Federer, other seeds go 6-0 in Dubai
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Second-seeded Roger Federer won sets in very different ways Tuesday in a first-round match at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
Federer came away a 6-0, 7-6 (8-6) winner over Michael Llodra. Federer won 78 percent of the points -- losing just two when receiving serve -- in winning the first set in 14 minutes.
The second set took nearly an hour, however, before Federer finished off the tiebreaker. Where Llodra was just 2-of-14 points serving in the first set, he won 71 percent serving in the second. Federer was even better, taking 75 percent for the match and not losing his serve.
Federer was included in a 6-0 sweep for seeded players Tuesday with only third-seeded Andy Murray, who beat Michael Berrer 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, needing a third set to advance.
No. 4-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga topped Marcos Baghdatis 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 while fifth-seeded Tomas Berdych and No. 7-seeded Janko Tipsarevic both won 6-2, 6-2. Berdych eliminated Benjamin Becker and Tipsarevic beat Igor Kunitsyn.
Eighth-seeded Juan Martin del Potro, in the day's final match, defeated Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-3, 7-6 (7-5).
Also advancing Tuesday were Sergiy Stakhovsky, Flavio Cipolla, Marco Chiudinelli, Mikhail Youzhny and Feliciano Lopez.
Jankovic wins marathon match in Malaysia
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- No. 2-seeded Jelena Jankovic battled for 3 hours Tuesday before escaping with a first-round win at the BMA Malaysian Open tennis tournament.
Jankovic edged past Caroline Garcia 7-6 (9-7), 4-6, 7-6 (7-2) in a match in which both players won 113 points. Jankovic needed two breaks in the third set to get into the final tiebreaker.
She dropped serve five times on the day while Garcia suffered four breaks.
Third-seeded Peng Shuai and No. 4-seeded Jarmila Gajdosova were also pushed to three sets. Peng dropped serve three times in the second set of a 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 victory over Yvonne Meusburger while Gajdosova played for about 2 1/2 hours in a 1-6, 7-6 (7-2), 7-5 win over Kathrin Woerle.
No. 6-seeded Ayumi Morita defeated Nudnida Luangnam 6-4, 6-0 while losing just four points on serve in the second set, but Hsieh Su-Wei eliminated eighth-seeded Anne Keothavong 6-4, 7-5.
Also Tuesday Karolina Pliskova topped Chang Kai-Chen 6-3, 6-2; Casey Dellacqua beat Bojana Jovanovski 6-0, 6-2; Eleni Daniilidou got past Sania Mirza 6-2, 1-6, 6-4; Jill Craybas advanced with a 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 decision over Yurika Sema; and Krystyna Pliskova, Karolina's twin sister, defeated Iryna Bremond 6-0, 6-2.
Sandusky's attorney seeks trial delay
STATE COLLEGE, Pa., Feb. 28 (UPI) -- An attorney for former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky is asking a Pennsylvania judge to delay Sandusky's trial on child molestation charges.
Attorney Joe Amendola has filed a motion to delay the trial, tentatively set for May 14, until mid-July.
He said the defense team will need more time to find and locate witnesses whose identities were included in evidence handed over by prosecutors. Amendola said expert witnesses will also need more time to review the case, the State College Centre Daily Times reported Tuesday.
Sandusky, 68, on house arrest awaiting trial, is accused of molesting boys he met through a charity he founded for at-risk children.
Hockey Hall of Famer Beliveau has stroke
MONTREAL, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Former Montreal Canadiens Hall of Fame player and vice president Jean Beliveau was recovering from a stroke in a hospital Tuesday, the team announced.
In a posting on its Web site, the team said the 80-year-old NHL great was hospitalized Monday night, and he and his family were requesting privacy, The (Montreal) Gazette reported.
No other medical information was disclosed.
The former center has a long history of heart problems and had his first stroke in January 2010. He also underwent chemotherapy for a malignant throat tumor in 2000, the report said.
The 6-foot-3, 205-pound Beliveau scored 507 goals and logged 712 assists in 1,125 games in 18 seasons from 1953 to 1971. During that time, the Canadiens won the Stanley Cup 10 times. He was team captain for five of those championships. After moving to management as a vice president, the team won seven more championships.
He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1972, a year after he hung up his skates.
