Serra advances in Bucharest
BUCHAREST, Romania, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- Florent Serra of France Wednesday beat Martin Vassallo Arguello in straight sets in the second round of the BCR Open Tennis Tournament in Bucharest, Romania.
The 25-year-old Frenchman won by scores of 6-4, 6-1, and increased his winning streak in the tournament to seven straight matches.
He beat two-time runner-up Igor Andreev of Russia in the 2005 finale.
In the first round on Monday, Serra topped another native of Argentina, Juan-Martin Aranguren, 6-1, 6-0.
Also winning on Wednesday were sixth-seeded Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo of Spain; No. 7 Florian Mayer of Germany; and unseeded Jurgen Melzer of Austria, who knocked off No. 4 Gilles Simon of France, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
In Thursday's quarterfinal matches, Hidalgo goes against Melzer; Mayer meets Serra; top-seeded Dmitry Tursunov of Russia faces Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain; and No. 3 Carlos Moya plays crowd favorite Andrei Pavel, a native of Romania.
Kuznetsova advances in Bali
BALI, Indonesia, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- Top-seed Svetlana Kuznetsova Wednesday was an easy straight sets winner at the Wismilak International Tennis Tournament in Bali, Indonesia.
The Russian beat Erika Takao of Japan, 6-1, 6-2, in less than an hour.
Also winning on Wednesday were No. 6 seed Marion Bartoli of France; unseeded Hana Sromova of the Czech Republic, who beat ninth-seeded Aiko Nakamura of Japan, 6-3, 7-5; and Elise Tamaela of Netherlands, who was a 6-2, 6-0 winner over wild card Maria Vento-Kabchi of Venezuela.
Melinda Czink of Hungary topped wild card and crowd favorite Angelique Widjaja of Indonesia, 7-6 (7-1), 6-1.
Troy Vincent of Buffalo goes to IR
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y., Sept. 13 (UPI) -- Buffalo strong safety Troy Vincent is out for the 2006 season after being placed on injured reserve Wednesday because of a left hamstring injury.
The 15-year veteran aggravated an injury that occurred in the pre-season in the regular season opener against New England last Sunday.
"We talked about it after the doctor's evaluation on Monday," Vincent said on the team's Web site. "We discussed how long it would be. Would it be one week, two weeks, three weeks? And we're thin especially with Matt (Bowen) being down. The team needs to bring in some fresh bodies that can perform on Sunday."
Vincent will be replaced by rookies Donte Whitner and Ko Simpson.
Whitner was the eighth overall pick of April's NFL Draft and made his first career interception in last week's game.
Simpson was a fourth-round pick out of South Carolina and likely will start this Sunday's game at Miami.
Backup punter stabs rival, prosecutors say
GREELEY, Colo., Sept. 13 (UPI) -- University of North Colorado reserve punter Mitch Cozad faced charges Wednesday for allegedly stabbing a rival punter in his kicking leg.
Prosecutors say Cozad, 19, a sophomore from Wheatland, Wyo., apparently stabbed his teammate, Rafael Mendoza, in the leg so he could win the starting job.
The attack reportedly happened Monday night outside Mendoza's apartment, the Greeley (Colo.) Tribune reported.
Cozad allegedly jumped the punter from behind and stabbed him in the kicking leg, police said.
Cozad was arrested at 6 p.m. Tuesday. He was kicked off the football team and expelled from the school.
