Sarka Zahrobska

ARE, Sweden,
Feb. 17--Sarka Zahrobska won the women’s slalom on Friday to give the Czech Republic its first gold medal at an Alpine skiing World Championships.
Austria’s Marlies Schild took the silver, while reigning Olympic champion Anja Paerson of Sweden settled for silver, AP reported.
Zahrobska, the surprise bronze medalist from the last worlds in Bormio, Italy, in 2005, led after the first run.
She consolidated her lead the second time down the floodlit Gastrappet course to win with a combined time of 1 minute, 43.91 seconds.
“I was a little bit nervous in the start hut, but all the girls were,“ said the Czech, who only earned her first two World Cup podiums this season. “Before the second run I felt good for a podium, but not for gold.
“It was a great fight with Anja and Marlies. But I was lucky. In the finish area I saw No. 1 by my name on the scoreboard.“
The previous best result by a Czech at the worlds was Zahrobska’s bronze medal in the slalom in 2005. Nobody from the Czech Republic or its predecessor Czechoslovakia has ever won an Olympic title.
Schild, who has won five of the six slalom races on the World Cup circuit this season, climbed from third after the opening leg into second place with a time of 1:44.02.
“I am happy with the silver but it was my big dream to win the slalom gold in Are,“ said Schild, who hurt her hip in training the previous day. “Between runs, my hip wasn’t feeling so good.
“In the finish I couldn’t celebrate because I knew my run was not good enough for gold.“
Paerson--who was aiming to become the first skier to win four gold medals at a single world championship--took the bronze with 1:44.07 after making a mistake within sight of the finish.
“On the one hand I’m happy to know I can compete with the fastest girls in slalom again,“ Paerson said. “But on the other, the mistake I made near the bottom cost me about .20 that would have meant gold.“

Andy Roddick

SAN JOSE, USA, Feb. 17--Andy Roddick regained his composure after a shaky second set and beat Vince Spadea 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-1 Friday to advance to the semifinals of the SAP Open.
Despite inconsistent play, the top-seeded Roddick was up a break early in the second set and appeared on his way to an easy victory. But a flurry of errors led to frustration for Roddick and allowed Spadea to play his way back into the match, AP said.
After one backhand into the net, Roddick yelled, “That’s 30 unforced errors and it’s the first game of the second set.“
Roddick double-faulted on break point to allow Spadea to tie the set 4-all and then slammed the ball into the upperdeck, prompting a code violation warning from the chair umpire.
After a winner by Spadea, Roddick also got into a long argument with the umpire that continued on changeovers for much of the match. Roddick even appeared frustrated when he had to wait for Spadea to come out on the changeover in the tiebreaker.
But the momentum of the match changed after the tiebreaker. Roddick held serve to start the third set and then broke Spadea at lovetaking advantage of three errors on groundstrokes and a double fault on break point.
Roddick squandered three break chances in the sixth game before finally breaking through when Spadea hit a volley into the net. Roddick then closed it out on his serve.
Roddick’s serve was the most consistent part of his game, producing 19 aces and reaching 147 mph (237 kph) at one point. But Roddick made numerous errors with his backhand, including some off first serves that only reached 73 mph (117 kph).
Roddick, a two-time champion here, will play the winner of the match between defending champion Andy Murray and Lee Hyung-taik in the semifinals. Murray beat Roddick in the semis here a year ago, on the way to his only career ATP Tour title.
The other semifinal pits big-serving Ivo Karlovic against sixth-seeded Benjamin Becker. The unseeded Karlovic knocked off his second seeded American in as many days, recording 17 aces to beat fifth-seeded Mardy Fish 7-6 (2), 6-4.

LOS ANGELES, USA, Feb. 17--Phil Mickelson and Padraig Harrington spent Friday afternoon on opposite sides of Riviera Country Club on Friday but shared the second-round lead at the Nissan Open.
Mickelson used his irons to setup consecutive birdies inside 5 feet on the back nine and hit a 3-wood from 287 yards that set up an eagle on the 17th hole, sending him to a 6-under 65 and a chance to win for the second straight Week, AP said.
Harrington only made two pars on his first 10 holes, a round filled with brilliance and bogeys, until he finally settled down in the twilight hours off Sunset Boulevard to polish off a 68.
They were at 11-under 131, three shots clear of Charles Howell III.
“Anything in the 60s was really the goal today,“ said Harrington, playing the Nissan Open for the first time. “I knew going out there I would be a little erratic. I’m still making mental errors here and there, so I put up with that.
And I made some birdies to counteract some of the bogeys, which was very nice.“
Mickelson hasn’t played Riviera since 2001, and he only added this tournament to his schedule at the last minute to test the newfound confidence in his driver.
“I like the way I put the ball in play,“ Mickelson said.
“It feels easy.“
He reached all three par 5s in two, none more impressive than the 17th. Coming off his only bogey of the tournament, when he pulled his tee shot into a back bunker on the par-3 16th, Mickelson hit his tee shot down the left side of the fairway some 310 yards. He followed that with a 3-wood that drew slightly and found the middle of the green, rolling to 15 feet.

ANTWERP, Belgium, Feb. 17--Defending champion Amelie Mauresmo and Kim Clijsters advanced to the semifinals of the Diamond Games on Friday.
Mauresmo closed in on the $1.3 million, diamond-studded racket trophy with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Dinara Safina, and Clijsters routed Ana Ivanovic 6-2, 6-1 in her final home tournament, AP said.
“I was hoping it would not be the last time,“ said Clijsters, who plans to retire at the end of the season. “I’m so happy I can continue tomorrow.“
Clijsters needed barely 15 minutes to take a 5-0 lead before a crowd of 10,500. The 19-year-old Ivanovic lost the first set after two unforced errors.
“I was very close to my best level. Only my serve could have been better,“ Clijsters said, who won the title in 2004.
Mauresmo allowed the 11th-ranked Safina only four games after struggling in her opening match on Thursday.
“I am starting to play better and better,“ Mauresmo said. “So many things fit together now.“
She will play Anna Chakvetadze on Saturday after the seventh-seeded Russian upset third-seeded Nadia Petrova 6-3, 6-4. If Mauresmo wins her next two matches, she will claim the jewel-encrusted trophy, which goes to the first player to win the tournament three times in a five-year span.
“It will be good to get to the final and then we will see,“ the third-ranked Mauresmo said. “The opposition is of such quality that I cannot look beyond that.“
The Frenchwoman was in trouble Thursday and needed two long sets to beat 85th-ranked Virginie Razzano 7-6 (6), 7-5.
The 19-year-old Chakvetadze is chasing her second tournament win of the year after capturing the Hobart International in January. Last week, Mauresmo beat the Russian in two close sets at the Gaz de France in Paris.
Now Clijsters will play France’s Tatiana Golovin, who beat Russia’s Elena Likhovtseva 7-6 (3), 7-5.

Sri Lankan cricketer Sanath Jayasuriya (r) is watched by Indian fielder Virender Sehwag as he plays a stroke during the fourth one-day international (ODI) cricket match between India and Sri Lanka at the Andhra Cricket Association Stadium in Visakhapatnam, India.

VISAKHAPATNAM, India,
Feb. 17--Yuvraj Singh and Sourav Ganguly smashed unbeaten half centuries Saturday as India beat Sri Lanka by seven wickets to clinch the four match limited overs series in both team’s mast match before the cricket World Cup.
Singh (95 not out) and Ganguly (58 not out) put on 145 runs for the fourth wicket off 143 balls to race India to the victory target of 260 runs with six overs to spare, AFP said.
Such was Singh’s dominance that he plundered 22 runs, including four boundaries and one six, in Farveez Maharoof’s last over to finish the match.
Singh’s innings, studded with 11 boundaries and three sixes, marked his return to form after his three-month absence with a knee injury.
Ganguly opened the Indian innings, but left the field after playing two balls complaining of cramps in his thigh.
He resumed batting at the fall of India’s second wicket and clobbered three sixes and three fours to the delight of 30,000-strong Andhra Cricket Stadium crowd.
The teams entered Saturday’s match level at 1-1 after Sri Lanka won the second match at Rajkot and India romping home in the third game at Margao. The opening game in Calcutta was abandoned after heavy showers disrupted play.
“India played very good cricket,“ said Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene after the match.
Umpires Simon Taufel and Ameesh Saheba ordered a delayed start Saturday because of a wet outfield caused by overnight dew in this southern Indian coastal city, reducing the game to 47 overs per side.

LIVERPOOL, UK,
Feb. 17--Refreshed by a sunshine break in Portugal, Liverpool’s strikers are in the mood to cut Barcelona’s feuding superstars down to size in the Nou Camp.
Last month’s FA Cup exit at the hands of Arsenal has ensured that Rafael Benitez’s side will go into the first leg of their Champions League knockout clash on the back of a rare ten-day break from competitive football, AFP said.
That should ensure that they are all fresh for what is certain to be an exhausting evening’s work in Catalonia as they attempt to stifle Ronaldinho and co. and ensure the tie is still alive for the return leg at Anfield.
Strikers Peter Crouch, Dirk Kuyt and Craig Bellamy are expected to find themselves vying for the role of solo striker as Benitez adopts a cautious approach to the encounter.
But Kuyt sees no reason why Liverpool should not expect to come away from Barcelona with a positive result, particularly given the recent signs of disharmony in the Catalan camp, with coach Frank Rijkaard apparently at odds with star striker Samuel Eto’o.
“There is no doubt that Ronaldinho is the best player in the world, but the best players do not always make the best teams,“ said the Dutch striker.
And Crouch echoed the confident tone.
Kuyt believes Barcelona will be wary of the second leg at Anfield, where the intense atmosphere helps elevate Liverpool’s performances above the sum of their parts, particularly on European nights.
The match in Barcelona will be a bitter-sweet occasion for Luis Garcia, the former Barca player who is now out for the season at Liverpool with a knee injury.

DAYTONA BEACH, USA,
Feb. 17--Jack Sprague created two milestones with one move. Sprague used a dramatic pass on the final lap Friday night to win his first race at Daytona International Speedway and give Toyota its first victory at NASCAR’s most famous track.
“To win Daytona was an absolute shock,“ Sprague said. “It’s huge for everybody involved. I knew Toyota would win at Daytona. I wasn’t sure Jack Sprague would.“
Pole-sitter Sprague and fellow Toyota driver Johnny Benson teamed up to close the gap on Travis Kvapil coming off the final turn. Benson slammed into Sprague, sending him shooting to the outside while Benson dropped below the yellow line-- a move NASCAR reviewed and deemed legal--to make it a three-truck race to the line, AP reported.
Sprague edged Benson, claiming the season-opening Craftsman Truck series race. Kvapil was third.
“I can’t believe I won Daytona,“ Sprague said. “This is by far the best race I’ve ever won.“
He knew he had Benson to thank for that. In fact, his crew did just that, going over to Benson’s truck to thank him personally.

London, Feb. 17-- Ruud van Nistelrooy has again spoken of his departure from Manchester United, saying that Old Trafford boss Sir Alex Ferguson “kicked his soul“.
Van Nistelrooy was left out of United’s Carling Cup final team against Wigan last year and he was unable to deal with the snub, BBC announced .
“I exploded and began swearing at Ferguson because I felt he had kicked my soul,“ revealed Van Nistelrooy.
“That was the moment things died and could never be the same again.“ Van Nistelrooy, who left Old Trafford and moved to Real Madrid in the summer, said it was particularly hard to take because prior to that point he had had a great relationship with Ferguson.
“This was the man who visited me in hospital when I had my bad knee injury while I was with PSV.
“This was the man who wanted me at all costs.
“It was because our relationship was so warm that this situation was so painful.“