Victoria Azarenka loses match for first time this year

Top-ranked Victoria Azarenka lost for the first time this year when she was beaten by Marion Bartoli, 6-3, 6-3, in Wednesday night’s quarterfinals of the Sony Ericsson Open at Key Biscayne, Fla.

Azarenka had won 26 consecutive matches, a streak that began at the start of this year. Her start was the best on the women’s tour since Martina Hingis was 37-0 to begin 1997.

Azarenka had won her four previous tournaments this year, including the Australian Open for her first Grand Slam title. She was the defending champion at Key Biscayne.

The No. 7-seeded Bartoli’s opponent in the semifinals Thursday will be No. 5 Agnieszka Radwanska, who eliminated Venus Williams, 6-4, 6-1.

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Muhammad scores 21 to lead West to win

Shabazz Muhammad scored 21 points, Rasheed Sulaimon had 18 and the West beat the East, 106-102, in the McDonald’s All-American game at Chicago.

Muhammad and the West squad finished a number of fastbreaks with fantastic dunks, and Duke recruit Sulaimon shot four for eight from three-point range.

Muhammad is still weighing his college choices. He is considering Kentucky, Duke, Kansas, Nevada Las Vegas and UCLA.

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Bashaara Graves made a game-winning free throw with less than a second left and the East beat the West, 79-78, in the girls’ McDonald’s All-American game at Chicago.

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Brittney Griner of Baylor, Nnemkadi Ogwumike of Stanford and Skylar Diggins of Notre Dame are among the finalists for the John R. Wooden Award, given to the top women’s college basketball player.

The other finalists are Elena Delle Donne of Delaware and Julie Wojta of Green Bay. All five women were named to the women’s Wooden All-American team on Wednesday.

The women’s Wooden Award winner will be announced on April 6 at the Los Angeles Athletic Club.

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The San Francisco 49ers added another member of last season’s Super Bowl-champion New York Giants, agreeing to terms with veteran running back Brandon Jacobs on a one-year contract.

A person with knowledge of the negotiations confirmed the deal, speaking on condition of anonymity because the team had yet to make a formal announcement.

Jacobs was released March 9 by the Giants after he failed to reach agreement on a restructured contract.

He is expected to play behind Frank Gore.

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Houston Dynamo midfielder Colin Clark was suspended for three games by Major League Soccer and fined for directing a gay slur toward a ball boy during Houston’s 2-0 loss at Seattle last week.

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Ice dance Olympic champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada took the lead after the short dance program in the figure skating world championships at Nice, France, relegating defending champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White to second place.

Virtue and Moir, who clinched the worlds and Olympic double two years ago, posted a score of 72.31 points. Their American archrivals scored 70.98.

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Lisa Love is out as athletic director at Arizona State, replaced by longtime sports executive Steve Patterson.

Love had headed the Sun Devils’ athletic department since 2005. Although the university said in a news release Wednesday that Love was leaving to pursue other career opportunities, the Arizona Republic said that university President Michael Crow told her she was being replaced at a meeting Tuesday.

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The cap Bobby Thomson wore for his famed “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” is being put up for auction.

SCP Auctions of Laguna Niguel said it will take bids from April 30 until May 19.

Thomson’s three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning for the New York Giants won the deciding third game of a 1951 playoff for the National League pennant.

His drive against Ralph Branca beat the Brooklyn Dodgers, 5-4.