V. Williams moves to No. 5 world ranking
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Feb. 23 (UPI) -- Venus Williams used her victory in the United Arab Emirates to return to the Top Five in the latest world women's tennis rankings.
Williams won the high-profile Dubai Tennis Championships with a straight-set victory Saturday over Virginie Razzano for her 40th career WTA singles title. That allowed her to improve her ranking from sixth to fifth.
Razzano, who defeated two Top Five players en route to the title match, moved from 58th to 41st in the rankings.
Serena Williams, who lost a third-set tiebreaker to her sister in the Dubai semifinals, remained ranked No. 1 followed by second-rated Dinara Safina, No. 3 Jelena Jankovic and fourth-ranked Elena Dementieva.
Venus Williams switched places with Vera Zvonareva, who is now ranked sixth. Ana Ivanovic moved up one spot to seventh, trading places with Svetlana Kuznetsova while Nadia Petrova and Agnieszka Radwanska held on to the ninth and 10th spots, respectively.
Win puts Mickelson at No. 3
VIRGINIA WATER, England, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- Phil Mickelson, who defended his title at the Northern Trust Open with a strong finish, moved to No. 3 in the world in the golf rankings released Monday.
Mickelson began the week ranked fifth and played well at Pacific Palisades, Calif. He did fade some Sunday but got birdies Sunday at Nos. 16 and 17 to overtake Steve Stricker and win the tournament by a stroke. It was his 35th career PGA title.
Tiger Woods, who announced plans to return to competitive golf this week after months of rehabilitating a bad knee, is still the top-ranked golfer in the world and Sergio Garcia remained No. 2.
Mickelson's move to third pushed Padraig Harrington down to fourth and Vijay Singh to fifth.
Henrik Stenson retained his No. 6 ranking while Robert Karlsson and Geoff Ogilvy are seventh and eighth, respectively. Kenny Perry switched places with Camilo Villegas and is ninth with Villegas 10th.
Stricker jumped seven spots from 20th to 13th with his runner-up finish this week.
Rangers fire Coach Tom Renney
NEW YORK, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- New York Rangers Coach Tom Renney was fired by the NHL team Monday, one day after its 10th loss in 12 games.
Renney and assistant coach Perry Pearn were both let go, Rangers President and General Manager Glen Sather said in a news release. The Rangers are 31-23-7, in sixth place in the NHL Eastern Conference following a Sunday loss at home to Toronto. New York has won just twice in its last 12 games.
The Rangers didn't immediately announce who would replace Renney. New York's next game is Wednesday in Toronto.
Renney became the Rangers coach in February 2004. While the team had just five wins in 20 games under Renney that season, New York was 164-121-42 with three playoff appearances while he was the coach.
Renney is the sixth NHL coach fired this season.
Griffin out of Oklahoma's Monday game
NORMAN, Okla., Feb. 23 (UPI) -- Oklahoma forward Blake Griffin, the Big 12's leading scorer, won't play in the Sooners' game against No. 15 Kansas Monday night because of a concussion.
Griffin suffered the injury Saturday night in the first half of the third-ranked Sooners' game at Texas. He was struck on the bridge of his nose and appeared woozy afterward. He didn't play the rest of the game, which Oklahoma lost.
Sooners Coach Jeff Capel, after meeting with team medical personnel Monday, announced Griffin would miss the game against Kansas, which is for the Big 12 lead, because of the injury.
"The most important thing is him and his future," Capel told The Oklahoman newspaper Sunday. "You don't want to do anything to risk further damage. So that's the most important thing. You're going to proceed with caution with this and make sure he's OK. And we'll move on whichever way we have to -- with him or without him."
Griffin leads the conference with an average of 22 points a game and his 13.8 rebounds a game is best in the nation. His 22 double-doubles also leads the country.
