Sports News

SCORECARD:
Here are the sports results from Friday:
      

Roughriders take advantage of B.C. turnovers in 28-24 win over Lions
REGINA - B.C. quarterback Buck Pierce gave up six turnovers and the Saskatchewan Roughriders scored points off three of them as they beat the Lions 28-24 Friday in the CFL season opener for both teams. Eddie Davis set the tone early when he forced a Pierce fumble three minutes into the game. Four plays later, Riders quarterback Darian Durant scored on a 10-yard touchdown run.
      

Columbus signs star winger Rick Nash to eight-year contract extension
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Rick Nash and the Blue Jackets have reached agreement on an eight-year contract extension that will keep the star winger with the team through the 2017-18 season. The team confirmed the signing in a release Friday. A source told The Canadian Press the deal is worth US$62.4 million and will kick in after next season. Nash will make $7 million in 2009-10.
      

Free-agent Mikael Samuelsson says more than money attracted him to Vancouver
VANCOUVER, B.C. - The money was a factor, but what also convinced free-agent forward Mikael Samuelsson to sign with the Canucks was the team's potential to be a Stanley Cup contender. Samuelsson, who won a Cup with the Detroit Red Wings, agreed to a three-year deal worth US$7.5 million with Vancouver on Friday. The six-foot-one, 205-pound right-winger also expects to have an increased offensive role with the Canucks.
      

Yankees beat Blue Jays 4-2 for eighth win in nine games
NEW YORK - After he was knocked out in the third inning at Fenway Park in early June, A.J. Burnett vowed to improve. Has he ever. Burnett scattered six hits over seven innings to win for the third time in four starts as the Yankees opened their weekend series with a 4-2 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday.
      

Baseball roundup: Friday's action on the diamonds
Manny Ramirez looked like a guy who missed 50 games. Returning from his suspension for violating baseball's drug policy, the Los Angeles slugger barely hit the ball out of the infield in the Dodgers' 6-3 win over the San Diego Padres on Friday night. With more than half the crowd at sold-out Petco Park wearing Dodger blue and cheering him on, Ramirez went 0-for-3 with a walk. The farthest he hit the ball was a popup that second baseman David Eckstein caught in shallow centre field.
      

Ali Gerba scores as Canada beats Jamaica 1-0 in Gold Cup opener
CARSON, Calif. - For Ali Gerba, scoring breeds confidence. For Canada, that confidence helped produce a victory at the CONCACAF Gold Cup on Friday night. Gerba's goal in the 75th minute led Canada to a 1-0 win over Jamaica in Group A play in the Gold Cup opener. It was Gerba's fifth career Gold Cup goal, tying Carlo Corazzin for the national record. Corazzin scored all five of his in 2000, when Canada won the tournament.
      

Roger Federer, Andy Roddick to meet in third Wimbledon final
LONDON - Rising, rising, rising, high above the most famous patch of grass in tennis, Roger Federer channelled Pete Sampras on match point in the Wimbledon semifinals Friday, tucking both feet back beneath his body and uncorking an overhead smash. And now, after years of chasing Sampras, Federer is poised to surpass him.
      

Venus faces little sister Serena in fourth Wimbledon final
LONDON - Venus Williams is just about the perfect older sibling: She supports Serena endlessly, protects her fiercely, and even lets her little sister pick which bedroom she wants when they're on the road. Venus draws the line at Grand Slam championships.
      

Tiger Woods shoots 4-under 66 to move into lead at the Congressional
BETHESDA, Md. - The best of Tiger Woods came out on Friday when his game was falling apart. Woods lived up to his hopes of being a "greedy host" when he salvaged his round during a shaky stretch in the middle and shot 4-under 66 to take a one-shot lead at his AT&T National with the lowest 36-hole ever at Congressional Country Club.
      

Bowyer races to first Nationwide win of season at Daytona Speedway
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Clint Bowyer's first victory of the season gave Richard Childress Racing a much-needed boost. Bowyer won the Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway on Friday night, holding off Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards in a green-white-checkered finish.
      

Tour de France ready for start with Lance Armstrong back
MONACO - The Tour de France is ready for another edition with Lance Armstrong in the lineup. Saturday's first short stage may show whether Armstrong is ready to challenge for another title. Cycling's biggest name is also its comeback kid as the three-week race begins in Monaco, with a time trial likely to show right away whether Armstrong's 37-year-old legs still have it.
      

Lance Armstrong under doping watch at Tour de France
PARIS - France's sports minister says Lance Armstrong will be "particularly monitored" in anti-doping checks at the Tour de France this year. Roselyne Bachelot, speaking in an interview on French cable TV on Friday, sent the warning to the seven-time Tour winner who has come out of retirement to race again in cycling's showcase.
      

Armstrong can cause an upset, Hincapie says
MONACO - Veteran rider George Hincapie helped Lance Armstrong win seven straight Tour de France titles and believes his old friend could surprise a lot of people this year. Back competing after 3 1/2 years of retirement, Armstrong will start his first Tour since 2005 on Saturday, in the opening and difficult time trial in Monaco. Many cycling experts are writing him off. But not Hincapie.
      

Phoenix police: Mercury's Diana Taurasi cited for drunken driving
PHOENIX - Phoenix Mercury star Diana Taurasi said Friday that she's embarrassed after being cited for drunken driving a few hours after she helped lead her team to victory over the Seattle Storm. An officer stopped Taurasi early Thursday for speeding, police spokesman Luis Samudio said. The officer smelled alcohol and gave the player several field sobriety tests, according to a police statement.
      

Laura Diaz, Sarah Kemp share lead at Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic
SYLVANIA, Ohio - Laura Diaz barely remembers the last time she led an LPGA Tour event. Sarah Kemp never had. Now those two unlikely front-runners head into the weekend chased by a strong group of pursuers at the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic.
      

Cardplayers, celebrities and amateurs at World Series of Poker main event
LAS VEGAS - Cardplayers, celebrities and amateurs with deep pockets are back in Las Vegas and hoping for a handsome score as the World Series of Poker main event begins. The US$10,000 buy-in no-limit Texas Hold 'em tournament saw 1,116 entries on Friday, down nearly 200 players compared with the 1,297 entries of the first day of the tournament last year.
      

Cervelo Test Team enjoying early success on pro cycling tour
TORONTO - How do you follow seeing someone ride your bike to victory in the Tour de France? If you're Gerard Vroomen and Phil White, you start your own team. Spanish star Carlos Sastre, riding for the CSC team, won last year's Tour aboard a Cervelo bike, a first for a Canadian manufacturer.
      

Canadian hurdlers finished third and fifth at Bislett Games
OSLO - Priscilla Lopes-Schliep came third and fellow Canadian Perdita Felicien finished fifth Friday in the 100-metre hurdes at the Bislett Games. American Damu Cherry won in 12.68 seconds, ahead of Jamaican Brigitte Foster-Hylton in 12.75 and Lopes-Schliep in 12.78. Jamaican Delloreen Ennis-London edged Felicien 12.84 to 12.85.
      

Carlos Sastre: Lance Armstrong needs to learn about respect
MONACO - Defending Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre says Lance Armstrong could use a lesson in respect after the Texan reportedly called the race last year "a bit of a joke." Sastre, a 34-year-old Spanish veteran, says seven-time Tour champion Armstrong is entitled to his opinion - but insists it's the wrong one.