Off the wire

In this Sept. 18, 2010, file photo, former UCLA basketball player Ed O'Bannon Jr. sits in his office in Henderson, Nev.
In this Sept. 18, 2010, file photo, former UCLA basketball player Ed O'Bannon Jr. sits in his office in Henderson, Nev.

NCAA

O'Bannon case stayed

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AP file photo

Singles winner John Isner smiles during the trophy presentation at the Atlanta Open tennis tournament Sunday, July 27, 2014, in Atlanta.

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AP file photo

Kyle Busch is shown in this file photo.

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AP

President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach opens the envelope announcing that Lausanne has won the bid to host the 2020 Youth Winter Olympic Games at the 128th International Olympic Committee session in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Friday, July 31, 2015.

A court has granted the NCAA's request for a stay in the Ed O'Bannon case, delaying the implementation of possible payments to athletes for use of their names, images and likenesses until an appeals court has made a ruling. The NCAA says in a statement it is pleased with the decision of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. If the motion had not been granted, NCAA member schools would have faced a decision today on whether to start making the payments that U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken had included in her ruling for the plaintiffs in the federal antitrust lawsuit. The decision will only stand until the appeals court rules on the full case. Former UCLA basketball star O'Bannon won his antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA last August after claiming the organization was using the names, images and likenesses of college athletes to profit commercially without compensating the athletes. Wilken ruled that schools should be allowed, but not required, to offer football and basketball players about $5,000 each year in deferred payments that could be collected after a player finishes school.

TENNIS

Isner moves on

Two-time defending champion John Isner ran his Atlanta Open winning streak to 10 matches Friday, riding his big serve to a 7-6 (4), 6-4 victory over Ricardis Berankis. The top-seeded Isner had 19 aces less than 24 hours after ripping off 33 in a two-set victory over Radek Stepanek. Isner will face training partner Denis Kudla today in his 34th ATP Tour semifinal. Kudla, a qualifier, beat Dudi Sela 7-5, 6-0 to reach his first ATP semifinal. In pushing his Atlanta record to 18-3, Isner reached his sixth consecutive Atlanta semifinal. The 6-foot-10 former University of Georgia player's serve peaked at 138 mph. Berankis, a Lithuanian ranked No. 87, also served well. He had 10 aces, and won 86 percent of his first serves (to Isner's 84 percent), and 62 percent on seconds. The two pivot points were the first-set tiebreaker, where Isner served first and Berankis returned just two of six serves, and the only break of the match. That came in the second set. With Berankis serving at 1-1, he went to the net only to bump a backhand long and past an open court to cede the game. Isner is trying to reach the Atlanta final for the fifth time in six years. He lost in the finals in 2010 and 2011, fell in the 2012 semifinals to eventual champion Andy Roddick, and won the past two years.

• Top-seeded Rafael Nadal advanced to the semifinals of the Hamburg Open by beating fifth-seeded Pablo Cuevas 6-3, 6-2 Friday. Nadal's semifinal opponent will be Andreas Seppi, who reached the last four without having to play. His opponent, Simone Bolleli, withdrew with a stomach ailment. Nadal is looking to extend his streak of having won at least one European clay-court title every year since 2004. The former top-ranked player has dropped to No. 10 in the world. Qualifier Lucas Pouille upset Benoit Paire 6-3, 6-2 to set up a semifinal encounter against eighth-seeded and 2013 Hamburg winner Fabio Fognini, who beat Aljaz Bedene 6-4, 7-5. Pouille reached his second semifinal of the year by ending Paire's seven-match winning run that included his maiden title in Bastad, Sweden.

• Top-seeded David Goffin of Belgium advanced to the Swiss Open semifinals Friday, beating sixth-seeded Joao Sousa of Portugal 6-7 (7), 6-4, 7-6 (1). Goffin will face fifth-seeded Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil today in the clay-court tournament. Two-time Gstaad winner Bellucci beat fourth-seeded defending champion Pablo Andujar of Spain 3-6, 6-4, 6-1. In the other quarterfinals, second-seeded Feliciano Lopez of Spain topped eighth-seeded Santiago Giraldo of Colombia 7-6 (4), 6-4, and third-seeded Dominic Thiem of Austria outlasted seventh-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.

• World No. 1 Serena Williams has withdrawn from the upcoming Bank of the West Classic because of an elbow injury she says must get "back to 100 percent." The tournament announced her withdrawal Friday. It runs Monday through Aug. 9 at Stanford University. Williams expressed her disappointment and noted, "The tournament is one of my favorites and the fans have always been so generous and supportive of me." Williams recently won her sixth Wimbledon championship, 21st Grand Slam singles title overall and fourth consecutive major event -- the "Serena Slam" -- and she also won four Slam events in a row in 2002-03. She will now look to chase a fifth consecutive at the U.S. Open in August. Fifth-ranked Caroline Wozniacki will make her Bank of the West Classic debut, and as the top seed.

FOOTBALL

No charges for LSU 3

No formal charges will be filed against three LSU football players, including quarterback Anthony Jennings, for allegedly going into a house without permission in June.

East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore said Friday that the decision is based upon the request of the victim and because of inconsistent and contradictory statements provided to police. Jennings, Dwayne Thomas and Maquedius Bain were arrested June 18 on a charge of unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling. The players have said they sought to retrieve items that had been stolen from Jennings. Thomas was also charged with simple burglary. The players were suspended after their arrest. Coach Les Miles said all three have been reinstated to the team and will report to training camp Wednesday. Miles said they also will undergo in-house discipline, but did not specify what that might entail.

MOTOR SPORTS

Kyle Busch will start his drive for his fourth straight NASCAR Sprint Cup victory from a familiar spot, out front and in first. Busch turned a lap of 178.416 mph Friday at Pocono Raceway to win the pole for the first time during his sensational streak. He also made it three consecutive Cup poles for Joe Gibbs Racing following back-to-back wins from Carl Edwards. Busch missed the first 11 races of the season with a broken right leg and left foot. He returned in late May and has won three consecutive Sprint Cup Series races and four of the last five. "Hopefully, it's got 16 weeks left in it," he said. "It's just amazing what we're on." He's trying to become the first Cup driver since Jimmie Johnson in 2007 to win four consecutive races. Busch won on the road course at Sonoma, then took the last three races at Kentucky, New Hampshire and Indianapolis. Kevin Harvick was second, followed by Joey Logano, Austin Dillon and Tony Stewart. Logano, who wasn't won since the Daytona 500, refused to say Busch is the driver to beat down the stretch. "It doesn't get in our head. He is just fast right now," Logano said. "We are not slow by any means. We are close. I think we know some areas we can improve on and like any good competitor you study what others are doing to beat you. You have to look at that. That is the only way you become better."

OLYMPICS

Beijing chosen to host 2022 Winter Games

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Throughout more than 120 years of Olympic history, no city has hosted both the winter and summer games.

Beijing will be the first do it -- and in the span of just 14 years.

The Chinese capital was awarded the 2022 Winter Olympics on Friday, beating Kazakh rival Almaty 44-40 in a surprisingly close vote marred by technical problems, taking the games back to the city that hosted the summer version in 2008.

Beijing was seen by the International Olympic Committee as a secure, reliable choice that offered vast commercial opportunities in a new winter sports market of more than 300 million people in northern China.

"It really is a safe choice," IOC President Thomas Bach said. "We know China will deliver on its promises."

The IOC's secret vote was conducted by paper ballot, after the first electronic vote experienced technical faults with the voting tablets and was not counted. The result of the first vote was not disclosed. There was one abstention in the paper ballot.

Beijing came in to the vote as the strong favorite, despite its lack of natural snow.

Almaty had hoped to bring the games to Central Asia for the first time but was a lesser-known quantity and viewed as a riskier choice by IOC members. Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Massimov made an impassioned last-minute plea for the IOC to be "brave" and give the games to his country.

The tight margin caught most IOC members by surprise.

"Gee, you wouldn't have picked that close result a few months ago," IOC Vice President John Coates of Australia said. "That address by the prime minister today was brilliantly crafted. I think that's why it got close. But the size of China, the number of people that are going to be introduced to winter sport now, those were all factors."

Sports on 08/01/2015

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