Nadal is upset in London

French Open champion Rafael Nadal was defeated at the Artois Championships in London on Friday, losing in the quarterfinals to 106th-ranked Nicolas Mahut, 7-5, 7-6 (0).

The top-seeded Nadal, looking sluggish throughout the match, was broken in the last game of the first set and then failed to win a single point in the tiebreaker.

“I need to disconnect, play some golf, watch a little bit [of soccer], have some fun with the friends,” Nadal said. “I need to put the racket very far from me for two days.”

Mahut will next play 14th-seeded Arnaud Clement, who defeated Ivo Karlovic, 7-5, 6-4.

Second-seeded Andy Roddick also advanced to the semifinals after defeating Marin Cilic, 6-4, 7-6 (5). He will play Dmitry Tursunov, who upset third-seeded Fernando Gonzalez, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-4.

Third-seeded James Blake lost to Philipp Kohlschreiber, 6-4, 6-3, in the quarterfinals of the Gerry Weber Open at Halle, Germany. Kohlschreiber broke Blake’s serve at love to take a 5-4 lead in the first set, then got another break at 4-3 in the second.

Second-seeded Jelena Jankovic rallied to defeat Maria Kirilenko, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, in the third round of the DFS Classic at Birmingham, England. Top-seeded Maria Sharapova’s match against Tamira Paszek was postponed for a second day because of rain.

Sixth-seeded Meghann Shaughnessy and Edina Gallovits will meet in the final of the Barcelona Open in Spain. Shaughnessy beat Flavia Pennetta, 6-0, 4-6, 6-4, and Gallovits beat Virginie Razzano, 6-3, 6-4.

--

MOTOR RACING

Yeley edges Johnson for Nextel Cup pole

J.J. Yeley won the pole for Sunday’s NASCAR Nextel Cup Citizens Bank 400 at Michigan International Speedway. He posted a fast lap of 38.399 seconds in a Chevrolet, at a speed of 187.505 mph, to edge Jimmie Johnson by a thousandth of a second. Kyle Busch was third at 186.829.

--

TRACK AND FIELD

Jones probably will skip entire season

Marion Jones, conspicuously absent from the track scene since her February marriage to Barbados-born sprinter Obadele Thompson, apparently will not compete in the 2007 season.

“I’m almost sure she isn’t,” coach Steve Riddick said in a brief telephone interview with the Associated Press. He said if she was going to run, he would have known by now. He did say the two had spoken but wouldn’t elaborate.

Jones is the defending U.S. 100-meter champion but has not declared her entry into that or any other event at next week’s U.S. championships in Indianapolis.

Meseret Defar of Ethiopia broke her women’s world record in the 5,000 meters by finishing in 14 minutes 16.63 seconds at the Bislett Games in Oslo, the opening meet in the Golden League Series. She set the previous mark of 14:24.53 in New York last year.

In the men’s 100, world record-holder Asafa Powell of Jamaica led throughout to win in 9.94 seconds. He eased up near the finish, and finished 0.12 ahead of European champion Francis Obikwelu of Portugal.

Powell’s time was one hundredth of a second slower than the season’s world best so far, the 9.93 run by Walter Dix last week at the NCAA championships in Sacramento.

--

BASKETBALL

Sparks’ Leslie gives birth to first child

Sparks center Lisa Leslie gave birth to her and husband Michael Lockwood’s first child Friday. The baby, a girl named Lauren Jolie Lockwood, weighed 8 pounds 11 ounces and was 20 inches at birth, which occurred via caesarean section at 4:11 a.m. at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Leslie announced in December that she was pregnant and expected to sit out the season, but the Sparks have left the door open for her to return by leaving her on the team’s roster.

Leslie, 34, is reportedly under her doctor’s orders not to work out for at least six weeks after the birth, which occurred ahead of the June 25 due date.

-- Lauren Peterson

Lakers assistant coach Brian Shaw had his second interview with the Sacramento Kings for their head coaching position. Shaw, 41, recently completed his third season as an assistant with the Lakers.

-- Mike Bresnahan

--

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Lynch will replace Hoeppner at Indiana

Bill Lynch will replace Terry Hoeppner as Indiana’s head football coach. Hoeppner is undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments after two brain surgeries in 18 months.

Neither Hoeppner nor Indiana had disclosed the nature of his illness. When asked if Hoeppner has cancer, Athletic Director Rick Greenspan said, “I won’t say that, but I think it’s apparent by the definition.”

--

CYCLING

Basso gets maximum two-year doping penalty

Ivan Basso, the 2006 Giro d’Italia champion who also finished on the Tour de France podium twice, received a maximum two-year doping penalty from the Italian cycling federation.

With that, he became the first high-profile rider suspended for the recent scandals rocking cycling. Last month, Basso acknowledged involvement in the Spanish blood-doping probe.

--

MISCELLANY

NBA Finals hit record low on TV

The NBA Finals averaged only a 7.1 Nielsen rating in Los Angeles, which ranked this market 26th among the nation’s 55 largest.

However, the 7.1 was higher than the national average rating of 6.2, a record low. The previous low was a 6.5 in 2003, when the San Antonio Spurs defeated the New Jersey Nets in six games.

This year, the Spurs beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in four games, completing the sweep Thursday night with an 83-82 victory. That game got a 6.5 rating nationally and an 8.4 in L.A.

Last year’s NBA Finals, in which the Miami Heat beat the Dallas Mavericks in six games, averaged an 8.5 national rating. One rating point represents 1% of the nation’s 111,400,000 television households. The average viewing audience for this year’s Finals was 9.3 million.

-- Larry Stewart

--

When Curlin won the Preakness, the colt’s owners split $650,000. Now, some of those winnings -- as well as ownership of the horse -- are potential assets that could be grabbed by federal prosecutors and angry plaintiffs.

A federal grand jury this week indicted two attorneys who own 20% of Curlin, charging them with conspiring to commit wire fraud in representing more than 400 people in the suit over the diet drug fen-phen.

Federal prosecutors want them to forfeit any assets they have to pay restitution to their former clients. A lawyer for the former clients claims Curlin was bought with money that belonged to the fen-phen clients.

Receiver/linebacker Justin Skaggs of the Arena Football League’s Utah Blaze died Friday in Salt Lake City, a day after emergency brain surgery. Skaggs, 28, was recently diagnosed with an inoperable tumor.