Safin falls to Clement at Legg Mason Classic
Marat Safin was at his umpire-berating, racket-piking, error-spraying worst Saturday, and Arnaud Clement took full advantage.
Happy to be on hard courts, Clement came back from a deficit in each set to beat Safin 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4) and reach the final in the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington.
Clement’s opponent in today’s final will be No. 8 Andy Murray of Britain, who won the last five games to eliminate No. 7 Dmitry Tursunov of Russia 6-2, 7-5.
•Second-seeded Maria Sharapova used her strong serve to defeat Patty Schnyder 7-5, 6-4 to advance to the finals of the Acura Classic in Carlsbad, Calif.
Sharapova will meet top-seeded Kim Clijsters, who beat Czech teenager Nicole Vaidisova 6-2, 7-6 (0) in the other semifinal. Clijsters, ranked No. 2, has won 24 consecutive matches in North American summer hardcourt tournaments.
Soccer
MLS Stars win
Chelsea’s high-priced talent wasn’t enough to beat Major League Soccer’s All-Stars in a match-up in Bridgeview, Ill.
Dwayne De Rosario scored in the 70th minute and backup goalkeeper Joe Cannon made several nice saves late, giving the MLS All-Stars a 1-0 victory over Chelsea, the two-time champion of England’s Premier League.
Swimming
Hansen breaks record
Brendan Hansen swept the breaststroke events at the U.S. Summer National championships in Irvine, Calif., winning the 200 meters with his second world record of the week.
Hansen was under world-record pace the entire race, finishing in 2 minutes, 8.74 seconds. He bettered his old mark of 2:09.04 set at the 2004 U.S. Olympic trials in Long Beach, Calif.
He also broke his mark in the 100 Tuesday.
Hockey
Penguins sign Fleury
Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury signed a two-year contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Fleury, the No. 1 pick in the 2003 NHL draft, agreed to the new deal after the three-year contract he signed following the draft expired. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Basketball
Wizards land guard
Free-agent guard DeShawn Stevenson signed with the Washington Wizards, giving the team insurance in case it decides not to match an offer sheet to Jared Jeffries.
Stevenson signed a two-year contract that will pay the league minimum of $932,000 for the first year.
Miscellany
Teen wins diving title
David Boudia won his first individual national title in the U.S. National Diving Championships in Indianapolis.
The 17-year-old from Noblesville, Ind., finished with 472.20 points on the 10-meter platform.
•Invasor held off Sun King in the stretch and won the $750,000 Whitney Handicap by the bob of a head at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Invasor, winning for the eighth time in nine career starts, raced fifth down the backstretch, gained the lead at the head of the stretch, and withstood a late charge from trainer Nick Zito’s Sun King to win by a nose in a photo finish.
•Hall of Fame driver John Campbell won the Hambletonian in East Rutherford, N.J. He was victorious in harness racing’s premier event for an unprecedented sixth time by guiding Glidemaster to a 1 1/4-length victory over Chocolatier in a stakes record time of 1:51.1.
•Rafael Marquez retained his IBF and IBO bantamweight championships by stopping Silence Mabuza with a steady beating in the ninth round at Stateline, Nev.
Referee Tony Weeks stopped the contest after Mabuza’s corner threw in the towel.