DRUGS IN SPORTS
Gatlin won't be able to defend title Sprinter Justin Gatlin got his doping ban reduced, but not by enough to make him eligible to defend his Olympic 100-meter title this year.
A potential eight-year ban was reduced to four years, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said Tuesday. With the ban set to expire May 24, 2010, it means Gatlin, 25, will be on the sidelines for the Beijing Olympics in August. He needed the ban reduced to two years to be eligible for the Olympic trials in June.
"We have no higher priority than the commitment we have made to clean competition," U.S. Olympic Committee spokesman Darryl Seibel said. "If that means leaving behind when we go to the Games an athlete who has the talent and ability to break world records but has also cheated, so be it. That's an easy choice to make. It's what the American public expects, and it's what the overwhelming majority of our athletes who choose to compete clean deserve."
TENNIS
Davenport wins, gains third round Lindsay Davenport improved to 15-1 in singles since her return to tournament play, beating fifth-seeded Annabel Medina Garrigues 6-1, 4-6, 6-0 on Wednesday in the second round of the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand. Davenport has won two tournaments and reached the semifinals of another since returning after the birth of her first child.
Earlier, top-seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva advanced to her third quarterfinal in Auckland with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Sweden's Sofia Arvidsson.
• Lleyton Hewitt started his 2008 season where he kick-started his ATP career, beating Israel's Dudi Sela 6-2, 6-2 in the first round of the Australian men's hardcourt championship. The former No. 1-ranked Hewitt notched the first of his 26 singles titles on the ATP Tour here as a 16-year-old wild card entry in 1998.
• Top-seeded Nicole Vaidisova was down a set and saved three break points at 4-4 in the second before beating Casey Dellacqua 5-7, 7-5, 6-0 at the Australian women's hardcourt championships in Gold Coast.
• Top-seeded Rafael Nadal beat Mathieu Montcourt 6-2, 6-4 in the first round of India's Chennai Open, and second-seeded Marcos Baghdatis lost to Robin Haase 6-3, 6-4.
