SYDNEY, Australia — Defending champion Maria Sharapova has withdrawn from the Australian Open due to her slower than expected recovery following a shoulder injury.
Sharapova advised tournament officials today that she would not be able to defend her title at Melbourne Park beginning Jan. 19.
• Andy Murray defeated Andy Roddick 6-4, 6-2 to repeat as Qatar Open champion in Doha.
Ogilvy in lead
KAPALUA, Hawaii — Geoff Ogilvy ran off three consecutive birdies on the back nine and shot an 8-under- par 65 on Saturday to make the rest of the winners-only field at the Mercedes-Benz Championship feel as though they were playing for second. The wind switched directions, making Kapalua play entirely different. What didn’t change was the guy atop the leaderboard.
Leading by one shot to start the third round, Ogilvy played bogey-free for the second time in three rounds and wound up with a six-shot lead over Justin Leonard and D.J. Trahan.
Raich wins Cup giant slalom
ADELBODEN, Switzerland — Benjamin Raich of Austria won a World Cup giant slalom. His two- run time of 2 minutes, 24.95 seconds gave the reigning Olympic GS champion his 33rd World Cup win and the lead in the discipline and overall standings.
Italy’s Massimiliano Blardone, the 2005 champion on this course, was 0.24 of a second behind. Norway’s Kjetil Jansrud was third, 0.72 back.
American Ted Ligety finished ninth while American Bode Miller skied out on the first run.
• American Lindsey Vonn climbed from 15th after the opening leg of the World Cup giant slalom to finish seventh, 1.52 seconds behind Slovenia’s Tina Maze, who won the race in front of her home fans in Maribor, Slovenia.
• Germany’s Bjoern Kircheisen won the World Cup nordic combined in Val di Fiemme, Italy.
Bernhard Gruber of Austria was second and Norway’s Jan Schmid finished third. Bill Demong of the United States was fourth.
• Xavier De Le Rue of France and Sandra Frei of Switzerland won World Cup snowboardcross races in Bad Gastein, Austria.
Footnotes.
Brendan Shanahan agreed in principle to a one-year deal with the New Jersey Devils.
• Boston Bruins coach Claude Julien will be behind the Eastern Conference bench and San Jose Sharks coach Todd McLellan will guide the Western Conference squad at the Jan. 25 NHL All-Star Game in Montreal.
• Bruins forward Marco Sturm could miss the rest of the season because of a left knee injury. Surgery is set for Tuesday.
• Serena Williams beat Samantha Stosur 6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-5 today at the Sydney International in Australia.
• Andy Murray defeated Andy Roddick 6-4, 6-2 to repeat as Qatar Open champion in Doha.
• Annika Sorenstam and Mike McGee were married in Orlando, Fla.
• Reliever Takashi Saito agreed to a one-year contract with the Boston Red Sox.
The Associated Press
