Roddick Almost Becomes Catch of Day for Fish

Top-seeded Andy Roddick opened the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships with a victory Tuesday night, outlasting hard-serving Mardy Fish, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (2), in a match that had only one service break in Memphis, Tenn.

Roddick, the 2002 champion, had 12 aces and Fish finished with 18.

“He played better than I did for the majority of the match,” Roddick said. “I thought he served pretty well and I didn’t have much of a chance to break.

“He probably had more chances than I did. He just made a couple of sloppy errors in the third-set tiebreaker.”

Fish, a former top-20 player, is coming back from two wrist surgeries last year.

“It’s nice to play a good match against, obviously, a good player like Andy and for my wrist to hold up like that against a serve that big,” Fish said. “It’s very encouraging.”

Roddick will face Wayne Arthurs in the second round. Arthurs beat Tomas Zib, 6-4, 7-6 (2).

Fourth-seeded Robby Ginepri, No. 5 James Blake and No. 7 Max Mirnyi lost their opening matches, and top-seeded Nicole Vaidisova and No. 2 Anna-Lena Groenfeld fell in women’s play.

Dmitry Tursunov beat Ginepri, 7-5, 7-6 (4); Kristoff Vliegen edged Blake, 6-4, 6-4; and Robin Soderling ousted Mirnyi, 6-0, 6-1.

Wild-card Victoria Azarenka beat Vaidisova, 7-6 (5), 2-6, 6-4 in a first-round match between 16-year-olds, and Shenay Perry edged Groenfeld, 7-6 (5), 6-2, in a second-round match.

Martina Hingis made her return to Dubai a winning one with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Sania Mirza in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Hingis, returning from a three-year retirement and already ranked No. 50 after six weeks back on the tour, broke Mirza’s serve six times in the first-round match.

A wild-card entry into the field, Hingis won the inaugural Dubai Open in 2001 and hadn’t been back since. Hingis next meets sixth-seeded Anastasia Myskina.

Also, fifth-seeded Nadia Petrova lost to Maria Kirilenko, 6-4, 6-1; Svetlana Kuznetsova beat qualifier Martina Muller, 6-2, 6-0; and seventh-seeded Francesca Schiavone beat, Virginie Razzano, 6-4, 6-4.

Martina Navratilova, who turns 50 this year and is recovering from knee surgery, lost in the tournament’s first doubles match. She and Liezel Huber, seeded fourth, were eliminated by Jelena Jankovic and Li Na, 6-1, 7-5.

Arvind Parmar saved three match points in a third-set tiebreaker on his way to a 7-6 (3), 5-7, 7-6 (7) upset victory over Paradorn Srichaphan in the first round of the ABN Amro in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Parmar is a lucky loser who made the main draw only after top-seeded Rafael Nadal withdrew because of an injury.

Top-seeded Gaston Gaudio advanced to the second round of the Brazil Open, beating Albert Portas, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, in the clay-court tournament in Costa Do Sauipe, Brazil.

Andre Ghem beat fellow Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten, 3-6, 6-3 6-4, in Kuerten’s first tour match since the U.S. Open. Kevin Kim lost, 3-6, 6-3, 6-0, to ninth-seeded Filippo Volandri.

Top-seeded Flavia Pennetta beat Katerina Bohmova, 6-4, 6-1, in the first round of the Copa Colsanitas in Bogota, Colombia. Second-seeded Gisela Dulko defeated Lioudmila Skavronskaia, 6-2, 6-4.

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SOCCER

Denmark-Israel Exhibition Still On

Denmark will play Israel as planned in a March 1 exhibition in Tel Aviv despite security concerns stemming from protests over cartoons about the Prophet Muhammad.

Two weeks ago, the Danish soccer federation said it was considering canceling the game because of violent protests against Denmark in the Middle East.

The U.S. soccer team will play its next home World Cup warmup game April 11 against Jamaica at Cary, N.C.

The U.S. also will be in Cary for its final pre-World Cup training camp, which starts May 9 and will run for about two weeks.

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MISCELLANY

Former Spark Byears Signs With Mystics

Forward Latasha Byears signed with the Washington Mystics less than two weeks after settling a lawsuit with the Sparks claiming she was unfairly released.

Byears played with the Sparks from 2001-2003, helping them win WNBA titles in 2001 and 2002. In 2004, she sued the Sparks for wrongful termination, claiming she was dismissed because of sexual orientation and gender discrimination.

The Mystics also signed Shaquala Williams, a three-year veteran guard who also played for the Sparks.

Rod O’Connor was named senior vice president and general manager of the Home Depot Center. O’Connor, leaving as president of the Santa Monica-based X Prize Foundation, replaces Bill Peterson, who was recently promoted to senior vice president of AEG Sports.

Retired Times motorsports writer Shav Glick will be honored March 11 with “Shav Glick Night” at Irwindale Speedway. Glick ended his 50-plus years at the newspaper in January.

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PASSINGS

Derby Hopeful’s Owner Found Dead at Home

James T. Hines Jr., the owner of Kentucky Derby hopeful Lawyer Ron, was found dead Tuesday morning by his housekeeper in the indoor swimming pool of his home in Owensboro, Ky., Daviess County Coroner Bob Howe said.

“It appears to be a drowning. There was no foul play evident,” said Howe, adding that an autopsy will be done today by the state medical examiner.

Hines was 69.

Sam Rubin, the bicycle importer who with his wife Dorothy owned two-time horse of the year John Henry, died of undisclosed causes Feb. 13 in Palm Beach, Fla. He was 91. See Section B.