LINZ, Austria - Serena Williams will return to the WTA Tour for next week's Generali Ladies Linz after being sidelined since July by a cut on her right foot.
Organizers said that Williams, this year's Wimbledon and Australian Open champion, confirmed her entry yesterday, the same day she lost her No. 1 ranking to Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, who will officially take over the top spot when the rankings are released Monday.
Williams had surgery after cutting her foot on broken glass at a restaurant after winning Wimbledon. She returned to practice in September but twice put off her comeback, withdrawing from the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo and this week's China Open in Beijing.
Linz will be only the seventh tournament of the year for Williams, who already had qualified for the end-of-season championships in Doha. She also has made herself available for the U.S. Fed Cup team that will play Italy in the final Nov. 6-7 in San Diego.
Williams' sister Venus said Tuesday she would not play again this year because of a left-knee injury that has sidelined her for most of the second half of season.
Basketball
â— Rhett Bonner, who started his high-school basketball career at Forbush and finished it at North Forsyth, then played at Guilford, has signed a professional contract with the Washington Generals, Guilford announced in a release.
Bonner is the third former Guilford player to sign with the Generals, who play around the world as the comedic foil to the Harlem Globetrotters, who have won 13,653 games and lost six in the series.
Bonner averaged 12.8 points, three rebounds and 2.6 assists in his three-year career with the Quakers and ranks second in school history in career free-throw accuracy (85.3), third in 3-point accuracy (40.2) and 25th in scoring (1,126).
- Phil Hrichak
â— Freshman forward Russell Byrd of Michigan State might not play this season.
The school expects Byrd to have surgery this week to repair a stress fracture in his left foot. He averaged 19.1 points and 8.3 rebounds for Blackhawk Christian in Fort Wayne, Ind., last season.
Byrd, 6-7, could end up redshirting this year.
Junior guard Korie Lucious had surgery on his left knee last week and is expected to be out for about a month.
â— Sean Sutton, a former Oklahoma State coach, will return to basketball as an adviser to his brother, Scott Sutton, Oral Roberts' head coach.
University president Mark Rutland announced Sean Sutton's appointment yesterday. Athletics Director Mike Carter said it was Rutland's idea to hire Sutton.
After two turbulent seasons, Sean Sutton resigned under pressure in 2008 as the Oklahoma State men's coach. Earlier this year, he was arrested on drug charges and spent time at a treatment center.
He pleaded guilty to illegally obtaining prescription drugs in August, acknowledging an addiction to painkillers.
As an adviser, Sutton will not be able to give direct instruction to players.
â— The attorney for Baylor guard LaceDarius Dunn said the university has suspended the star guard from attending classes amid allegations that he hit his girlfriend during a domestic dispute.
Attorney Vikram Deivanayagam said last night that the university was following procedure for a student facing a felony charge.
Deivanayagam said it was too early to tell whether Dunn would miss the rest of the semester, which would sideline him for the first part of the season. Dunn, the leading scorer for one of last season's NCAA regional finalists, was suspended by the team last week.
Soccer
â— Kristen Meier scored her first career goal and Jackie Logue got the game-winner in the 98th minute as Wake Forest got a 2-1 come-from-behind victory over N.C. State in overtime at Spry Stadium last night.
The Deacons (9-4-0, 3-1-0 ACC) fell behind in the 28th minute after a goal from N.C. State's Kristina Argiroff, but rallied in the second half, tying the game on a 77th minute strike from Meier before Logue scored the game-winner in the 98th minute.
Cycling
â— Albert Soler, Spain's director general for sports, said yesterday that seven Spanish cyclists are under investigation for doping, with two close to receiving sanctions for abnormal blood readings. He declined to name the riders involved but said that Tour de France champion Alberto Contador was not among them.
Soler said that the cases with the abnormal readings "are in the final phase of investigation," adding that "an overwhelming blow" has to be struck against doping. Contador was provisionally suspended Sept. 29 after testing positive for a banned stimulant during the Tour.
â— The largest professional bicycle race in the United States, the 800-mile Tour of California, will start at Lake Tahoe for the first time next May 15, race organizers have announced. Other stops in the race, which will end May 22, include: Auburn, Livermore, Claremont, Mt. Baldy, Sacramento, Modesto, San Jose, Seaside, Paso Robles, Solvang and Santa Clarita.
â— Italian cycling and Olympics officials have promised to renew their fight against doping after the country's anti-doping prosecutor, Ettore Torri, suggested that all cyclists use drugs. In his first interview in two years, Torri told The Associated Press on Tuesday that legalizing doping would be a possible solution if it didn't harm the health of cyclists and that anti-doping authorities prosecute only a small percentage of offenders.
The Italian Olympic Committee reached an agreement yesterday whereby Torri will meet with national cycling federation prosecutor Gianluca Santilli to "intensify" their collaboration and "improve efforts to fight the doping phenomenon."
Miscellaneous
â— FIFA's vice president, Chung Mong-Joon, said yesterday that he is considering challenging Sepp Blatter for FIFA's presidency. Blatter, 74, has confirmed he will stand for a fourth term in next May's vote, but no opponent has yet emerged.
Chung, 58, used a high-profile appearance in London to suggest he is ready to stand, saying: "I have not thought of doing so before seriously, but now I will think about it. It's still too early to say there will be no contender next May. In order to keep a large organization like FIFA healthy you need healthy competition."
â— Tiger Woods will play in a one-day skins tournament in Thailand next month, returning to his mother's home country for the first time in 10 years. Organizers announced yesterday that Woods will play in the Nov. 8 competition that is part of celebrations to mark King Bhumibol Adulyadej's 60th year on the Thai throne.
The skins tournament will be the day after the HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai. Paul Casey of England, Camilo Villegas of Colombia and Thailand's top player, Thongchai Jaidee, also will compete for total prize money of $300,000.
â— More than a dozen swimmers from Australia and England have fallen ill at the Commonwealth Games in the latest setback for organizers in New Delhi. British media reported yesterday that 8 to 10 English swimmers had been struck with a stomach virus, and the Australian team confirmed that at least six of its swimmers had been sick. Organizers rejected speculation that the water quality at the aquatics complex was to blame.
â— Two defending champions will highlight the deepest field of elite runners to date when the 33rd Chicago Marathon begins on Sunday.
The field includes Russia's Liliya Shobukhova and Kenyan Sammy Wanjiru. Both won last year's race.
Also expected to race are Steve Jones and Joan Benoit Samuelson, who were Chicago champions 25 years ago. Jones is making a recreational run while Benoit Samuelson, 52, is trying to qualify for a fifth straight U.S. Olympics trials in the marathon if she finishes in 2 hours, 46 minutes or lower.
â— North Korea's gymnasts have been suspended from the world championships that will start next week because one team member's age had been falsified. The International Gymnastics Federation said yesterday it provisionally suspended North Korea's federation and gymnast Hong Su Jong for 30 days, ruling them out of the worlds Oct. 16-24 in Rotterdam and any other international or national competition. North Korea can appeal to the FIG within five days.
The FIG's disciplinary commission met Wednesday and noted that Hong's entry for the worlds had her birth date as March 9, 1989. FIG documents show that she competed at the 2004 Athens Olympics and the 2006 worlds using a birth year of 1985, and won the silver medal on vault at the 2007 worlds using 1986. If she was born in 1989, she would have been ineligible for Athens.
