Federer ends slump against Nadal

Roger Federer got a confidence boost ahead of the French Open, beating top-ranked Rafael Nadal, 6-4, 6-4, on the clay court at the Madrid Open on Sunday to win his first title of the season.

The second-ranked Federer broke a sluggish Nadal once in both sets before firing his sixth ace to win his 15th Masters Series title on the second match point. Federer also won here in 2006 when the event was played indoors on a hard court.

“There are no positives; there is little to analyze,” said Nadal, the 2005 champion. “He broke and broke and I went home.”

It is only the second victory Federer has on clay against his top rival, with the other coming at the Hamburg final two years ago. The win also ended Federer’s five-match losing streak to Nadal, a stretch that included losses in the finals at Roland Garros, Wimbledon and Australia.

Earlier, top-ranked Dinara Safina won her second straight title on clay by beating Caroline Wozniacki, 6-2, 6-4, in the women’s final.

Sam Querrey fought back from a set down to beat Rainer Schuettler, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, and give the United States a 1-0 lead over Germany at the World Team Championship at Duesseldorf, Germany. Because of rain, the remaining two matches will be played today.

Eighth-seeded USC shocked top-seeded Virginia with a 4-0 sweep in the quarterfinals of the NCAA men’s tennis championships at College Station, Texas. USC will play No. 12 Texas in a semifinal match today. In another quarterfinal, sophomore Nick Meister rallied from a set down in the deciding singles match to give seventh-seeded UCLA a 4-3 upset over No. 2 Mississippi. UCLA advances to the semifinals and will face No. 3 Ohio State today.

--

GOLF

Johnson wins Texas Open in a playoff

Zach Johnson made a 12-foot birdie on the first playoff hole to beat James Driscoll and repeat as the PGA Tour’s Valero Texas Open champion. Johnson’s even-par 70 was good enough for a 15-under 265 and forced the sudden-death playoff with Driscoll, who surged from eight strokes back.

Paul Goydos had birdied on 16 to take a one-stroke lead, but the 44-year-old bogeyed the last two holes to finish 14 under.

Ji Young Oh shot two-under 70 and benefited from three bogeys by Suzann Pettersen on the back nine to win the LPGA Tour’s $2-million Sybase Classic at Clifton, N.J.

The 20-year-old South Korean finished with a 14-under total in winning her second LPGA title and earning $300,000.

--

ETC.

Giro riders protest over safety concerns

Mark Cavendish won the ninth stage of cycling’s Giro d’Italia in a sprint, but the times did not count in the overall standings because riders -- prodded by Lance Armstrong -- staged a protest over safety midway through the race.

“We saw in the first lap that the course wasn’t safe,” race overall leader Danilo Di Luca said.

“There were cars parked in the middle of the road, traffic islands and tram lines.”

The peloton came to a stop midway through the stage, and Di Luca, with Armstrong at his side, made the announcement to fans.

Michael Phelps was beaten again at the Charlotte (N.C.) UltraSwim, losing to French star Frederick Bousquet in the 100-meter freestyle.

Bousquet touched in 48.22 seconds, while Phelps never really had a chance and finished second in 49.04.

John Andretti and Ryan Hunter-Reay wound up in the 33-car field for next Sunday’s Indianapolis 500, thanks to their gutsy qualifying runs with time running out on another emotional “Bump Day” on the famed 2.5-mile Brickyard oval.

Kyle Busch won the NASCAR Camping World Series East-West combination race at Iowa Speedway in Newton, easily holding off 2008 winner Brian Ickler.

The NFL is negotiating to extend deals with CBS and Fox by two years, through the 2013 season, and is “on the verge” of settling its long-standing impasse with Comcast over distribution of the NFL Network, according to a SportsBusiness Journal report.

The situations are connected, because the league hopes to entice cable providers to carry the NFL Network and is doing so by dangling Sunday Ticket’s Red Zone Channel, which provides live look-ins on games.

In order to make that channel widely available, the league must first get permission from its network partners.

-- Sam Farmer