Date-Krumm falls at first hurdle

Japanese wild card Kimiko Date-Krumm was overcome by No. 9 seed Marion Bartoli in straight sets, failing to advance out of the first round at the Pan Pacific Open on Monday.

Date-Krumm, who turns 42 on Thursday and is currently ranked 107th in the world, had the home crowd behind her on a sunny day at Ariake Tennis Forest Park but could not find a way to break down her world No. 10 opponent in a 6-1, 6-4 defeat.

"She has a lot of speed and plays the ball flat. That suits my game because I can also play the ball flat, but I can't put spins on my balls like say (Samantha) Stosur. I wish I had a ball like that, but I can't suddenly change my game at this late stage in my career," Date-Krumm said. "Bartoli has a very high pace to keep up with."

The former world No. 4, who won this tournament back in 1995, broke Bartoli at 3-3 in the second set, but the Frenchwoman broke right back. Date-Krumm had a chance to break her opponent again when she took a 40-30 lead in the 10th game but netted twice as Bartoli served out the match in one hour, 44 minutes.

"Bartoli has a double first serve, whereas I need work even on my first serve. I lost the first set 6-1, but I had a lot of deuces. The problems were with my serves," said Date-Krumm.

Date-Krumm could have also done without a reportedly drunk fan in the crowd, who she said ruined her focus by yelling out on critical points in the match.

"I heard after the match, it was a drunk. That was a distraction on big points. He might have been rooting for me, but . . ."

Bartoli improved to 4-0 against Date-Krumm for her career.

"I expected for her to fight hard until the end, and that's what she did. So I had to stay focused throughout," said Bartoli of Date-Krumm. "I would love to play at that level when I am 42. I'm 27, and I don't think I could at her age. That's amazing."

Going forward, Date-Krumm will be heading to Beijing for the China Open next week where she will have to qualify and will appear as a wild card at the Japan Women's Open in Osaka from Oct. 8-14.

"I've done what I must do, so I'm not really down about this loss. I came back four years ago, but what do people expect of me? I am still trying to figure out what to do to win," she said.

Qualifier Kurumi Nara, meanwhile, was also ousted in the first round by Urszula Radwanska of Poland 6-2, 6-4 in her second appearance in the main draw at the Tokyo meet.

The 20-year-old Nara, who had won their only other meeting in a qualifier in Cincinnati in 2010, easily dropped the first set. She bounced back to break Radwanska at 2-0 and 4-4 in the second, but the Pole pulled away to win.

"Today I wasn't able to move as well as I did in my two matches in qualification," Nara said. "Her shots were low, but I couldn't get length on my shots. Even so, being able to win two qualifying matches was a real confidence boost going forward."

In other matches, former world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic, the 11th seed, beat Andrea Hlavackova, 6-3, 2-0, when her Czech opponent retired in the second set due to a left thigh injury, while 17th-seed Russian Nadia Petrova rolled past China's Peng Shuai 6-1, 6-4.

Later in the evening, former world No. 1 and 10th seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, who just won the Korea Open in Seoul on Sunday, beat Serbian Bojana Jovanovski 6-0, 3-6, 6-4 in a match stalled by rain.

Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic, the 16th seed, downed Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova 6-4, 7-6 (3). Estonia's Kaia Kanepi, runnerup in Seoul and the 15th seed, beat Spanish qualifier Silvia Soler-Espinosa 6-1, 6-4.

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Pistorius falls, questions rival's prosthetic limbs

LONDON — Having spent years fighting for the right to race with his own blades, Oscar Pistorius is now complaining about a rival's artificial limbs after a stunning loss at the London Paralympics on Sunday.

The "Blade Runner" had never been beaten over 200 meters in Paralympic competition until Brazilian sprinter Alan Oliveira came storming down the home straight past him to win by 0.07 seconds.

The icon of the Paralympics had been dethroned and wasn't taking it lightly.

Pistorius immediately raised concerns with Paralympic officials that Oliveira's surge came through rule-bending blades helping with the late strides.

Pistorius, who won a legal battle to compete wearing carbon-fiber blades alongside able-bodied runners at the Olympics last month, suggested that Oliveira ran with longer prosthesis than should be allowed.

Oliveira won gold in 21.45 seconds after overtaking Pistorius at the line at Olympic Stadium in the T44 classification race in front of a capacity 80,000-strong crowd.

"Not taking away from Alan's performance — he's a great athlete — but these guys are a lot taller and you can't compete (with the) stride length," Pistorius said in a broadcast interview. "You saw how far he came back. We aren't racing a fair race. I gave it my best. The IPC (International Paralympic Committee) have their regulations. The regulations (allow) that athletes can make themselves unbelievably high.

"We've tried to address the issue with them in the weeks up to this and it's just been falling on deaf ears."

While Pistorius tried to be more magnanimous later, he still claimed it was "ridiculous" that Oliveira could win after being eight meters adrift at the 100-meter mark and deny him a third straight 200 gold.

"He's never run a 21-second race and I don't think he's a 21-second athlete," Pistorius said. "I've never lost a 200-meter race in my career."

The South African double amputee had the support of compatriot Arnu Fourie, who finished fourth and questioned Oliveira's lengthened blades

"Ask anyone out there — does it look weird? Does it look out of proportion?" Fourie said. "I think 99 percent of people are going to tell you, 'Yes it does.'

"If they are within the rules you can't fight the athlete, so you're going to have to fight the formula and fight the rule if we're going to do anything about it."

Oliveira insisted he had not broken the rules, and expressed disappointment with Pistorius' criticism.

"He is a really great idol, and to listen to that coming from a really great athlete is really difficult," Oliveira said through a translator. "I don't know who he's picking a fight with, it's not with me."

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Inaba falls just short of milestone in Fighters victory

Atsunori Inaba eloquently stated that he doesn't play baseball to come up with 2,000 hits. He plays the game to win for his team.

See you later: Nippon Ham's Atsunori Inaba celebrates his home run against Lotte on Thursday at Tokyo Dome. The Fighters won 2-1. KYODO

So instead of regretting coming up with just one hit on the night, the team-first veteran was pleased that one hit ended up being a significant one for his club.

Inaba, who entered the game two hits shy of 2,000 for his career, went 1-for-3 and launched a solo homer into the seats to lead the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters to a 2-1 victory over the Chiba Lotte Marines at Tokyo Dome on Thursday night.

After a couple of hitless at-bats in a game tied at 1, Inaba smacked the first pitch from Marines submarine pitcher Shunsuke Watanabe into the center-right bleachers in his third and final attempt to deliver the go-ahead run in the sixth inning. It was also a great birthday present for skipper Hideki Kuriyama.

"I didn't expect I would hit a home run," Inaba said. "But the homer gave us the win on the birthday of manager Kuriyama. That's great. I'm pleased about nothing but the win for the team."

The Marines took a 1-0 lead on a Saburo Omura RBI single off Nippon Ham starter Brian Wolfe in the first. They got on bases afterward as well, but weren't able to take advantage of their chances. Chiba Lotte's night ended with one run on 10 hits.

In the fourth, the Fighters tied the game at 1-1 on a Micah Hoffpauir solo homer.

"We could've allowed five or six more runs, but Hoffpauir changed the flow with one big shot," Kuriyama said of the American slugger, who had been limited to just two at-bats due to an injury this year. "Head coach (Junichi Fukura) told me before the game Hoffpauir is good against Shinsuke and he came up with the result.

"We got the win as a team like that, and I'm pretty pleased about it."

Wolfe (2-1) looked shaky early but managed to not allow any runs after the first. In all, he lasted six innings, giving up nine hits and fanning four on 92 pitches to earn the win.

Kuriyama sent Keisuke Tanimoto, Hirotoshi Masui and closer Hisashi Takeda to the hill in the last three frames. Takeda notched his sixth save of the season.

Watanabe (0-1) seemed better and more elusive than Wolfe, but the two solo dingers he gave up hurt him. Watanabe was charged with the loss.

Though he claimed that he doesn't play records, Inaba said that he felt an extraordinary atmosphere surrounding his at-bats and it gave him some jitters.

"Receiving the cheers, I felt unusual pressure in myself," said Inaba. "I felt the peculiar air at the first two at-bats. So for the third at-bat, I stepped up to the plate trying to think that if I don't hit, I don't hit."

While Inaba sid that jokingly, Kuriyama tipped his cap to the No. 5 batter, who leads the Pacific League in batting average (.384), home runs (four) and RBIs (22), for refocusing after his unsuccessful at-bats.

"While we didn't have the momentum earlier, Inaba revamped and came up with (the homer). That tells the whole story about this guy."

Because the Fighters, the home team, were winning, the bottom of the eighth ended up being their last offensive frame. The inning began with their leadoff man Kensuke Tanaka but the Fighters could not give Inaba another chance to achieve the 2,000-hit milestone.

With Inaba waiting in the batter's circle, cleanup hitter Sho Nakata was struck out by Marines reliever Yuhei Nakaushiro for the third out.

"Right after the game, Kensuke and Sho came to me to say sorry," Inaba said. "But I told them I'm not playing to reach 2,000 hits. But making them feel that way, I feel I'm giving a trouble to the team, so I want to hit it as soon as possible."

The night's homer put Inaba one shy of reaching 250 career home runs as well.

Nippon Ham, which has the best record in the PL (16-8), now moves to Sendai for a three-game series against the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.

KYODO, — Tomohito Yoeno hit a pinch-hit go-ahead grand slam in the top of the ninth as the Seibu Lions defeated the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks 5-3 on Thursday at Fukuoka Yahoo Dome.

With Seibu trailing 3-1, Lions pinch hitter Tatsuyuki Uemoto led off the ninth with a single. The next two batters struck out before Hiroyuki Nakajima doubled and Takeya Nakamura walked to load the bases against Brian Falkenborg.

Yoeno then sent the second pitch he saw to the seats in left to put the Lions on top to stay.

Eagles 4, Buffaloes 2

At Sendai's Kleenex Stadium, Orix scored the tying run on a wild pitch by Shinichiro Koyama in the eighth inning, and pinch-hitter Mitsutaka Goto delivered a go-ahead single, helping his team end a five-game losing streak.

Tohoku Rakuten saw its winning streak end at three games.

CENTRAL LEAGUE

Giants 15, BayStars 3

At Kagoshima's Kamoike Stadium, Yomiuri rapped out a season-high 15 hits en route to a demolition of Yokohama, snapping a five-game skid as it clawed its way out of last place.

Hisayoshi Chono went 3-for-5, and Shinnosuke Abe hit a two-run homer in the first inning and a run-scoring double in the fifth. D.J. Houlton (1-2) gave up three runs in seven hits for his first win of the season.

Tigers 1, Carp 0, 11 innings

At Nishinomiya's Koshien Stadium, Keiichi Hirano hit a walk-off single in the 11th inning to give Hanshin a victory over Hiroshima.

Hirano's single to center off closer Dennis Sarfate (0-2) drove home a runner from second with two outs to end it. Yuya Ando struck out 10 over nine scoreless innings for Hanshin.

Swallows 4, Dragons 2

At Jingu Stadium, Lastings Milledge hit a go-ahead two-run drive in the third inning, and Kyohei Muranaka threw two-run ball over five frames as Yakult extended its unbeaten streak to six games to move into first place.

Tony Barnette got his ninth save. Kazuki Yoshimi (3-2) was tagged for the loss.

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Kisenosato, Hakuho roll; Kotoshogiku falls at New Year basho

Newly promoted ozeki Kisenosato tossed aside Goeido to get off to a high-octane start, Kotoshogiku took a first-day spill and yokozuna Hakuho was his usual dominant self on the opening day of the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament on Sunday.

Kisenosato kept his eyes transfixed on Goeido as he blasted him with a torrent of shoves before sending his opponent fleeing over the edge at Ryogoku Kokugikan.

But Kotoshogiku, promoted to sumo's No. 2 rank after the autumn basho last year, never got rolling against Takekaze who slapped the ozeki down immediately after the face-off.

"I lost to Goeido at the last meet (in Kyushu) last year, so I just wanted to make sure my opponent never got inside for an attack," said Kisenosato, who got the green light for ozeki after the Kyushu basho. "I wasn't really that nervous. I just kept the pressure on him by pushing him down from above and stayed calm. This was a good start."

"Darn it! My sumo today was halfhearted," Kotoshogiku said. "I wasn't ready for the challenge and my body and mind were not in sync. I got ahead of myself when I should have been more relaxed."

After a tumultuous 2011 when sumo was mired in its worst-ever crisis due to a match-fixing scandal, the January meet kicked off to a packed house amidst much anticipation as the national sport attempts to clean up its tarnished image in 2012.

Although expectations are riding high with Kotoshogiku and Kisenosato having gained promotion, for the first time ever, there are no Japanese wrestlers amongst the 32 plaques of title winners draped around the auditorium.

Retired ozeki Tochiazuma's plaque from the 2006 New Year meet has been removed, leaving 20 of Mongolian Hakuho and the rest of other foreign wrestlers including former yokozuna Asashoryu, Mongolian Harumafuji and Bulgarian Kotooshu.

It's the first time since the 2010 summer basho that two Japanese ozeki are competing together, and fans are hoping one of them will be the first Japanese wrestler in six years to cart the coveted Emperor's Cup.

Hakuho, who is the strong favorite to match former yokozuna Takanohana with his 22nd career title, made mincemeat of Wakakoyu in the day's final bout, sending the new komusubi sprawling in a matter of seconds.

Asked for his thoughts on trying to tie Takanohana's record, Hakuho said, "This is just the start but of course I am thinking about it. If I put in the work I feel like I'll definitely be able to match it."

Harumafuji took care of Okinoumi in one swoop, getting his left hand inside for a tight grip on the mawashi before flinging his opponent over with an underarm throw.

Kotooshu unleashed a series of shoves against Aminishiki before getting both hands wrapped around the top-ranked maegashira and jolting his opponent over the ridge.

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Mao pulls out of GP Final as mother falls critically ill

QUEBEC CITY — Mao Asada hastily returned to Japan on Friday evening after withdrawing from the Grand Prix Final in Canada because her mother Kyoko is in a critical condition.

Medal contender: Risa Shoji competes in the short program at the Grand Prix Final on Thursday. Shoji is in fourth place heading into Friday's free skate. KYODO

According to her management company IMG, Mao's 48-year-old mother is suffering from visceral disease and her health has been deteriorating since last summer.

The Vancouver Olympic silver medalist, also a two-time world champion, walked through Narita airport without answering questions from reporters.

Her coach Nobuo Sato, who accompanied Mao to Japan, said, "A phone call woke me up in the morning and I was told to be ready in 30 minutes, so I rushed to the airport (in Canada) without washing my face."

"Mao had just one practice session in Quebec and she was in good form. But now there is nothing we can do about the competition. I told her we'll get over this crisis together first," he said.

Mao was going to skate for her third Grand Prix Final title after having finished second at the NHK Trophy in Sapporo in mid-November and first at the Rostelecom Cup in Moscow two weeks later.

"The Japan Skating Federation informed the International Skating Union this morning of the withdrawal of Japanese skater Mao Asada," ISU spokeswoman Selina Vanier said.

"Miss Asada received news early this morning that her mother (Kyoko) is in a critical condition in Japan and she has decided to return home to Japan accompanied by her coach Mr. (Nobuo) Sato."

"On behalf of the ISU and the skating family we would like to express our deepest concern and wish the Asada family all the best at this difficult time and thank the Japan Federation for their care and concern for their athletes," she said.

JSF official Yoshiko Kobayashi quoted Mao as saying she had "really caused trouble," by withdrawing from the event. Kobayashi did not give any details on the nature of Mao's mother's illness.

"I got a call from Mao's manager at about 5:20 this morning telling me that her mother's condition had suddenly deteriorated and she went home this morning," Kobayashi said.

"Mao has been skating well this season, she got this far and this event really meant so much to her," she added.

The announcement opened a news conference for ISU president Ottavio Cinquanta, who said that the women's competition would be contested by five finalists as it was too late to bring in reserves.

The women's short program is scheduled for Friday followed by the free program on Saturday. Akiko Suzuki is the other Japanese representative in the women's event.

Americans Mirai Nagasu and Ashley Wagner and Russia's Adelina Sotnikova were listed as the three substitutes.

"I wish first of all to reconfirm our sentiments toward the Asada family for this situation but it is my duty to take the matter under a sport point of view," said Cinquanta.

Mao was looking to complete a meteoric rise from the ashes in what would have been her first Grand Prix Final appearance since 2008.

The 21-year-old failed to win a single event in the worst season of her competitive career in 2010-2011, but headed into the final with confidence sky high after a pair of strong performances in November.

Mao finished second behind Suzuki at the NHK Trophy in Sapporo before ending a three-year GP title drought at the Rostelecom Cup in Moscow, despite leaving out her trademark triple axel jump.

QUEBEC CITY — Risa Shoji placed fourth after the women's short program at the Junior Grand Prix Final on Thursday.

Shoji, 15, under-rotated a triple lutz and had relatively low scores on her spins to score 51.53 points. Russian's Julia Lipnitskaia led with 59.98, followed by compatriot Polina Shelepen with 54.99. American Vanessa Lam was third with 54.34.

"I had a few minor mistakes but I feel I moved well and am quite relieved," said Shoji, who narrowly missed out on a medal at this event last year in Beijing.

"I was still green when I competed last year but I feel a bit more used to being in this event now. I did well in the short program and hopefully I can build on that in the free skate."

In Beijing, Shoji and China's Li Zijun both finished with a total of 149.82, but Li took the bronze medal after placing fourth with a better score in the free skate, one position higher than Shoji.

QUEBEC CITY — Reigning world champion Patrick Chan of Canada apologized Thursday for comments he made in an interview suggesting he would be more appreciated if he skated in China than Canada.

Chan was quoted in a Reuters story Thursday as saying he felt more Canadian several years ago but was "slowly feeling more Chinese." He said he should appreciate where he has come from because of the support he gets from the Chinese community in Canada.

Speaking to reporters after practice at the Grand Prix Final, Chan said, "I would like to apologize . . . It's not like me to say those things. I know that it was a mistake and it was taken out of context . . ."

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