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Updated: March 29, 2010, 10:05 PM ET
Federer ousts Serra; Kuznetsova falls
Associated Press
KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. -- Thrusting a clenched fist toward the far end of the court before the final point, Venus Williams telegraphed her intentions.
Her next shot packed plenty of punch: a 121-mph serve that handcuffed Daniela Hantuchova, who avoided injury but was unable to put the ball in play.
With that, Williams won 1-6, 7-5, 6-4 Monday to reach the quarterfinals of the Sony Ericsson Open. She trailed almost the entire match and then surged across the finish line, winning the final seven points.
"I was a little bit off and struggling to find the court," the No. 3-seeded Williams said. "Of course I'd like to win more straightforward, but when it counts and times get tough, I always feel confident that I'm going to find a way to win."
She did that in the last game. Williams smacked service winners on the first two points, then yanked a screaming forehand cross court past a lunging Hantuchova, which prompted the fist pump. Then came the clinching serve.
"I'd like to play every game like that," she said. "It was a perfect game."
While Williams averted an upset, top-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova and defending champion Victoria Azarenka lost. No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki beat No. 22 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 6-2.
The lone American woman to reach the final 16, Williams seeks her fourth Key Biscayne title, but her first since 2001. Her quarterfinal opponent will be No. 6 Agnieszka Radwanska, who beat Yaroslava Shvedova 6-1, 6-4.
Like Williams, top-ranked Roger Federer endured some wobbly stretches before beating Florent Serra 7-6 (2), 7-6 (3). Federer lost serve three times, each time when he led, and committed 35 unforced errors to 32 for Serra.
But Federer won eight consecutive service points in the tiebreakers and closed out the victory with a service winner to reach the fourth round.
"All in all, I'm thrilled to be through," he said. "At the end of the day, that's what counts."
Spectators for his match included Rafael Nadal, a potential opponent in the men's final Sunday. They last met 10 months ago in Madrid.
"It has always been a lot of fun playing against him," Federer said. "I hope that day is going to come soon again."
Mardy Fish advanced with his second consecutive win over a seeded opponent, beating No. 29 Feliciano Lopez 7-5, 6-3. Fish upset defending champion Andy Murray in the second round.
No. 16 Tomas Berdych beat Horacio Zeballos 6-4, 7-5 and will play Federer next.
Former No. 1 Kim Clijsters beat Azarenka 6-4, 6-0. Clijsters, seeded 14th, next plays No. 9 Samantha Stosur, who eliminated No. 7 Jelena Jankovic 6-1, 7-6 (9).
Kuznetsova struggled with a right shoulder injury and lost to Marion Bartoli 6-3, 6-0. Kuznetsova, the 2006 champion, required treatment from a trainer three times during the match and won only eight points in the second set.
"I almost had stars in my eyes, it was so painful," Kuznetsova said. "I cannot return. Then I cannot serve."
The upset was nothing new for the 13th-seeded Bartoli, who has won seven of her past 11 matches against top-five players.
Beating Hantuchova is nothing new for Williams, who has won all 10 of their matches. The latest was by far the closest, beginning in sunshine and finishing under the lights.
Williams committed 45 unforced errors, including 11 as she lost the first four games. Her backhand was especially unreliable, and the match was nearly two hours old before she took a lead.
"Days like this, you just have to figure out a way to win the point, even if it's not pretty," she said. "I enjoy that battle."
Despite her struggles, Williams won her 13th match in a row, and she improved to 45-8 at Key Biscayne. Only Steffi Graf and Serena Williams have won more matches in the tournament.
Federer ranks third among the men at 36-9, trailing only Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras. Federer won the title in 2005-06.
Griner one block short of a triple-double as Baylor makes second Final Four
Baylor Rallies Past Duke, 51-48
Photo Wire
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Baylor's youth nearly cost the Lady Bears a trip to Final Four, and ended up saving the day.
Phenomenal freshman Brittney Griner caught a pass, spun around and hit a short jumper with 45 seconds left to propel fourth-seeded Baylor to a 51-48 win over No. 2 seed Duke on Monday night for its second trip ever to the Final Four.
"I knew we needed that bucket so I did everything I could to get position and to have [the defender] pinned behind me and step through and go up strong," Griner said.
The 6-foot-8 Griner and her teammates hoisted Kim Mulkey onto their shoulders so the coach could cut down the net. Mulkey led the Lady Bears to their only other appearance in the national semifinals in 2005 en route to the national championship.
"I've never had players tall enough to lift me to cut the net so that's a first," Mulkey said.
Baylor's men's team lost to Duke 78-71 on Sunday in the South Regional final. It was the first time ever that there had been the same regional final matchup in both brackets since the women's tournament began during the 1981-82 season, according to STATS LLC.
Duke led the entire second half until Griner's basket and by as much as 10 points -- enough for freshman Jordan Madden to start longing for the bench.
"I really didn't want to be out there because I didn't want to make a mistake and turn the ball over or foul and let them shoot free throws," Madden said.
The Blue Devils held a 46-38 advantage with 4:59 left before a pair of free throws by Kimetria Hayden launched a 13-2 run for the Lady Bears (27-9).
Krystal Thomas spent 26 minutes guarding Griner in the paint before fouling out with 2:17 left. That cleared the way for Griner, who hit the game-winning shot over Cheek's extended arm.
"When Krystal Thomas was fouled out, that's the game. That's the story. That's it," Duke coach Joanne P. McCallie said. "If you take our best 6-4 player out of the game for the last three minutes, it changes the game enormously. And they took advantage."
Hayden, also a freshman, made a pair of free throws and stole the following inbounds pass by Cheek, dishing it to Melissa Jones for a layup with 2:10 left that pulled the Lady Bears within one. Jones, who finished with 10 points, also hit a pair of free throws with 26 seconds left, forcing Duke (30-6) to scramble.
A fired-up Mulkey sat Griner for 20 seconds early in the second half because she wasn't playing aggressively enough and spent a timeout after Hayden's two free throws yelling at Hayden and fellow freshman Shanay Washington for their lack of effort in rebounding.
"Dang if the kid doesn't come back and make the play of the game under the basket pressing," Mulkey said of Hayden's steal. "It's what you get with freshmen. You get the good and you get the bad."
Two 3-point attempts by Cheek in the last 17 seconds bounced off the rim as the Blue Devils missed their last nine shots and a chance at their first Final Four since 2006.
Griner just missed her third triple-double of the season, finishing with 15 points, 11 rebounds and nine blocks.
Both teams struggled early. Duke missed its first 10 shots from the floor, but Baylor only held a 7-1 lead 5½ minutes into the game.
"When you have somebody in the paint with shot-blocking ability like that, it can make it difficult for you to take the shots you want to take," Cheek said.
The game was every bit the defensive battle that was expected, with Baylor shooting 27.6 percent and Duke 24.2 percent in the first half. The Lady Bears have held each of their opponents in the NCAA tournament to under 35 percent shooting.
Griner, who blocked 14 shots in the second round against Georgetown to set an NCAA tournament single-game record, has 35 through four tournament games. That broke the previous record of 30 by Duke's Alison Bales in 2006.
The Blue Devils have had plenty of experience with slow starts, trailing early in nine of their last 10 games. They slowly warmed up on offense and took a 16-15 lead on a putback layup from Bridgette Mitchell with 6:04 left before halftime.
Karima Christmas scored six straight points in the last 1:30 of the first half to give Duke a 26-21 lead at the break. Christmas finished with 10 points and 12 rebounds.
Duke shot a season-worst 23.1 percent for the game, and for once the Blue Devils weren't able to generate points through their offense with Baylor handling the pressure.
The Blue Devils entered the game ranked second in the nation with an average 13.3 steals per contest and had 23 against San Diego State in the regional semifinals but logged only six, ending their streak of 10 straight games with 10 or more thefts.
Duke has thrived off low-scoring games this season. It was the 23rd time the Blue Devils held an opponent to 60 or fewer points but only the first time they'd lost when doing so.
"We did the best we could with what we had," McCallie said. "Our kids were great. Our team fought very, very hard. They shouldn't be hard on themselves at all."
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New moms and the post-baby sex slump
By Elizabeth Landau, CNN
(CNN) -- Six weeks after Robyn Roark gave birth to her first child, her doctor told her that she could start having sex again. She started crying.
"I could not believe that just six weeks after having a baby, that that would even be something to consider," said Roark, 32, of the San Francisco, California, area. "I could barely figure out how to shower and eat. How could I possibly start having sex?"
Roark, who writes for the Silicon Valley Moms Blog, isn't alone. Although doctors say it's physically OK to have sex around six weeks after the birth of a child, some mothers, such as Roark, say they feel so fatigued and overwhelmed that they put sex on the back burner for months, or even a year, after a doctor clears them for physical activity.
Why it's a problem
Besides exhaustion, there are biological reasons why some women don't return to their previous sex lives after childbirth, said Dr. Irwin Goldstein, director of sexual medicine at Alvarado Hospital in San Diego, California. Testosterone goes down for some women after the delivery, and breast-feeding releases the hormone prolactin, which inhibits arousal.
While Viagra has been a popular remedy for men with low sex drive, there is no medical treatment on the market for female sexual dysfunction, despite the number of women who are unable to resume their pre-childbirth intimacy levels. A drug called Flibanserin, currently under Food and Drug Administration review, could be available as soon as this year and would treat chemical imbalances that impede a mother's sexual desire, Goldstein said.
New mothers may also be reluctant in bed because of physical discomfort or because they have some element of postpartum depression, said Dr. Rini Ratan, assistant clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Columbia University Medical Center.
The first six months after delivering her son were the hardest for Roark, as she struggled to figure out the balance between taking care of her newborn and having time for her own needs as basic as showering. As for sex, it took about a year for her and her husband to find their groove again, and for her to enjoy sex, she said.
"There were times where I literally made grocery lists in my head" during sex, said Roark, whose son is now nearly 6 years old. "It wasn't horrible, I just wasn't always in the right frame of mind."
New mothers' sexual experiences vary widely -- some actually don't have a decreased libido and want to have sex again right away, Ratan said.
"For me, I was looking forward to it because it brought me back to the person I was before," said Kristen Chase of Atlanta, Georgia. Chase, a mother of three, is a sex columnist and author of the blog "Mominatrix."
How complicated the pregnancy was, and whether the mother has had children before, may factor into how she feels about physical intimacy after the birth, Ratan said.
For some women, it doesn't get easier with more children. Julie Marsh, 38, needed a full year after the births of each of her three children to get her sex life back to normal.
A newborn needs to be in contact with its mother constantly, and during those moments when the mother gets a break, she often just wants to be left alone, Marsh said.
"The last thing you want, when it's no longer in contact with you, the last thing you want is for anyone else to touch you," she said.
The dad perspective
With two children -- ages 18 months and 3.5 years -- Peter Renton, 44, of Denver, Colorado, doesn't feel as if he and his wife have gotten back to the sex life they had before they became parents. Six weeks after the first birth, Renton was ready to get back into the sack, but it was a different story for his wife.
Both births were complicated. The first was an emergency cesarean section after a 28-hour labor. The second was a vaginal birth after a C-section, which carried the risk of uterine rupture; Renton described the delivery as "challenging." As a result, Renton's wife tells him, her body still has not recovered, and sex is somewhat painful. There's also the issue of finding time for physical intimacy with two very young children in the house.
"You've just got to know that at any moment, if you're at home and you're having sex, you could be interrupted," he said. "You've got to be a little bit more flexible. It can lead to some disappointment sometimes."
Still, the couple is trying to get into a habit of having sex twice a week, he said.
What to do
Every day, Goldstein sees female patients who believe there is something wrong with them because they don't look forward to sex the way they used to, even two or three years after their first child is born.
It's natural to refrain from sex just after a child is born, but persistent sexual problems can cause distress in the relationship, Goldstein said. When one partner has a high interest in sex and the other's desire stays low, seeing a counselor or sex therapist may be the best course of action, he said.
The therapist would focus on the problems the couple is having and examine how to regain confidence in the relationship, he said. If a drug for female sexual dysfunction becomes available, this would also help many women.
For those whose problem hasn't reached that stage, parents have a slew of tips.
Chase recommends having scheduled "date nights" that allow a couple to leave their children with a baby sitter and get out of the house. As for the vaginal dryness that comes with breast-feeding, a good lubricant "can change people's lives," she said.
Renton and his wife enjoy weekends away from the kids when they take occasional trips to other cities, he said. These weekends are important to their relationship, he said.
Mothers should take advantage of any moment that they do feel in the mood for physical intimacy, as those moments are fleeting, Roark said.
"The more kids you have, the fewer opportunities you have to have sex," Marsh said. "You've got to make the most of what you've got when you've got it."
A new mother's spouse or partner should do things that make her happy, as simple as picking up stray socks or looking after the kids, Marsh said. These gestures can help an exhausted mother feel loving toward her partner.
Despite the difficulties after the birth of their first son, Roark and her husband decided to have a second child, whom Roark will give birth to in the fall. She feels better prepared for childbirth this time around and is prepared for the "slump" in sex.
In retrospect, she wishes that last time she had been a more willing partner in bed -- both she and her husband would have been happier just from hugging and kissing, she said.
"When each person is trying to make their partner satisfied, whether that's emotionally or physically, everyone ends up benefiting from that," she said.
Race on to rescue 153 trapped Chinese coal miners
By GILLIAN WONG, Associated Press Writer
Gillian Wong, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 52 mins ago
XIANGNING, China – Rescuers working in a drizzling rain raced Monday to free 153 coal miners trapped deep underground by a flood that may have started when workers digging a new mine in northern China accidentally broke into a network of old, water-filled shafts.
Such derelict tunnels are posing new risks to miners across China even as the country improves safety in its notoriously hazardous mines, where accidents kill thousands each year.
So far, there has been no contact with the trapped miners, more than 24 hours after the flooding.
"Their situation until now is still unknown so that is making everyone very worried," said Liu Dezheng, a chief engineer with the work safety bureau in northern China's Shanxi province, where the mine is located.
Rescuers worked to pump water from the Wangjialing coal mine. The state-owned mine about 400 miles (650 kilometers) southwest of Beijing was under construction and had been scheduled to start production later this year, the China Daily newspaper reported.
The accident could become one of the worst mining disasters in recent years if rescue efforts fail and would set back marked improvements in mining safety.
Liu warned that any rescue was still days away, and workers were being put on four-hour shifts to make sure they got enough rest.
"This is not something that can be achieved in one or two days," Liu said. "(Rescuers) must be prepared to work at least seven days and seven nights."
Some 261 workers were inside the Wangjialing mine when it flooded Sunday, and 108 escaped or were rescued, China's State Administration of Work Safety said in a statement on its Web site early Monday.
State television said the workers were trapped in nine different places in the mine, which was flooded with up to 5 million cubic feet (140,000 cubic meters) of water.
At the mine, located at the end of a long winding mountain road, rescue workers strapped metal pipes and other parts of a pump onto a metal trolley and pushed it along rail tracks into the entrance, where it was lowered into the shaft.
About 30 people, many of them miners, stood quietly behind the police cordon watching the rescuers work.
Fan Leisheng, one of the miners who escaped, described the sudden rush of water that tore through the mine.
"It looked like a tidal wave, and I was so scared," Fan told China Central Television. "I immediately ran away and looked back to see some others hanging behind. I shouted at them to get out. It was unbelievable because I got out from 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) underground."
The official Xinhua News Agency reported that President Hu Jintao ordered local authorities to "spare no effort" in saving the trapped workers.
Officials have yet to declare the cause of the accident, but experts said it was likely that workers broke into the old shafts or pits of derelict mines that had filled with water.
"It could be that they broke into old workings, works that were not properly mapped out," said David Feickert, a coal mine safety adviser to the Chinese government. "That's a common problem with flooding, and Shanxi is an area where they have very extensive mining, a lot of old mines."
Though China's mining industry is still the world's deadliest, it has dramatically improved its safety record over the last seven years, said Feickert, who is based in Wanganui, New Zealand and Beijing.
Accidents killed 2,631 coal miners last year, fewer than half the 6,995 deaths in 2002, the most dangerous year on record, according to the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety. That means on average more than seven miners die every day, down from 19.1 in 2002.
The decline in deaths comes amid a ramping up in the mining of coal, which fuels about 70 percent of China's voracious energy needs.
Much of the safety improvement has come from shutting down smaller, labor-intensive operators or forcing them into mergers with better-funded state companies.
Lu Jianzhang, a former researcher with the China Coal Research Institute in Beijing, also said that he suspected old mine shafts were to blame. If that were the case, it could brighten the prospects of finding survivors, he said.
"Since the amount of the water is limited and runs out after the initial flood, there is still probably hope for miners' survival," Lu said.
Wangjialing's parent company, Huajin Coking Coal Co., is co-owned by China's second-largest coal mining company, the China National Coal Group Corp., with the remaining 50 percent stake owned by the Shanxi Coking Coal Group Co., another major miner.
The worst accidents in recent years include a coal mine flood in eastern Shandong province in August 2007 that left 172 miners dead and a mine blast in northeastern Liaoning province in February 2005 that killed 214 miners.
"It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for something you are not."
- Andre Gide -
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Thursday, March 25, 2010
Updated: March 26, 2:08 PM ET
Bathroom entry was said to be guarded
By Kelly Naqi
ESPN
The manager of the club where Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is accused of having sexually assaulted a 20-year-old Georgia woman said Thursday one of the woman's friends told him a member of Roethlisberger's entourage had denied her entrance to the area leading to the bathroom where she believed the accuser and Roethlisberger were that night.
The accuser told police later that night Roethlisberger had assaulted her in the club's bathroom.
Rocky Duncan, the manager of Capital City bar in Milledgeville, Ga., said Roethlisberger and his entourage of "about nine" people, not including the accuser or her friends, had arrived at the bar at approximately 1:10 a.m. Duncan said a member of Roethlisberger's group had asked for VIP seating in a private section of the club and a bouncer from the club to be stationed outside the area. Duncan said Roethlisberger's friend said, "We want the girls [to be allowed back into that section]."
Duncan said he escorted Roethlisberger and his group to the back room, sealed off by a curtain, that serves as the VIP area. Duncan said the bouncer, stationed outside the curtain, allowed women into the VIP area throughout the night.
Later in the evening, according to Duncan, most of Roethlisberger's group had wandered from the VIP area to a larger room that opens up off it -- a room also closed to the general public. Duncan said there were about 25 people in that area, called "the stage room."
Duncan said he saw Roethlisberger standing and talking with what appeared to be a woman sitting on a stool a few feet from the bathroom door, which was separated from the stage room by a 4-foot divider. Roethlisberger's frame blocked Duncan from seeing the woman. But Duncan added he had never seen the accuser and did not know what she looked like. Duncan said a member of Roethlisberger's entourage, whom he called "the ringleader," was sitting on a stool about a foot away from the door that led to the area where Roethlisberger and the woman had been talking.
Approximately 30 seconds after he saw Roethlisberger talking to the woman, Duncan said one of the accuser's friends approached Duncan and said, "I think my friend is in the bathroom with Ben, but the door [leading to the bathroom area] is locked, and I'm trying to get back there, and this guy [one of Roethlisberger's friends] wouldn't let me through." Duncan said she also told him, "I think my friend may be drunk."
Duncan said the accuser's friend "did not seem frantic, it was someone just looking for her friend." He said he told the woman she could either try to hop over the divider that separated the stage room from the bathroom area or "go around to the back and go through the backside entrance, because that door doesn't have a handle to it and you can go in that way." Duncan said he didn't know if the woman tried to get back into the bathroom area.
When asked if he thought there was anything alarming about a member of Roethlisberger's group standing outside a locked door, prohibiting someone from going into that area, Duncan said, "No, not really. Those guys had been protective of Ben all night. You wouldn't want someone taking a snapshot of Ben using the toilet."
There are seven cameras inside Capital City, according to Duncan. There are no cameras in the VIP area or in the "stage room" because those areas were added during a renovation. From camera footage that records the entrance and the main dance floor area, Duncan said he believes he saw the accuser and her friends -- which included the woman who had approached him earlier -- leave the bar around 1:45 a.m.
"They just walked out together," he said, "like you see any other time."
Duncan said he learned someone had made an accusation against Roethlisberger when "I got a call from Sergeant [Jerry] Blash, and he said a young woman approached him and said Ben assaulted her. He asked if they [Roethlisberger's group] were still at the club, and I said, 'Yes.' "
Duncan said police came to the club and spoke "briefly" with Roethlisberger and his group, in what Duncan described as an informal way. Duncan said he talked with police March 5, the day the allegations were made.
When he was asked if Roethlisberger had seemed inebriated that night, Duncan said, "You see a lot at a bar. Was he the drunkest person I ever met? No. Did he have a buzz? Probably."
On March 8, three days after the alleged incident, Duncan said police reviewed video footage of the night at his office in the club. The police were called away suddenly because of a murder in the area. Shortly afterward, Duncan said, his "tech guy" tried to make a copy of the camera outputs to give to the police and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which was assisting on the case, but encountered problems. Duncan said they had trouble accessing the video again, and he was later informed by the GBI that there was nothing on the recordings.
The GBI said it has spoken with every member of Roethlisberger's group, except Roethlisberger. The GBI's initial request for a sample of Roethlisberger's DNA was rescinded more than a week ago, but its request to speak with Roethlisberger is still outstanding. Despite recently published reports to the contrary, the accuser "is still actively cooperating with the GBI's investigation," a source with knowledge of the investigation said Thursday.
ESPN phoned two women who were listed in the police incident report as being with the accuser that night, to ask for comment or corroboration. One said, "I can't comment on any of this, I'm sorry"; the other woman hung up.
Roethlisberger's attorney, Ed Garland, was not immediately available for comment.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Odesnik faces ruling of anti-doping body
Associated Press
BRISBANE, Australia -- Wayne Odesnik, an American tennis player ranked No. 98, pleaded guilty Friday to importing human growth hormone into Australia before a tournament leading to the Australian Open. He was fined more than $7,000 and could be banned from tennis for two years.
The 24-year-old player was stopped by customs officers on Jan. 2 when he arrived in Australia ahead of the Brisbane International, a warmup for the year's first Grand Slam event. Eight vials, each containing 6 milligrams of the performance-enhancing substance, were found in his baggage.
Odesnik pleaded guilty in the Brisbane Magistrates Court, the Australian Customs Service said in a statement late Friday. He was fined $7,280 plus $1,040 in court costs.
"We are extremely disappointed in the behavior of this individual, which is in no way representative of the sport of tennis," the ATP said in a statement e-mailed to the AP.
ATP spokeswoman Kate Gordon wrote that she couldn't comment on any details of the case because it's considered a "current investigation."
Odesnik was born in South Africa and moved to the United States as a toddler. He turned pro in 2004 and is something of a journeyman, with a 32-42 career record in tour-level matches, zero ATP titles and a best ranking of 77th.
He has reached one ATP final, on clay at Houston last year, and the highlight of his Grand Slam career was reaching the third round at the French Open in 2008.
The ATP Web site lists former top-10 player Guillermo Canas as Odesnik's coach. Canas served a 15-month ban in 2005-06 after failing a doping test.
Canas, who coincidentally announced his retirement as a player Friday, said he doesn't travel with Odesnik and was surprised to hear about the HGH case.
U.S. Tennis Association spokesman Tim Curry said the USTA wouldn't comment. Tennis Australia also declined comment Friday, referring questions to the International Tennis Federation. The ITF said it was notified that Odesnik pleaded guilty.
"The case has been referred to the tennis anti-doping program, and we don't have any further comment," the ITF said in a statement to the AP.
Under the World Anti-Doping Authority code -- to which the ITF abides -- Odesnik faces a possible two-year suspension for possession of a prohibited substance.
Odesnik reached the quarterfinals at the Brisbane International and the second round of the Australian Open at Melbourne. He has since played in four tournaments in the U.S., advancing beyond the first round just once.
The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority was aware of the charges against Odesnik. It said in a statement it has "power to receive information from Customs and to carry out investigations into possible violations of anti-doping rules."
Marion Grant, a spokeswoman for the Customs Service's Border Protection Enforcement, said: "This prosecution ... should act as an important deterrent for other elite athletes who are considering similar activities."
Australia's Customs Act has an extensive list of performance-enhancing substances subject to import control.