Golf

Tiger makes cut; other stars don't

After breaking 70 for the first time in seven weeks, Tiger Woods headed to the back of the practice range at the TPC Sawgrass to fine-tune his swing. That was better than going to the clubhouse to clean out his locker.

The Players Championship featured Matt Kuchar, Zach Johnson and Kevin Na atop the leaderboard on Friday.

What it lacked was some of golf's biggest names.

Rory McIlroy stumbled to a 76 and became the first player at No 1 in the world ranking to miss the cut at Sawgrass since Greg Norman in 1996. Steve Stricker had made a PGA Tour-leading 49 cuts in a row until he shot 74 and ended a streak that began in August 2009. And with 11 holes left in his round, Woods was two shots over the cut line and in jeopardy of missing back-to-back cuts for the first time in his career.

Tennis

Djokovic also hates blue clay

Novak Djokovic joined Rafael Nadal in declaring he won't play again on the new blue clay court at the Madrid Open after losing to Janko Tipsarevic 7-6 (2), 6-3 in an all-Serb quarterfinal.

Tipsarevic won for the second time in five matches against Djokovic, who last lost at this stage in November at the Paris Masters.

"I want to forget this week as soon as possible and move on to the real clay courts," the top-ranked Djokovic said. "Here you can't predict the ball bounce or movement.They can do whatever they want, but I won't be here next year if this clay stays."

Track and field

Diamond League season begins

The Americans got the best of their Jamaican rivals in the sprints at the season-opening Diamond League meet in Doha while the Kenyans outclassed the Ethiopians in the longer distances.

Justin Gatlin led the way for the Americans, nipping Jamaica's Asafa Powell at the line to win the 100m in a time of 9.87 sec.

Allyson Felix then set a meet record in beating Jamaica rival Veronica Campbell-Brown in the women's 100. Walter Dix also set a meet record in the 200 and Olympic champion LaShawn Merritt, who completed a 21-month doping suspension last year, set a meet record and world-leading time this season in winning the 400.

Hooker qualifies for Olympics

Steve Hooker will defend his gold medal in the pole vault at the London Olympics after clearing the qualifying height of 5.72m on Friday on his second attempt at a specially sanctioned meet in Perth.

The 29-year-old Hooker, making his first competitive outing in three months due to a knee injury and a lack of confidence, will compete at his third straight Olympics for Australia.

Associated Press

(China Daily 05/13/2012 page7)