Kentucky’s Nerlens Noel out for season with knee injury

Kentucky’s basketball team received the news it dreaded when freshman forward Nerlens Noel was declared out for the season because of a torn ligament in his left knee.

Noel tore his anterior cruciate ligament on Tuesday night when No. 25 Kentucky lost at Florida. An MRI test revealed the injury, and the 6-foot-10 forward will have surgery in the next two or three weeks.

The projected recovery period is six to eight months.

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Defending champion Roger Federer cruised into the second round of the ABN AMRO tournament, beating Grega Zemlja, 6-3, 6-1, at Rotterdam, Netherlands.

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Fresh off winning a second consecutive Australian Open, top-ranked Victoria Azarenka breezed into the third round of the Qatar Open with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Romina Oprandi at Doha.

The defending champion was joined by fourth-ranked Agnieszka Radwanska and Caroline Wozniacki. Radwanska beat Australian qualifier Anastasia Rodionova, 6-3, 6-2, and Wozniacki downed Sorana Cirstea of Romania, 7-6 (7), 6-0.

American Sloane Stephens, who upset Serena Williams in the Australian Open quarterfinals, lost to Klara Zakopalova, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5).

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Just more than 24 hours after firing Scott Howson, the Columbus Blue Jackets announced the hiring of Jarmo Kekalainen of Finland as the first European to be a general manager in the NHL.

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Abby Wambach scored on a diving header in the 51st minute, and the U.S. women’s soccer team beat Scotland, 3-1, at Nashville to give Wambach a victory in her 200th international match.

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Swedish golfer Daniela Holmqvist says she was bitten by a spider and used a tee to extract what she thought was potentially fatal venom before finishing her round during qualifying for the LPGA Tour’s season-opening Women’s Australian Open at Canberra.

The Swedish Golf Federation reported on its website that Holmqvist was hitting out of the rough on the fourth hole at Royal Canberra Golf Club when she felt a sharp pain on her ankle.

Holmqvist swatted the spider away and was told by people nearby that it could have been a black widow, so she used a golf tee to pierce the swelling and squeeze out the venom.

Holmqvist continued her round, under the supervision of medical staff, but finished with a 74 on Tuesday and missed out on qualifying.