Venus Williams upset in second round

Venus Williams’ tuneup for the U.S. Open hit a surprising roadblock Tuesday with a 1-6, 7-5, 6-4 loss to Kateryna Bondarenko in the second round of the Rogers Cup in Toronto.

Williams, seeded third, lost to an opponent ranked No. 64. Williams was playing at this tournament for the first time since 1997 when she was 17. She has lost all three of her matches at the Rogers Cup.

Kim Clijsters cruised past Elena Baltacha, 6-3, 6-4, advancing in her second tournament since taking more than two years off to have a child, and Samantha Stosur defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova, 6-4, 6-3.

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Gilles Simon won his second-round match, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (6), 6-1, over Igor Andreev at the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters in Mason, Ohio. Lleyton Hewitt defeated Robin Soderling, 2-6, 7-6 (8), 6-4.

FOOTBALL

NFL will look into Cable fight reports

Tom Cable went on the defensive and the NFL said it would investigate reports that the Oakland Raiders coach got into a fight that sent one of his assistants to the hospital.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league is looking into the situation to try to determine the facts of what happened. A day after calling it “an internal issue that we are dealing with,” Cable denied anything transpired at all with defensive assistant Randy Hanson earlier this month. Cable allegedly punched Hanson in the jaw.

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Chaz Schilens, projected to be one of the Raiders’ top two receivers this season, broke a bone in his left foot while running a route during Tuesday’s joint practice with the San Francisco 49ers and will probably be out for at least a month.

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Tennessee Coach Lane Kiffin says the NCAA is investigating an eligibility problem involving freshman tailback Bryce Brown. At issue is Brown’s amateur status as a high school athlete, a person familiar with the investigation told the Associated Press.

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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will open the season without safety Tanard Jackson, who apologized for his four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s substances of abuse policy.

JURISPRUDENCE

Motion to dismiss Roethlisberger suit

A former Harrah’s employee has filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit that accuses Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger of raping another worker and alleges that managers of the Lake Tahoe hotel-casino covered up the assault. Stacy Dingman, the former director of hotels at Harrah’s, is one of nine defendants named in the lawsuit filed last month in Washoe County District Court.

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The NFL asked a federal appeals court to let it finally suspend Minnesota Vikings Pat Williams and Kevin Williams for violating the league’s policy against performance-enhancing drugs last year.

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Richard Shapiro, the former head of the California Horse Racing Board, pleaded no contest to misdemeanor vandalism in Los Angeles County Superior Court for keying the Jaguar of a longtime nemesis and horse owner.

Shapiro will have to pay more than $6,700 in restitution to Jerry Jamgotchian and was sentenced to three years’ probation. Jamgotchian said he would ask CHRB to ban Shapiro from horse racing enclosures for two years.

ETC.

Sidney can enroll at Mississippi State

Former Fairfax High standout Renardo Sidney can enroll in classes at Mississippi State but the NCAA has not cleared him to play basketball, an organization spokeswoman said. The NCAA “asked for and is currently awaiting documentation from the Sidney family to make a determination on his amateur status,” the spokeswoman said in an e-mail to The Times.

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Chivas USA introduced its new forward, Jesus Padilla, 22, after the club received his international transfer certificate. Padilla was acquired on loan from Chivas de Guadalajara. -- Mario Aguirre