Tennis

Federer suffers sixth defeat of the year

Roger Federer lost again, falling to 27th-ranked Radek Stepanek 7-6 (4), 7-6 (7) Friday in the Rome Masters quarterfinals.

Also losing was eighth-seeded American James Blake, who was defeated 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5), 6-1 by Stanislas Wawrinka. After reaching his second semifinal in two weeks, Wawrinka next will face No. 6 Andy Roddick or No. 14 Tommy Robredo.

Once seemingly invincible, Federer was beaten for the sixth time this year. The top-ranked Swiss player lost only nine matches in all of 2007. He piled up a string of losses at the beginning of this year when he was battling mononucleosis.

Serena's winning streak stopped at 17: Serena Williams 17-match winning streak ended with a 2-6, 6-1, 7-6 (5) loss to Dinara Safina in the German Open quarterfinals at Berlin.

Safina will face 18-year-old Victoria Azarenka of Belarus in today's semifinals. Azarenka ousted 15th-seeded Alona Bondarenko 7-6 (2), 6-2.

Elena Dementieva downed Jelena Jankovic 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 to reach the other semifinal. She will face either Ana Ivanovic or Agnes Szavay, who split 3-6, 6-4 before the match was postponed because of darkness.

Henin withdraws from Italian Open: Top-ranked Justine Henin has withdrawn from next week's Italian Open, citing fatigue, and the WTA Tour said she will be fined $20,000 for the late withdrawal.

woMen's water polo

UCLA, USC reach NCAA semifinals

Former U.S. national junior player Jillian Krause, Katie Rulon and Gabriel Domanic each scored three goals as top-seeded and three-time defending national champion UCLA got past Pomona-Pitzer 16-5 in the quarterfinals of the NCAA championships at Stanford.

Veronika Bartunkova and Sarah Van Norman each scored four goals to lead USC over Michigan, 1.

Stanford and UC Davis also advanced to the semifinals.

Jursiprudence

Captain accused of fixing Getzlaf's ticket

A California Highway Patrol captain has been placed on leave while authorities investigate whether he tampered with a speeding ticket issued to Anaheim Ducks center Ryan Getzlaf.

Ken Rosenberg, whose office is decorated with Ducks memorabilia, is accused of removing the ticket filed by an officer who stopped Getzlaf March 14 after he was spotted driving about 84 mph on a toll road.

Patriots' Andrews pleads to drug offense: New England Patriots defensive back Willie Andrews entered a plea to a marijuana possession charge, but won't face any prison time.

Soccer

Chivas USA acquires Talley from Salt Lake

Chivas USA acquired Carey Talley from Real Salt Lake, trading a conditional draft pick for the veteran defenseman.

Carey is in his 11th MLS season and has played in 256 games. He has scored 18 goals and had 25 assists. Chivas USA gave Real Salt Lake a conditional pick in either the 2010 on 2011 MLS super draft.

Chivas waived defenseman Chris Pozniak and defenseman Dan Gargan retired.

Hockey

Quenneville won't return as coach

Joel Quenneville is out as coach of the Avalanche after three seasons, a week after Colorado was swept out of the playoffs by the Detroit Red Wings. Quenneville was 131-92-23 in Denver, but just 2-2 in playoff series after inheriting a team that was on the slide after a decade of dominance in the NHL.

Swede standout signs with Stars: Swedish free agent Fabian Brunnstrom signed a two-year, entry-level contract with the Dallas Stars on Friday after being wooed by a handful of NHL teams.

Kolzig won't play again for Capitals: Goali Olie Kolzig confirmed he won't be returning to the Washington Capitals.

"For me, it was disappointing the way it ended. ... It just doesn't feel right," the 38-year-old goalie told The Washington Post.

Pro football

Packers release receiver Robinson

The Green Bay Packers released Koren Robinson, the latest setback for the veteran wide receiver trying to resurrect his career after serving an NFL suspension and jail time.

Track and field

Felix wins two; Oliver takes hurdles

It came as little surprise that Allyson Felix dominated the sprints at the Doha (Qatar) Super Grand Prix, breaking 11 seconds in the 100 meters for the first time and also winning the 400.

David Oliver's winning time in the 110-meter hurdles night was much more of a shock. The American won in 12.95 seconds, 0.07 off the world record held by China's Liu Xiang and the eighth best time in history.

Felix ran a personal-best 10.93 seconds in the 100. Then she took the 400 in 49.83.

Diving

Back from fall, Davis looks to qualify

While competing at the 2005 world championships, American Chelsea Davis made a crucial mistake just as she was pushing off, which left her too close to the springboard when she came spinning by. She slammed into it face-first, breaking her nose in 10 places, fracturing her right cheekbone and spraining her back.

Her body flopped helplessly into the water with a gruesome thud. When she came back up, blood was pouring down her face.

Nearly three years removed from a scary miscue that has been viewed more than 130,000 times on YouTube, Davis has fully recovered from her injuries and is working toward a spot on the U.S. Olympic team. She advanced through the preliminaries and semifinals of the 3-meter board at the Grand Prix meet in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., qualifying for a spot in Sunday's final.