Off the wire

— BASKETBALL

Xavier’s Redford tears knee

Xavier’s Brad Redford has torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, costing the Musketeers their top 3-point shooter. The junior guard hurt his knee during practice Saturday. A medical test Sunday found the tear, which will need reconstructive surgery and sideline him for the season. Redford was one of the Atlantic 10’s most accurate 3-point shooters in his first two seasons. He set a Xavier record by making 46.5 percent from behind the arc as a freshman. Of his 108 career baskets, 101 have come from behind the arc.

The New York Knicks have exercised their options on the contracts of Danilo Gallinari, Anthony Randolph and Toney Douglas. Gallinari, a 6-foot-10 forward, was taken sixth in the 2008 draft.

While defending LeBron James in the post last week in practice, Mike Miller got his hand stuck in James’ jersey and broke the thumb on his shooting hand. Miller had surgery Friday to repair a torn ligament and his fractured thumb. He is expected to be out until at least January. With Miller out, the Heat signed veteran swingman Jerry Stackhouse to a nonguaranteed contract.

Former Kentucky basketball player Anthony Epps was arrested in central Kentucky on a charge of driving under the influence. Epps, who played guard at Kentucky in the mid-1990s, was stopped by Lebanon police early Saturday morning.

BASEBALL

Pitching coach to leave A’s

Athletics pitching coach Curt Young is leaving the club to pursue other options within the majors. The A’s said Sunday that Young decided not to accept the team’s contract offer for 2011, which would have been his eighth year with the organization that originally drafted him. Young spent 27 years in the Oakland organization, including 12 years as a player and eight years as a minor league coach.

TENNIS

Vinci beats Goerges

Roberta Vinci of Italy won the Luxembourg Open on Sunday, beating eighth-seeded Julia Goerges of Germany 6-3, 6-4. This was Vinci’s third title on the tour, the others coming at Barcelona in 2009 and Bogota, Colombia, in 2007. Goerges was playing for her second title of the year after winning at Bad Gastein, Austria.

Victor Troicki of Serbia claimed his first title and Victoria Azarenka of Belarus won her fifth women’s crown in the Kremlin Cup finals Sunday. The 43rd-ranked Troicki rallied to beat fourth-seeded Marcos Baghdatis 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, while Azarenka downed Russian doubles partner Maria Kirilenko 6-3, 6-4.

SPEED SKATING

Davis, Rookard sweep

Olympic medalist Shani Davis and Jilleanne Rookard won 1,500-meter races Sunday at the U.S. Single Distance Long Track Speed Skating Championships. Davis, the silver medalist at that distance in the last two Winter Olympics, won in 1 minute, 45.59 seconds, while Rookard skated to victory in 2:01.09. Davis also finished first in the 1,000 meters, theevent in which he captured gold in the last two Olympics, and was second overall in the 500 and 3,000.

HORSE RACING

Arson Squad wins at Belmont

Arson Squad rallied to beat Our Edge by a 1 1/2 lengths Sunday in the $70,000 Mighty Forum Stakes at Belmont Park. A multiple graded stakes winner, Arson Squad earned his ninth win in 30 starts. The 7-year-old gelding, trained by Rick Dutrow Jr. and ridden by Ramon Dominguez, ran the one mile in 1:35.27. Arson Squad paid $6, $4.50 and $3. Our Edge returned $12.80 and $7.40. Ea paid $5.60 to show.

Gone Rebel held off heavy favorite Tales in Excess from gate to wire to win the $60,080 Anoakia Stakes on Sunday at the Oak Tree meeting at Hollywood Park. Ridden by Patrick Valenzuela, Gone Rebel went straight to the front of the field of five 2-year-old fillies. Gone Rebel paid $7,$3.60 and $2.10. Tales in Excess paid $2.40 and $2.10. Pleasing Sunrise was third and paid $2.10 to show.

GYMNASTICS

Porgras wins beam at worlds

Ana Porgras of Romania won the beam at the world gymnastics championships Sunday, with allaround champion Aliya Mustafina crashing to the mat and missing out on a medal for the first time in five events. American Rebecca Bross and defending champion Deng Linlin shared the silver. In the men’s vault, Olympic runnerup Thomas Bouhail of France beat out Anton Golotsutskov of Russia.

MOTOR SPORTS

Alonso takes F1 lead

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso won the Korean Grand Prix and took over the Formula One championship lead. McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton was second, followed by Ferrari’s Felipe Massa. Red Bull’s Mark Webber led the championship going into the race, but spun out. The race was suspended after two laps due to rain and standing water on the track, and finished in gloomy conditions at 6 p.m.

SWIMMING

‘Overexertion’ led to death

United Arab Emirates swimming officials said Sunday that “overexertion” led to the death of U.S. national team swimmer Fran Crippen and denied reports that the American had a heart attack during a race the day before. Race officials said a medical report has been completed, but declined to release it to the media Sunday. The 26-year-old Crippen, from a family of prominent swimmers in suburban Philadelphia, died Saturday while competing in the FINA Open Water 10-kilometer World Cup at Fujairah, east of Dubai. He failed to finish and was found in the water two hours later, organizers said. Swimmers complained of the warm water temperatures, but Ayman Saad, executive director of the UAE swimming association, played down heat as a factor, saying that the water temperature was 84 degrees at the start of the race. He also said that FINA rules only require a minimum water temperature and state nothing about a maximum.

TENNIS

Federer wins Stockholm Open

STOCKHOLM - Roger Federer beat Germany’s Florian Mayer 6-4, 6-3 to win the Stockholm Open on Sunday and match Pete Sampras’ total of 64 career titles.

Since 1968, only Jimmy Connors (109), Ivan Lendl (94) and John McEnroe (77) have wonmore singles tournaments than Federer and Sampras.

“It’s amazing that I’m there where Pete’s ended his career on,” Federer said. “You never know when it’s your last one. That’s why you want to savor every tournament victory.”

In beating the 47thranked Mayer at RoyalTennis Hall, Federer won his third title of the year. The unseeded German broke serve in the seventh game before Federer started spraying winners to take the set. Federer showed glimpses of his best form in the second set, mixing power and finesse and ending the match in 63 minutes.

Federer, a 16-time Grand Slam winner, won his 50th match of the year Friday. He became only the fifth man, and the first since Sampras, to win 50 matches in at least nine consecutive years in the Open era.

“Early on, I think that feeling of wanting to prove yourself to the world and all the doubters is a very strong one, so you’re very aggressive in your ways of winning and not enjoying them,”Federer said. “Today it’s much more of the enjoyment part because I don’t need to prove myself to anyone anymore, except to myself.”

Swe d e n’s Crown Princess Victoria presented the trophy to Federer, who was appearing at this tournament for the first time in a decade.

“For me, every tournament victory is special,” the Swiss star said. “This is one I’ll definitely remember, maybe more than other ones.”

Mayer, yet to win an ATP title, was appearing in his third career final and first in four years. He knocked out secondseeded Robin Soderling in the quarterfinals and his unorthodox style also gave Federer difficulty.

Sports, Pages 14 on 10/25/2010

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