NBey6's Blog

Updated: January 14, 2010, 7:39 AM ET

Williams to face Dementieva in final

Associated Press

SYDNEY -- Top-ranked Serena Williams came from a set and 5-2 down to beat Avarane Rezai 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 on Thursday and move into a Sydney International final against defending champion Elena Dementieva.

Rezai was serving for the match at 5-3 in the second set but reigning Australian Open champion Williams won the next five games to even it and go up a break in the third.

Rezai of France recovered breaks in the first and seventh games of the third set but Williams broke her to lead 5-4 and then served it out.

"Was I down that far? I didn't even realize," Williams said. "I don't think she lost her way at all. I felt like I literally lifted my game at that point, because I knew I was going to be headed to Melbourne if I didn't.

"I kept thinking, 'I want to get a little more practice, and I'd hate for it to end now."

Williams has won 35 titles, including the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the season-ending championship last season, but has never reached the Sydney final, held in the week leading up to the year's first major.

"Cool ... finally," she said, relishing the opportunity to gain match fitness and touch in her first tournament of the year.

"That was good because she played really hard, like a top player. That was really good preparation."

Williams, winner of 11 Grand Slam singles titles, will play Friday against Olympic champion Dementieva, who beat sixth-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus 6-3, 6-1.

"I expect a tough match. She's a great champion," Dementieva said of Williams. "I just hope it's going to be a good match for both of us, and good preparation for the Open."

Rezai, a 22-year-old who is ranked 27 and won two WTA titles last year, felt she wasted an opportunity to beat Williams.

"For me, she was not too impressive," Rezai said. "Of course she's a good player, of course I respect her. But I could have won today. I wasn't impressed.

"Probably it was more difficult for her to play against me. I know she's a fighter but I am also a fighter.

"Today I lost. Probably next time I will win."

In men's quarterfinals, Richard Gasquet of France had a 6-3, 7-6 (7) win over Italian Potito Starace and Frenchman Julien Benneteau beat Argentina's Leonardo Mayer 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-0.

Former Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis beat former No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, ending Hewitt's attempt for his fifth Sydney title. In the semifinals, Baghdatis will play American Mardy Fish, who beat Australian Peter Luczak 7-6 (5), 6-2.

The Australian Open starts Monday in Melbourne.

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7.0 earthquake hits Haiti

January 12, 2010 5:30 p.m. EST

A major earthquake struck just off the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince on Tuesday, sparking a tsunami watch for parts of the Caribbean, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

 

There was no immediate report of damage or injuries from the quake. However, The Associated Press reported that a hospital had collapsed.

 

The quake had a reported magnitude of 7.0 and was centered about 10 miles (16km) off the coast and about 6 miles (10 km) underground, according to the USGS.

 

A tsunami watch was posted for Haiti and parts of Cuba, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas, but historical data suggests a destructive, widespread tsunami was not a threat, the USGS reported.

Wake up and party!!!!

** As of 1-11-10 **

AP Top 25  

1. Texas (56) 15-0 1,616  

2. Kentucky (9) 16-0 1,569  

3. Kansas 14-1 1,441  

4. Villanova 14-1 1,426  

5. Syracuse 15-1 1,353  

6. Purdue 14-1 1,317  

7. Michigan State 13-3 1,191  

8. Duke 13-2 1,178  

9. Tennessee 12-2 1,030

10. West Virginia 12-2 1,006

11. Georgetown 12-2 934

12. North Carolina 12-4 844

13. Kansas State 13-2 746

13. Wisconsin 13-3 746

15. Connecticut 11-4 633

16. Pittsburgh 13-2 565

17. Gonzaga 12-3 559

18. Brigham Young 16-1 456

19. Temple 13-3 388

20. Georgia Tech 12-3 342

21. Mississippi 12-3 326

22. Baylor 13-1 301

23. Miami (FL) 15-1 189

24. Clemson 13-3 167

25. Florida State 13-3 155

Updated: January 12, 2010, 8:48 AM ET

Top seeds advance at Sydney

Associated Press

SYDNEY -- Top-ranked Serena Williams opened her season with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez on Tuesday, reaching the quarterfinals at a Sydney International where other leading players have struggled.

No. 3 Svetlana Kuznetsova lost 7-5, 6-2 to Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova later Tuesday, joining fourth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki, No. 7 Jelena Jankovic and No. 8 Vera Zvonareva as losers in the first two rounds.

Second-seeded Dinara Safina was in trouble in her first set since she quit with a back injury at the season-ending championships in October, losing the opening five games before recovering to win nine straight in a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland.

Safina will next play Olympic gold medalist Elena Dementieva, who held off Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova 6-2, 4-6, 6-2. 

Sixth-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus beat Japanese veteran Kimiko Date Krumm 6-1, 5-7, 7-5.

Elena Vesnina, who advanced from the first round when Zvonareva retired hurt on Monday, lost 6-3, 6-4 on Tuesday to Vera Dushevina, who plays Williams in the quarterfinals.

Williams said she wasn't bothered about how many seeded players made early exits, or how it opened up the draw for her.

"I don't care who I play. Whenever I play someone they play their best." she said. "I play Vera Dushevina next and she's a good player and she's been ranked high before.

"So whoever I play, believe me, they're going to play like No. 1 on that particular day against me for whatever reason, so it doesn't matter for me."

Williams is using the Sydney tournament as her main warmup for the Australian Open, the first major of the season, which starts Monday in Melbourne.

She won the WTA Championship on Nov. 1 and had a bye in the first round here. She spent only 1 hour, 12 minutes on court against Spain's Hopman Cup winner Martinez Sanchez as temperatures hit 91 degrees.

Williams said she wanted to play matches to acclimate quickly, with the southern city of Melbourne experiencing a heat wave a week ahead of the Australian Open.

Safina spent 1:47 on court and dropped serve five times in a struggle against 10th-ranked Radwanska. Despite the slow start, she said the back inflammation that restricted her training until the middle of last month didn't cause her any concerns in Sydney.

"I was 5-love down, but the only problem was I was missing everything -- everything was flying all over the place," Safina said. "So once I win a game, I'm like, 'OK, let's start like this.' "

Safina, a finalist here last year and at the Australian Open, saved a set point in the first before breaking Radwanska in the match-turning 10th game and was satisfied with her comeback.

"I mean, it's the first match of the year. If you start to cry in the first game of first match, then what can happen when it's going to be the end of the season," she said. "It was 20 minutes and 5-love. I thought, 'OK, at least try to stay a little bit longer on the court.' "

Kuznetsova was unable to play at leadup tournaments in Brisbane or Auckland last week because she didn't fulfill her quota of tournaments in 2009 under the WTA's regulations for top player commitments, so she'll go to the Australian Open with one match as her preparation.

The reigning French Open champion said she'd been playing well in training and hoped to pick up rhythm in practice at Melbourne Park this week and in the early stages of the Australian Open.

"To play good here it would be nice. But if I didn't, I mean, it's not so bad a thing," she said. "Definitely I'm very worried about match today, and I have to improve and practice a lot before Australian Open, but that's not the worst thing in the world."

In men's first-round matches, sixth-seeded Viktor Troicki of Serbia advanced over Frenchman Florent Serra 7-6 (5), 6-4; No. 8 Benjamin Becker had a 6-3, 6-3 win over Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina; and American Mardy Fish beat Australia's Carsten Ball 6-4, 7-6 (4).

American Sam Querrey, seeded fifth, lost 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 to Russia's Evgeny Korolev.

You'll love this for sure!!

This is old school funny!!

Burned boy: 'Somebody poured something on me and lit me on fire'

• Police release interview with teen set on fire, allegedly by youths he knew
• Michael Brewer recalls threats, flames, running, jumping in pool to douse fire
• Three teens are charged as adults with attempted murder in the incident
• Brewer, 15, faces long recovery and rehabilitation process

Miami, Florida (CNN) -- A 15-year-old boy who was set on fire, allegedly by a group of youths he knew, told police he remembered "cold stuff all over my clothes and ... burning."

 

"Somebody poured something on me and lit me on fire," Michael Brewer tells police from his hospital bed in the audiotaped interview conducted November 23, six weeks after the October 12 incident. "I started running."

 

Broward County, Florida, prosecutors released the interview, along with other audio, video and documents, to media outlets including CNN on Monday and Tuesday.

 

Three teenagers have been charged as adults with attempted murder in connection with Brewer's burning. Detectives said eyewitnesses have told them that 16-year-old Jesus Mendez used a lighter to set fire to Brewer after Denver Jarvis, 15, allegedly poured alcohol over him, and that Matthew Bent, also 15, allegedly encouraged the attack.

 

Detectives said Mendez admitted that he set Brewer on fire, and that he made a "bad decision," according to an arrest transcript. Interviews with the suspects were not part of the evidence released this week.

 

Detectives believe that Brewer owed Bent $40 for a video game. When Brewer did not pay, police said, Bent stole Brewer's father's bicycle, then was arrested when Brewer reported him to the police. The next day, police believe, the group sought out Brewer.

 

In the interview, Brewer speaks in a soft, labored voice and sounds breathless. He can be heard inhaling and exhaling on the recording.

 

He told police that Bent "came to my house and he tried to take my dad's bike. He threatened me. He threatened my sister."

 

He said Bent wanted him to buy something that he didn't want to buy, but he couldn't remember what. "I think it was stolen," Brewer said.

 

He said he saw Jarvis pour the flammable liquid on him, and told police he was walking away from the others when it occurred.

 

When the teens approached him, he said, one told him, "Nobody's going to hit you." Instead, he recalled "cold stuff all over my clothes and ... burning."

 

Bent, Mendez and Jarvis face a maximum sentence of up to 30 years in prison if convicted. Two other boys who were allegedly involved, a 13-year-old and 15-year-old, have not been charged in the attack.

 

After he was set on fire, "I'm like, run. Run," Brewer said. "I ... jumped the fence and jumped into the pool."

 

"This guy comes running out and tries to pull me out of the water, and I said, 'Leave me, leave me,' 'cause my skin was, like, hanging," he said.

 

"I got out of the pool, and ... in a chair. And then they put me on a stretcher, and they strapped me, and then they put me on the helicopter."

 

A videotaped interview with an eyewitness to the incident is also among the pieces of evidence released.

 

In it, the teenager recalls hearing Bent, who is known as Zeke, tell Jarvis to pour the flammable liquid on Brewer. "Zeke's like, 'Yeah, yeah, pour it on him,'" the witness says, estimating the pouring lasted three to five seconds.

 

Asked if a lot of fluid was poured on Brewer, the boy said it soaked his entire back.

 

Brewer was released from Jackson Memorial Hospital's burn unit on December 22 after more than two months. During that stay, he had three skin-graft surgeries and was on a ventilator for a month.

 

He was readmitted to the hospital earlier this month after experiencing trouble breathing, but was re-released after three days. Doctors have said he faces a long recovery and rehabilitation process.

 

Brewer is recovering at an undisclosed location. His mother, Valerie Brewer, has said he will be home-schooled once he has recovered enough to resume his school work.

Tuesday 1-12-10

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607, 663, 384, 361, 464, 246, 702, 941, 367, 530

7718, 1489, 1115, 4724, 3096, 1309, 1744, 3667

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