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France, Russia cruise in Fed Cup

MOSCOW - Russia and defending champion France easily won opening singles matches to take 2-0 leads in the Fed Cup semifinals.

France's Nathalie Dechy defeated Spain's Maria Sanchez Lorenzo 6-2, 6-4 after Tatiana Golovin won the opener 6-3, 6-3 over Anabel Medina Garrigues.

In the second semifinal at the top team event in women's tennis, U.S. Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia defeated Yvonnes Meusburger of Austria 6-1, 6-1, and French Open champion Anastasia Myskina routed Patricia Wartusch 6-0, 6-0. The best-of-five semifinals resume today with singles and doubles. The finals are this weekend.

Florida State's Ryne Malone, a Baseball America All-American at first base last year season is one of 58 baseball student-athletes on the 2005 Wallace Watch released by the College Baseball Foundation. The award is for the nation's best player.

VOLLEYBALL: USF dropped its final match of the season, 3-0 (19-30, 17-30, 20-30), to host Miami. Sophomore Johari Williams led the Bulls with eight kills to go with three block assists, and freshmen Kristina Fabris and Michelle Stalbaum had six kills each.

The group that oversees most of Canada's top winter sport facilities is withdrawing funding for ski jumping and Nordic combined, saying it can no longer afford to support the sports after this season.

TRACK AND FIELD: Hungarian discus thrower Robert Fazekas was banned for a year for doping by the Hungarian track and field federation while similar charges were dismissed against hammer thrower Adrian Annus.

The decisions were the result of appeals filed by the athletes. Both were suspended for two years in September and stripped of Olympic golds. Fazekas' gold was taken away after he refused to provide a complete urine sample in his postcompetition drug test. Annus lost his medal after the International Olympic Committee said his samples indicated possible tampering.

TURIN GAMES: Organizers of the 2006 Games made two key appointments while approval of the budget was put off for a month. Mario Pescante, the new government-appointed supervisor of the Games, and Turin mayor Sergio Chiamparino were placed on the 11-member executive board of the committee.

HIGH SCHOOLS: Students and teachers at Eastside High in Gainesville are mourning a basketball player who died after he collapsed near the end of a team practice. Freddie "Buddy" Logan Jr., a 15-year-old ninth-grader died Monday. The cause of death is unknown, though a preliminary autopsy report showed no signs of foul play.

HORSES: Childress beat Grand Prayer by 23/4 lengths in a $52,000 allowance feature at Aqueduct in New York. Childress, ridden by Cornelio Velasquez, covered a mile on a sloppy track in 1:37-2/5 and returned $3.20, $2.20 and $2.10. ... Miss Wellspring took the lead at the top of the stretch and pulled away for a 6-length win over Gamble to Victory in the featured $60,400 Lakeway Purse at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. Miss Wellspring, ridden by Dean Sarvis, covered 1-1/16 miles over a muddy track in 1:48.46 and paid $17.60, $5.80 and $3.80 in the race for fillies and mares 3 years and older.

SOCCER: AC Milan, Barcelona and PSV Eindhoven advanced to the second round of the European Champions League, but Arsenal had two players ejected and played its fourth straight tie.

SKATING: Back problems have forced Tim Goebel to withdraw from next month's World Cup, another setback for the 2002 Olympic bronze medalist.