a month ago, watched the Australian play flawlessly in matching his career-low round with a 62 that gave Scott a one-shot lead.

Williams was on the bag for all seven of Woods' wins at Firestone, including his record score of 259 when he won by 11 shots in 2000."He didn't think it was a big deal to shoot 62," Scott said."It was normal."

Woods, who last completed a round at the Masters, had his lowest opening round of the year.Considering the soft conditions, it only was worth a tie for 18th, six shots out of the lead.

With an overcast sky in the morning and barely any wind throughout the steamy afternoon, half of the 78-man field at this World Golf Championship broke par.

Jason Day, who tied for second with Scott at the Masters, shot a 63 in the morning.Nick Watney, a World Golf Championship winner at Doral this year, bogeyed the last h*le and still had a 65.

Woods at least got himself pointed in the right direction.Playing in soft spikes for the first time, and going back to the putter that he used in 13 of his major championships, Woods avoided a poor start by making an 18-foot par putt on the third, and he saved his round toward the end of the front nine by getting up-and-down from a bunker on the eighth, and making a 20-foot par putt on the ninth.

Then came his approach on the 10th, that spun out of the back fringe and settled about 4 feet away for birdie - not only his first of the day, but his first since he two-putted for birdie form 4 feet on the 15th h*le at the Masters on April 10.

Woods injured a knee ligament and his Achilles' tendon in that tournament, and then said he returned too early at The Players Championship.He aggravated the injuries on the first h*le at the TPC Sawgra*s and quit after nine h*les at 6-over par.He said he would not play again until he was fully healthy, and that much showed at Firestone."The marker was right in my way," Woods said with a grin."I hadn't really gone at it yet until today," he said."Just kind of plodding away, just kind of hitting shots.Today was just, 'Let's go, let's go play, just put everything else aside and let's go give it a go and try to post a low number."

His lone bogey came on the 14th h*le, when he tried to hit a perfect bunker shot from a slightly downhill lie with the green running away from him.He came inches short of pulling it off, leaning back in disbelief.He two-putted from the collar for bogey, and then came back two h*les later with a shot that showed he might already be at full strength.

From the right rough on the par-5 16th, blocked by trees, Woods went after a 3-wood and cut short his backswing as he tried to fade it around the trees.It went farther than he expected, and while his approach was 30 feet long, he h*led the birdie putt, raising the putter in his left hand when it dropped in the center of the cup.

The only problem he had was controlling his distance, and Woods had a reason for that, too.

"I'm hitting it just so much more flush, and I'm just not used to that," he said.Does that mean he was hitting it badly before?

"Yeah," he said."My swing was more of a wipey swing ...so I wasn't getting a full transfer of energy.Now I'm swinging easier.I'm not even hitting it hard yet, and that's what's fun.I'm hitting it farther without any more effort."

It took great effort to get atop the leaderboard.

Day went out early and posted a bogey-free round of 63, making birdie on the last h*le.No one else from the morning group was better than a 66.And then it was Scott's turn in the afternoon.

He thought 63 was a pretty low score for this South course, but then figured it was there for the taking with so many other scores in the 60s.

"I just feel like I need to get myself in these things from Thursday, show up and go, not show up and see how you get on the first nine," Scott said."I feel like that's a good way for me to go because I'm hitting the ball well, and I feel really confident on the greens.It was green light and just attack." 04 Aug 2011 05:02 PM PDTThe third-ranked Zvonareva moved into a quarterfinal against the winner of the night match between No.12-seeded Sabine Lisicki of Germany and American teenager Coco Vandeweghe.With the score level at 2-all, Petkovic won seven straight games to win the first set 6-2 and jump ahead 3-0 in the second when France's Virginia Razzano retired with a right shoulder injury.Fifth-seeded Ana Ivanovic set up a quarterfinal against No.4 Peng Shuai with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Italy's Alberta Brianti.Peng had to come from a set down and rally from a 1-3 h*le in the third set to beat 16th-seeded Sara Errani of Italy 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7).

Daniela Hantuchova, the No.8 seed from Slovakia, beat Zheng Jie of China, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.

In the only match not involving a seeded player, U.S.teenager Sloane Stephens had set point at 5-3 when Tamira Paszek of Austria retired with a left abdominal injury.

Radwanska, the runner-up here last year, saw improvement over her opening-round match when she was pushed to a tiebreaker in a straight- set win over Elena Baltacha of Britain.

"I was very happy with my performance," Radwanska said."I think I played much better than the first match.Everything was working." Petkovic was sailing through her match when Razzano pulled out with her injury.

"The first two games I think we were both playing really well," Petkovic said."I managed to hold onto that level and I don't know if was her injured shoulder or neck, but afterward she dropped her level.I managed to stay at the top level."
[zeezal] Latest Photographs In Beautiful Model Bipasha Basu