SEATTLE – Mariano Rivera wasn’t making any excuses, even if every break went Seattle’s way in the 12th inning.
Brett Gardner nearly came up with Justin Smoak’s sinking liner. Jack Cust’s double caused chalk to come off the grass down the left-field line.
PARIS (AFP) – The battle for FIFA’s top job was thrown into further turmoil Sunday when president Sepp Blatter’s main rival for the post, Mohamed bin Hammam, ended his campaign amid a bitter fall-out over allegations of corruption.
PARIS – Defending champion Francesca Schiavone of Italy beat 10th-seeded Jelena Jankovic of Serbia 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 Sunday to return to the French Open quarterfinals.
The fifth-seeded Schiavone broke Jankovic to go ahead 5-4 in the third set, then served out the victory. When it ended, Schiavone reprised her postmatch ritual from 2010, kneeling down and giving a kiss to the clay court.
INDIANAPOLIS – JR Hildebrand was one turn away from winning the Indianapolis 500 and within sight of the checkered flag when the 23-year-old rookie made the ultimate mistake.
Leading by more than 3 seconds with a lap to go, Hildebrand skidded high in the wall on the final turn, and Dan Wheldon drove past to claim an improbable Indy 500 win Sunday in his first race of the year.
PARIS – His 43rd consecutive victory complete, Novak Djokovic ripped off his white baseball cap, pivoted to look up at his parents, coach and other supporters in the stands, then let out a yell.
It was the sort of visceral reaction one might expect at the conclusion of a taut, tense contest, not the rather routine 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 result the second-seeded Djokovic assembled Sunday at the expense of No. 13 Richard Gasquet in the fourth round of the French Open.