Roddick Fined for Skipping ATP Event

U.S. Open champion Andy Roddick withdrew from the Thailand Open at Nonthaburi on Monday, citing a hamstring injury from the Davis Cup.

Roddick said his doctors advised him to rest a week, ATP executive Weller Evans said. Evans said the ATP would fine Roddick $40,000 for his late withdrawal.

Roddick, ranked No. 2, sent organizers a letter saying that he hurt his right hamstring during Friday’s singles loss in the Davis Cup, Evans said.

On Sunday, Roddick assured the United States a place among the top 16 Davis Cup teams next season when he beat Karol Beck in straight sets in Slovakia.

This is the first ATP event in Thailand, and sixth-seeded Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia defeated Cyril Saulnier of France, 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (4), in a first-round match.

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Morocco dropped Britain from the World Group of the Davis Cup when Hicham Arazi beat Greg Rusedski in four sets to complete a suspended match at Casablanca, Morocco.

Arazi won, 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (7), 7-6 (5), to give Morocco a 3-2 victory in the World Group playoff.

Because of the loss, Britain was relegated to Group 1 of the Euro-African zone.

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Magnus Norman won a match for the first time since late July, beating Chinese wild card Zhu Benqiang, 6-3, 6-4, in the first round of the Heineken Open at Shanghai.... Denisa Chladkova of the Czech Republic beat Magui Serna of Spain, 6-1, 7-5, at the Sparkassen Cup in Leipzig, Germany.... Spain’s Albert Montes defeated seventh-seeded countryman Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo, 6-4, 6-2, in the opening round of a tournament at Palermo, Sicily.

Hockey

Montreal Canadien captain Saku Koivu will be sidelined three to four weeks after spraining his right knee during an exhibition game. He could be back for the season opener Oct. 9 at Ottawa.

Koivu was jammed against the boards by Ottawa’s Todd White on Saturday. The Montreal center left the game in the second period and had an MRI scan the next day that showed a minor sprain of the medial collateral ligament.

Boxing

Frank Bruno reportedly was taken to a psychiatric hospital by medics, who needed police assistance to transport the former heavyweight champion in England.

Police went to Bruno’s home to help an ambulance crew that had been unable to persuade the boxer to go voluntarily to a psychiatric hospital in London, TV reports said.

No reason was given for why Bruno needed to be taken to the hospital.

A third fight between heavyweight contenders Hasim Rahman and David Tua has been added to a Dec. 13 card in Atlantic City, N.J., that features a middleweight title fight between Bernard Hopkins and William Joppy and a welterweight title fight between Ricardo Mayorga and Cory Spinks.

The Rahman-Tua fight will be an elimination bout between two of the top three contenders for the World Boxing Assn. title, which is held by Roy Jones Jr.

The five-bout pay-per-view boxing card set for Oct. 4 at Staples Center has undergone some changes as three-time world champion Mauricio Pastrana (30-3-1, 20 knockouts) of Monteria, Colombia, replaced Genaro Garcia as a challenger for Rafael Marquez’s International Boxing Federation bantamweight title belt.

Plus, World Boxing Council flyweight champ Jorge Arce has fallen off the card and was replaced by IBF mini-flyweight champ Edgar Cardenas of Mexico City. Cardenas (30-10-2, 16 KOs) will defend against Daniel Reyes (32-1-1, 27 KOs) of Maria La Baja, Colombia.

Motor Sports

Whit Bazemore moved into the NHRA POWERade Series points lead for the first time in his career with a Funny Car victory at the rain-delayed O’Reilly Mid-South Nationals at Memphis Motorsports Park in Millington, Tenn.

Tony Schumacher, Jeg Coughlin and Reggie Showers also were winners at the $1.6-million race.

Bazemore drove his Dodge Stratus to a winning run of 4.894 seconds at 309.42 mph.

Mitch Evans won the season-ending race -- the Bill Muncey Cup -- in the Budweiser Unlimited Hydroplane Series at San Diego on Sunday.

Dave Villwock finished second with Miss Budweiser and wrapped up the driver’s championship and the world championship. Villwock has won the title for six consecutive years.