Sports briefly: Roger Federer to skip French Open

Roger Federer, with one Grand Slam title under his belt this year, will skip the French Open, which begins Monday.

Federer, 35, announced the decision in a note, saying that "scheduling will be the key to my longevity moving forward." It's also for the best that he avoid Rafael Nadal, the Spanish clay-court artist who has won the French Open nine times and has been dominant on clay this spring.

Federer said he will concentrate on the hard court and grass court tournaments instead.

... Three tournaments into her return from a 15-month doping ban, Maria Sharapova already has gained enough rankings points to enter qualifying for Wimbledon. ... Angelique Kerber is back at No. 1, replacing Serena Williams atop the WTA rankings. Because of a quirk in the rankings, the pregnant Williams briefly returned to No. 1 last month, even though she has not played a match since winning the Australian Open in January.

Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said that the team is considering Colin Kaepernick and Robert Griffin III as possible backup options to starting quarterback Russell Wilson.

"We're looking at everybody. We really are," Carroll said. "We've been tracking everything that is going on and we've got cap and roster issues and stuff like that that we're trying to make sure we manage properly but quite frankly, yes, we're looking at all those guys."

... Seahawks running back Eddie Lacy passed his first weigh-in, coming in at 253 — 2 pounds under the 255 that his contract called for him to be in May to earn an additional $55,000. ... Rookie Kansas Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes escaped injury after being robbed outside a Texas home, authorities said in describing the holdup as random. ... Former 49ers offensive tackle Len Rohde has died. He was 79.

Russia blanked Latvia 5-0, France stopped Slovenia 4-1 and Denmark beat Italy 2-0 in other games.

College football: The College Football Playoff is bringing a Super Bowl-style halftime show to the national championship game without bumping the marching bands. ESPN and the College Football Playoff say that a musical guest will perform at halftime of this season's title game in Atlanta on Jan. 8, 2018, and the performance will be aired on ESPN. The halftime concert will be held in Centennial Olympic Park, near the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium. An artist has not yet been booked, but ESPN is taking the lead on securing what it hopes will be an A-list performer with broad appeal.

Golf: Rory McIlroy, who was bothered by back pain this weekend at the Players Championship, says tests indicate no new injury to his back, only what he described as a "low-grade response" to his rib injury in January.