National Digest
Celtics up 2-0
BOSTON (AP) — Banner No. 17 is halfway to the rafters. The Celtics are two wins from another NBA championship.
Paul Pierce, darting around the parquet floor with ease, scored 28 points, Boston’s defense mobbed Kobe Bryant long enough and unknown Leon Powe scored 21 points as the Celtics held off a remarkable Los Angeles rally for a 108-102 win over the Lakers on Sunday night. The Celtics have a 2-0 lead in these trip-down-memory-lane NBA finals.
The Celtics had to work every second to get the win.
The Lakers trailed by 24 with less than 8 minutes to go, but pulled to 104-102 on two free throws by Bryant with 38.4 seconds left. But Pierce made two free throws, then blocked a jumper by Sasha Vujacic, and James Posey made two free throws with 12.6 seconds left to ice it for Boston.
Failed bid
NEW YORK (AP) — Big Brown failed in his bid to become horse racing’s 12th Triple Crown winner when he finished dead last to Da’ Tara, the longest shot on the board, in the Belmont Stakes on Saturday.
Da’ Tara went wire to wire to beat eight other thoroughbreds over 1 1/2 miles, the longest and toughest of the three classics.
The bay colt’s disappointing performance followed convincing victories in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. He failed on the same track where 10 horses had been beaten since Affirmed won the Triple Crown in 1978.
Trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. was second-guessed all week about his handling of a quarter crack in Big Brown’s left front hoof, which surfaced after the Preakness and wasn’t patched until Friday.
Big Brown was rank at the start and failed to respond when jockey Kent Desormeaux asked him to run in the last turn. At that point, Desormeaux eased him up.
French Open
PARIS (AP) — Rafael Nadal won his fourth consecutive French Open title in a rout Sunday, again spoiling Roger Federer’s bid to complete a career Grand Slam.
Dominating the world’s No. 1 player with astounding ease, Nadal swept six consecutive games early in the match to take control and won 6-1, 6-3, 6-0.
During the trophy ceremony following the most lopsided men’s final at the French Open since 1977, and at any Grand Slam since 1984, Nadal felt compelled to say: “Roger, I’m sorry.”
Ana Ivanovic won her first Grand Slam title by beating Dinara Safina 6-4, 6-3 in the French Open final Saturday.
By reaching the final, Ivanovic had already assured herself of being ranked No. 1 for the first time next week. And the Serb’s performance was No. 1-caliber against Safina.
A shaky Ivanovic played in her first major at Roland Garros in 2007 and won only three games from Justine Henin. But against Safina she was as cool as the 65-degree weather, showing hardly a bead of perspiration even as she sprinted from corner to corner retrieving shots.
Kahne wins
LONG POND, Pa. (AP) — Kasey Kahne dominated Sunday at Pocono Raceway for his second victory in the last three Sprint Cup Series points races.
Counting his win in the All-Star race last month, Kahne has been to Victory Lane three times in the past four events.
Kahne started from the pole, overcame an early pit road penalty that dropped him to 38th and led a race-high 69 of the 200 laps in his Dodge.
Brian Vickers was second for his best finish since joining Red Bull Racing at the start of last season, and Denny Hamlin was third to give Toyota two cars in the top three. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was fourth.
Kyle Busch became the first driver to compete in all three of NASCAR’s national series at three different race tracks on the same weekend, but fell far short of winning a triple crown and finished 43rd Sunday in the Sprint Cup race.
GOLF
HAVRE DE GRACE, Md. (AP) — Yani Tseng of Taiwan became the first rookie in 10 years to win a major, beating Maria Hjorth on the fourth hole of a playoff Sunday with a 5-foot birdie on the 18th hole to win the LPGA Championship.
Tseng, a 19-year-old with a decorated amateur career, closed with a 4-under 68 and became the second-youngest woman to win a major. Not since Se Ri Pak in the 1998 McDonald’s LPGA Championship had a player won a major as a rookie.
Lorena Ochoa went 14 holes without a birdie, ending her hopes of a third straight major. She birdied two of the last three holes for a 71 and finished one shot out of the playoff, along with Annika Sorenstam.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Justin Leonard won the Stanford St. Jude Championship in a playoff, holing a 19-foot birdie putt on the second extra hole to beat Masters champion Trevor Immelman and Robert Allenby.
Leonard blew a one-stroke lead with two holes left to drop into the playoff, but won on the 150-yard, par-3 11th when Immelman pushed his birdie attempt past the hole.
It’s Leonard’s 12th PGA Tour title, his second at TPC Southwind and his first since the 2007 Valero Texas Open. He closed with a 4-under 68 to match Allenby (65) and Immelman (69) at 4-under 276.
Leonard earned $1.08 million and now is fifth in the Ryder Cup standings. He has not played in the Ryder Cup since 1999, when his 45-foot putt on the 17th hole at Brookline clinched the largest comeback in history.
AUTO RACING
MONTREAL (AP) — Lewis Hamilton made a huge mistake Sunday that took him and world champion Kimi Raikkonen out of the Canadian Grand Prix and helped Robert Kubica grab his first Formula One victory and the series points lead.
Defending race winner and pole-starter Hamilton slammed his Mercedes McLaren into the rear of Raikkonen’s Ferrari in the pits early in the race, taking out both leaders and giving the 23-year-old Kubica a clear road to victory in his 29th F1 start.
It was a great day for the BMW Sauber team, winning for the first time in its 42 races as an F1 team and sweeping the top two spots with Nick Heidfeld finishing second, well ahead of Red Bull Racing’s David Coulthard in third.
SOCCER
KLAGENFURT, Austria (AP) — Lukas Podolski scored both goals Sunday night to give three-time champion Germany a brilliant start at the European Championship with a 2-0 win over Poland. The Germans have not been beaten by Poland in 16 meetings over 75 years.
Normally a striker, the Polish-born Podolski got to start as a left midfielder and justified the selection by scoring after 20 minutes. Mario Gomez smartly flicked the ball through Poland’s back line to Miroslav Klose, who squared it to Podolski at the far post. Podolski coolly tapped it in, with goalkeeper Artur Boruc scrambling to get back in position.
VIENNA, Austria (AP) — Luka Modric scored from the penalty spot, then Croatia struggled to hold on against a desperate Austrian team. Modric put his team ahead in the fourth minute of the Group B match after Rene Aufhauser brought down Ivica Olic in the area. Dutch referee Pieter Vink awarded the penalty and Austria defender Emanuel Pogatetz was then given a yellow card for protesting.
With goalkeeper Juergen Macho diving to his right, Modric sent the ball low and into the middle of the net.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — Goalkeeper Tim Howard had four spectacular point-blank saves on Julio Cruz, Landon Donovan made his 100th international appearance and the United States tied top-ranked Argentina 0-0 on Sunday night.
The match, which ended in driving rain and lightning, drew 78,682 fans, the fourth-largest crowd to watch a soccer game at Giants Stadium and the ninth-biggest to see the U.S. national team at home.
The United States lost Pablo Mastroeni to a second yellow card in the 71st minute and Argentine captain Javier Mascherano got two in the 86th.
