Agassi Advances to Final by Winning Two Matches

Andre Agassi defeated Greg Rusedski, 6-4, 6-4, Saturday night in the semifinals of the Rogers Cup at Montreal, setting up a championship matchup with French Open winner Rafael Nadal.

The top-seeded Nadal advanced to his first match against Agassi by beating Paul-Henri Mathieu, 6-4, 7-5.

The clay-court specialist, looking for his first hard-court title, is No. 2 in the ATP rankings with eight titles this year, including the French Open, but all were on clay.

With Nadal serving for the match, Mathieu won four consecutive points to hand him his first loss in 52 service games of the tournament and tie the set, 5-5.

But Mathieu double-faulted on game point and Nadal served out for his ATP-leading 64th match win this season.

The fourth-seeded Agassi defeated sixth-seeded Gaston Gaudio, 6-3, 6-4, in the completion of a quarterfinal match that was postponed Friday night because of rain. Agassi began the day leading, 6-3 and 15-15.

Rusedski needed only 67 minutes to beat Dominik Hrbaty, 6-3, 6-4, in their postponed quarterfinal match.

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Top-seeded Anastasia Myskina rallied to defeat Emilie Loit, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, in the semifinals of the Nordic Light Open at Stockholm.

Myskina, the former French Open champion, will play third-seeded Vera Douchevina or fifth-seeded Katarina Srebotnik in today’s final.

Srebotnik led Douchevina, 6-0, 6-5, when rain interrupted their semifinal match, which will be completed today.

Golf

John Holmes beat Gary Wolstenholme, 1 up, to help the U.S. take a 6 1/2 -5 1/2 lead over Britain and Ireland after the first day of the Walker Cup matches at Wheaton, Ill.

The U.S., trying to end a three-match losing streak in the biennial competition, led 2 1/2 -1 1/2 after the morning alternate-shot matches and kept the one-point lead by splitting the eight afternoon singles matches.

The two-day competition will conclude today with four more morning alternate-shot matches and eight afternoon singles matches. The Americans need 12 1/2 points to win, and Britain and Ireland needs 12 to retain the cup.

Holmes birdied the par-four 17th hole to take the lead and matched Wolstenholme with a par on No. 18.

Anthony Kim, Jeff Overton and Lee Williams also won singles matches for the U.S. Kim defeated Gary Lockerbie, 6 and 5, Overton beat Nigel Edwards, 5 and 4, and Williams beat Brian McElhinney, 2 and 1.

Britain’s Oliver Fisher, the youngest player in Walker Cup history at 16 years 11 months, beat Michael Putnam, 2 up. Fisher played the last five holes in four under, winning the 14th, 16th and 18th.

Diving

Kelci Bryant won the three-meter springboard title at the U.S. National Championships in Huntersville, N.C.

The 16-year-old Bryant, who won the one-meter gold medal Thursday, had not won a senior national title. She finished with 495.030 points, seven more than silver medalist Nancilea Underwood.

Thomas Finchum, 15, earned three scores of 9.0 and three of 9.5 from the judges on his last dive to win the men’s platform gold medal by 1.20 points over David Boudia. Finchum had 619.65 points, Boudia 618.45.

Basketball

The U.S. defeated Puerto Rico, 99-79, in the Under-21 World Championships at Mar del Plata, Argentina, a day after Canada spoiled the Americans’ title defense.

The Americans took control in the second quarter, in which Justin Gray of Wake Forest scored 13 points and Allan Ray of Villanova had 12 as the U.S. took a 60-35 halftime lead.

The U.S. was upset by Canada, 93-90, in overtime in the quarterfinals and lost a chance to repeat as champion. The U.S. will play for fifth place today against Argentina, which beat Slovenia, 70-43.

Craig Smith of Boston College scored 23 points to help the U.S. beat Slovakia, 85-70, in the University Games men’s tournament at Izmir, Turkey.

Gymnastics

Nastia Liukin, touted for the last few years as gymnastics’ next big star, rallied to edge Chellsie Memmel for the senior women’s all-around title at the U.S. Championships in Indianapolis.

Liukin, 15, who won the last two U.S. junior titles, finished with 76.164 points. Memmel had 75.797 points.

Miscellany

A driver died when his car crashed during an international auto rally at Banska Bystrica, Slovakia, event organizers said.

Peter Spusta’s car skidded off the road and crashed into a tree, state-run news agency TASR said.

Spusta’s navigator suffered minor injuries. The race was canceled after the accident.

Alley Broussard, a junior who led Louisiana State in rushing with 867 yards last season, will not play this year because of a right knee injury suffered during a scrimmage, the team announced.

The Milwaukee Bucks re-signed guard Michael Redd to a six-year, $90.1-million contract after agreeing to the deal last month.

Nikki Blue and Noelle Quinn of UCLA, last season’s winner Seimone Augustus of Louisiana State and Cappie Pondexter of Rutgers are among the 30 preseason candidates for the 2006 Women’s Wooden Award.

T.J. Simers is on vacation.