tennis

Top seed Vaidisova loses at Family Circle

Top-seeded Nicole Vaidisova was upset Tuesday at the Family Circle Cup at Charleston, S.C., falling to unseeded Michaella Krajicek 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.

It was the only the second time in her career that Vaidisova, ranked No. 8 in the world, had entered a tour event as a top seed. Again, as she was at Memphis last year, she was eliminated in her first match.

Earlier, Venus Williams defeated Samantha Stosur 6-2, 6-2.

Williams, currently ranked No. 29, needed just over an hour to defeat the Australian on a chilly day.

Tatiana Golovin of France, who won for the first time last week at Amelia Island, advanced with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia.

Serena Williams retired from her match against Chan Yung-Jan with a groin pull. Chan, of Chinese Taipei, was up 5-3 in the first set when Williams withdrew, apologizing to the crowd before she left stadium court.

Fish rallies for victory: Defending champion Mardy Fish rallied from a set down to beat Argentine Martin Vassallo Arguello 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 in the first round of the U.S. Clay Court Tennis Championships at Houston.

The fourth-seeded American came back after dropping his first two service games in the deciding set. He rallied and broke Vassallo Arguello in the fourth, sixth and final game.

Dent recovering from back surgery: Former U.S. Davis Cup player Taylor Dent had back surgery for the second time in a year and hopes to return to the tennis tour by the end of the summer hard-court circuit.

Dent was ranked as high as 21st in 2005, but he hurt his back in early 2006 and had surgery last May, then again March 19.

Jurisprudence

Giants former trainer testified in Bonds probe

A former San Francisco Giants trainer testified before the federal grand jury investigating steroid use in sports, a sign the probe of star slugger Barry Bonds was not derailed by the firing of the investigation's top prosecutor.

Mark Letendre, 50, told The Associated Press he testified for about an hour on Feb. 14. He was asked about Bonds' size and confirmed the slugger hurt his elbow in 1999.

Bonds' former girlfriend Kimberly Bell told an earlier grand jury that Bonds blamed the 1999 elbow injury on steroid use. Bonds missed seven weeks that season after undergoing surgery to remove a bone spur and repair a damaged tendon in his left arm.

Letendre, of Scottsdale, Ariz., served as the team's head trainer through the 1999 season, when he was named director of Major League Baseball's Umpire Medical Services.

boxing

Calzaghe suffered broken hand in fight

Joe Calzaghe broke his left hand in the TKO win over Peter Manfredo to retain his WBO super middleweight title last week.

The 35-year-old Welshman broke a bone in the third round Saturday, just before referee Terry O'Connor stopped the fight in front of a British indoor record crowd of 35,018 fans at the Millennium Stadium.

Saturday's win was Calzaghe's 20th title defense, drawing him even with Bernard Hopkins and Larry Holmes and moving within five of Joe Louis' record. He also improved to 43-0, within sight of Rocky Marciano's 49-0.