Rotoworld: Oregon RB LaMichael James and Oklahoma State WR Justin Blackmon among top 10 players who are being overhyped for the 2012 draft.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
The Detroit Red Wings equaled an NHL record with their 20th straight win at home, beating the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 Sunday night on the strength of Johan Franzen's tiebreaking goal early in the third period.
PBT: Boston's Rajon Rondo continues to be named in trade talks, which is madness. The Celtics guard creates offense and makes everyone around him better, which was evident in Sunday's win over the Bulls.
Arc: Syracuse is among a solid group of No. 1 seeds in our latest tournament projections, but the middle of the pack is much more murky.
Miami coach Al Golden says the worst is behind him, but his headaches figure to continue now that former booster Nevin Shapiro, now in jail, says his involvement with the Hurricanes program will result in stiff penalties.
Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods greeted their Sunday pairing at Pebble Beach with optimism. But the day would end happily only for one.
The United States completed a 5-0 rout of Switzerland in the Davis Cup on Sunday, with 19-year-old Ryan Harrison and John Isner winning closing singles matches.
Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
Tessa Worley of France fought off gusting winds to win a second consecutive World Cup giant slalom Sunday in the Andorran Pyrenees. Overall leader Lindsey Vonn was more than a second behind and finished eighth.
Robins: It’s the Year of the Dragon on the Lunar calendar, and this Chinese influence could extend to it also being the year of the Pekingese on the green carpet at the 136th Westminster Dog Show on Tuesday.
AP
PARIS - To James Blake, 1-0 sounds a lot better than 0-9.
A year after all nine U.S. men competing at the French Open lost in the first round, Blake won his opener at the clay-court Grand Slam tournament Sunday, beating former top-10 player Rainer Schuettler 6-4, 6-1, 7-6 (3).
“We’ve already done more,” the No. 7-seeded Blake said with a laugh. “We set the bar low enough that we’re over the bar by 3 o’clock on Sunday afternoon. It was a tough situation last year, but now maybe it’s just like playing with house money this year.”
He lost to Ivo Karlovic in four sets at Roland Garros in 2007, part of the worst showing by American men at any major tennis championship in 34 years. It also continued their recent trend of struggling on clay.
“We all feel like, you know, last year was an aberration that should never happen again,” Blake said, “and this year we’re definitely looking for better results.”
Or as U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe confidently predicted before the tournament began: “American men are going to do better this year than last year.”
Not really saying a whole lot, huh?
From 2004-07, only one man representing the United States made it as far as the third round in Paris: Blake, two years ago. That was his career-best showing in five previous visits to Roland Garros.
“I feel like I’m playing a little bit better, (with) a little bit more experience on the clay,” said Blake, 9-6 on the slow surface in 2008. “Hopefully this will be the year I put it all together.”
He is one of 10 U.S. men in the field this time, a contingent that does not include sixth-ranked Andy Roddick, the 2003 U.S. Open champion who pulled out of the French Open because of a shoulder injury.
Gustavo Kuerten bid farewell to tennis in the first round of the French Open, losing 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 to Paul-Henri Mathieu at the site of his biggest triumphs.
The former top-ranked Brazilian won three French Open titles.
“This particular tournament is really like home for me,” said Kuerten, who plans to play doubles in Paris but will never play singles again.
The 31-year-old Kuerten has been bothered by a hip injury since 2001. Since having surgery in 2004, he has played in only 19 tournaments and won five matches. This year’s French Open was his first appearance in a Grand Slam tournament since the 2005 U.S. Open — and he said beforehand it would be his last event at any level.
“It’s incredible how fast it all went,” said Kuerten, who won 20 titles during a pro career that began in 1995. In 2000, he became the first South American to finish the year at the top of the ATP rankings.
Novak Djokovic survived a rough start to his quest for a second straight Grand Slam title, holding off Denis Gremelmayr 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-2 in the first round.
The Australian Open champion was broken in his first two service games on center court and trailed 5-1 in the first set before finding some of his game in the second.
“He surprised me a little bit. He was very aggressive,” said Djokovic, who reached the semifinals at Roland Garros last year. “I wasn’t really on my highest level, but hopefully I can continue on and go far.”
In the third set, Djokovic started to show his frustration, throwing his racket into the red clay after Gremelmayr hit a forehand winner in the opening game.
Djokovic then took a 4-1 lead after breaking his German opponent in the fifth game of the third set. Trailing 30-15 in that game, the pair traded 28 shots before Djokovic won the point with a smash near the net. The third-seeded Serb then raised his arms over his head and leaned over the net to applause while Gremelmayr looked on smiling.
But after holding to take a 5-1 lead in that third set, Gremelmayr won four straight games to tie it a 5-5.
“He was serving much stronger in the second and fourth sets,” Gremelmayr said.
Djokovic is trying to become the first man since Jim Courier in 1992 to win the Australian and French Opens in the same year.
No. 6 David Nalbandian and No. 10 Andy Murray advanced to the second round, but 1998 French Open champion Carlos Moya lost to Eduardo Schwank 7-6 (4), 6-2, 6-7 (1), 4-6, 6-3. Schwank never had played at a major and now boasts a 4-5 career record in tour-level matches.
Blake was peeved to have to play on Day 1 — the French Open is the only Grand Slam event that begins on Sunday instead of Monday — but at least he wasn’t exactly staring at a clay expert across the net.
Schuettler was the 2003 Australian Open runner-up, losing the final to Andre Agassi, but he dropped out of the top 150 in the rankings last year and currently stands 90th. He’s 60-83 for his career on clay and has lost seven of his nine first-round matches in Paris, including four in a row.
The United States completed a 5-0 rout of Switzerland in the Davis Cup on Sunday, with 19-year-old Ryan Harrison and John Isner winning closing singles matches.
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Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.
