USC wins title in men’s tennis

Robert Farah beat J.P. Smith in No. 1 singles, Daniel Nguyen won the deciding match and USC held off Tennessee, 4-2, Tuesday night at Athens, Ga., to earn its second straight NCAA men’s tennis title.

In the women’s final, Stanford freshman Mallory Burdette knocked off Marrit Boonstra in three sets to help the Cardinal take a 4-3 victory over Florida for the team’s 16th national championship.

Tennessee, which lost the 1990 and 2001 men’s finals, was seeking its first championship since the NCAA debuted a Division I men’s tournament in 1977.

USC won its sixth NCAA men’s championship and 18th overall after the Volunteers were unable to hold momentum after winning the doubles point.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Michigan admits four major violations

The University of Michigan acknowledged that it committed four major violations in its football program and should spend the next two years on probation.

In doing so, the school self-imposed the following sanctions:

•Docked itself 130 hours of practice and training time over the next two years — two hours for every hour of violation.

•Reduced its quality-control staff from five members to three and prohibited them from attending practices and games for the remainder of 2010.

•Took disciplinary action against the “seven individuals who shared in responsibility” and fired a graduate assistant coach. Letters of reprimand were issued to Coach Rich Rodriguez and strength and conditioning coach Mike Barwis, among others.

GOLF

Tiger Woods to return for the Memorial

Tiger Woods will return to competitive golf next week in the Memorial Tournament, according to a report by the Golf Channel. Woods, the defending champion in the Memorial, had planned to play the Columbus, Ohio, tournament all along, but a neck injury that forced him to withdraw from the final round of the Players Championship on May 9 put his participation in the Jack Nicklaus event in jeopardy. Woods is also expected to play in the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach on June 17-20.

Mark Calcavecchia, who has won 13 tournaments on the PGA Tour and earned just under $24 million in his career, received an exemption to the Memorial in what will probably be the final time he plays a regular Tour event before moving on to the Champions Tour. Calcavecchia turns 50 on June 12.

ETC.

Formula One is coming back to U.S.

Three years after Formula One left the U.S. market, the international auto racing series plans to return to the United States in 2012 at a newly built circuit in Austin, Texas, the organization announced.

Formula One reached the deal for Austin to host the race from 2012 through 2021 with the promoter Full Throttle Productions LP, whose managing partner Tavo Hellmund said it had been working “for several years” to bring the race to Texas.

The United States Grand Prix was held on a 2.6-mile road course constructed within the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway for eight years. But the series and the track parted ways after the 2007 race.

—Jim Peltz

Granada Hills Kennedy and Chatsworth will play for the City Section softball championship Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. at Cal State Northridge. Kennedy (23-6) knocked out second-seeded San Pedro, the four-time defending champion, in a semifinal last week on the same day Chatsworth (25-5) eliminated top-seeded Carson.

In baseball Wednesday at 3 p.m., El Camino Real will play at Wilmington Banning in one semifinal and San Pedro will play at Chatsworth in the other.

The winners meet in the City Section championship game Saturday at 1 p.m. at Dodger Stadium.

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Tickets for the 2011 NCAA Division I men’s basketball West Regional at the Honda Center will be made available through Ticketmaster beginning Wednesday at 10 a.m. Also, purchases can be made online at https://www.ncaa.com/tickets.

All-session tickets at $186 each will provide admission to two games on March 24 and one game on March 26. Single-session tickets are not available. Information: (714) 704-2500 or ncaatickets@bigwest.org.