U.S. Davis Cup team adds Blake
James Blake will fill the No. 2 singles slot behind Andy Roddick for the U.S. Davis Cup team against Romania, but Andre Agassi could join the team later this year.
The regular doubles duo of twins Bob and Mike Bryan also will face Romania in the first round on Feb. 10-12 in La Jolla, Calif., U.S. captain Patrick McEnroe said Tuesday from Los Angeles.
“All the guys feel like this could be the year,” McEnroe said, referring to the fact that the United States hasn’t won the Davis Cup since 1995. “We have a chance to go deep into the event and as good a chance as anybody to win it.”
That doesn’t mean he’s taking the opening matches against Romania for granted.
Last year, an American team of Agassi, Roddick and the Bryan brothers was eliminated in the first round by eventual champ Croatia. The United States has won the Davis Cup 31 times.
Karol Beck failed a drug test after Slovakia’s Davis Cup semifinal win over Argentina and is awaiting a verdict from the sport’s world governing body, a Slovak official said from Bratislava.
Golf
Wie accepts Korean invite
Michelle Wie will play against men on the Asian Tour in Korea, accepting an invitation to play in the May 4-7 SK Telecom Open.
Wie was born and raised in Hawaii, but her parents are from South Korea and it was the first language she learned.
The Senior Players Championship will move to Baltimore for five years beginning in 2007, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem announced.
Swimming
Australian sets world record
Australian Libby Lenton broke the 100-meter women’s freestyle world record in the semifinals at the Commonwealth Games trials in Melbourne, Australia, finishing in 53.42 seconds.
Linton’s mark was a tenth of a second faster than Australian Jodie Henry’s previous record of 53.52, which earned her a gold medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
Miscellany
OSU hoop great Lewis dies
Former Oregon State basketball great Ed Lewis, who played for the Beavers from 1931-33, died Sunday in Salem, Ore., at 95, the university announced.
Lewis is one of just five men’s players whose numbers have been retired. The 6-foot-5 center wore No. 25.
Portland State athletic director Tom Burman resigned to take a post as the new vice president of the University of Wyoming Foundation. Teri Mariani, a PSU softball coach and administrator for the past 30 years, will assume Burman’s duties on an interim basis.
Well-known NASCAR publicist Richard Norman “Chip” Williams Jr. was arrested and charged with statutory rape and soliciting a minor for sex over the Internet, authorities said in Charlotte, N.C.
Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber said that MLS Cup 2006 will be played at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas, the site of last year’s game.