Print

Mail

wiki links

Sport Briefs

■ TENNIS

Fan seeks delay for Nadal

Not all Argentines are happy that top-ranked Rafael Nadal won’t be playing in the Davis Cup final next week. Tennis fan Julian Baena launched an Internet campaign at quieroganarleanadal.com — “I want to beat Nadal,” in English — urging Davis Cup officials to delay the final until Nadal recovers from knee tendinitis. “There’s nothing more beautiful than to go down in history winning the final against the No. 1 in the world,” Baena wrote on the Web site. “That’s why I propose: Let’s postpone the Davis Cup final until Rafa recovers. Two weeks. A month. Whatever is necessary for him to be 100 percent.” A petition asking for a delay so that “we can enjoy the final we all want to see” had received nearly 13,000 signatures as of late Wednesday. Nadal withdrew this week from Spain’s team to play Argentina, saying he needed three to six weeks to recover. His absence made Argentina the favorite to win its first Davis Cup, starting on Nov. 21 at Mar del Plata.



■ BASKETBALL

Free Nets tickets for jobless

The New Jersey Nets professional basketball team is giving a break to unemployed fans. They’re offering free tickets and will forward their resumes to corporate sponsors as workers grapple with the weak US economy. The NBA team said on Wednesday it will offer unemployed fans tickets to five of its home games this month and next month, as well as resume placement with its 120 corporate sponsors. Unemployed fans can sign up at njnets.com. The team will release 300 tickets per game on a first-come, first-serve basis for fans who enroll in the program.



■ SOCCER

Capello wants to coach UK

England manager Fabio Capello wants to coach a unified British team at the 2012 London Olympics. The Italian’s four-year contract with the English Football Association is set to expire before the games, but Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have blocked plans for a British team because they don’t want to jeopardize their status as separate teams in UEFA and FIFA events. Capello is still hopeful of a breakthrough — and then being favored over Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, who has already been backed for the post by London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe. “I will be 66 by [2012] and I will have reached retirement age. Then I want to travel and visit all of the ancient cultures that fascinate me so much,” Capello said in an interview with FIFA Magazine. “But I would also like to make another of my dreams come true by taking part in the Olympic Games, something that I was denied as a player, and something that still fills me with regret. I think it’s only fair that Great Britain should have a football team in the Olympics, but it is up to others to decide how, and with which players.”



■ SWIMMING

Two more world records fall

US swimmer Peter Marshall achieved his second short-course world record in two days at the World Cup in Stockholm on Wednesday. Marshall won the 50m backstroke in 23.05 seconds, beating Australian Robert Hurley’s mark of 23.24 set at the Sydney World Cup last month. Another American, Randall Bal, also went under Hurley’s time for second place at 23.07. Hurley was third in 23.36. Sweden’s Therese Alshammar also set a new record in the women’s 50m butterfly in 25.31 seconds, topping the 25.32 by Australia’s Felicity Galvez at the world short-course championships last April.


This story has been viewed 624 times.