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Sports Briefs: Injured shoulder forces Roddick to miss French Open
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Published: May 20, 2008
DUESSELDORF, Germany -- Andy Roddick withdrew from the French Open yesterday because of an injured right should and hopes to be ready to play at Wimbledon.
Roddick, who lost in the first round at Roland Garros the last two years, retired from the semifinals of the Rome Masters on May 10. He skipped the Hamburg Masters last week but had been expected to play this week at the World Team Cup in Duesseldorf.
"Andy is pulling out with an upper back-shoulder injury, the same thing that he had in Rome," said John Roddick, Andy's brother and the U.S. captain at the World Team Cup. "He's pulling out of here and he's also going to miss the French Open, too."
John Roddick said he hoped that his brother, who is ranked No. 6, would be ready for the grass-court tournament at Queen's Club, a key warm-up for Wimbledon.
"The shoulder doctor we use is out of New York City, so he was right there, and Andy had an MRI and there's some inflammation so he pulled him from here and the French," John Roddick said. "I don't think it's going to be anything that's terribly long, and I would be surprised if he was not ready to go for Queen's. But as for now, he needs to take a good 10 days, 12 days, just rest."
Roddick had his best showing at the French Open in his debut in 2001, reaching the third round.
More tennis
■ Saying that tennis is "potentially at a crossroads," an independent review panel has found 45 matches that merit further investigation because of irregular betting patterns. The panel also offered recommendations to the sport's leaders for combatting corruption.
The panel's 66-page report, prompted in part by suspicions surrounding a match last year involving fourth-ranked Nikolay Davydenko, was released yesterday by the International Tennis Federation, the ATP, the WTA Tour and the four Grand Slams.
The 45 unidentified matches, played in the last five years, were among 73 examined by the panel, which warned of "inside information."
Besides noting the 45 matches to be investigated further, the review panel made 15 recommendations that the sport's four governing bodies accepted -- including "any player caught cheating should be punished by a lengthy suspension for a first offense and, if the circumstances merit it, a life ban."
Basketball
■ Joel Justus has left Elon after four seasons as an assistant men's basketball coach to become the varsity boys basketball coach and assistant director of admissions at Woodberry Forest School in Virginia.
Justus, 26, is a graduate of Mount Tabor High School and UNC Wilmington. At UNCW, he lettered for four years and played on teams that won two Colonial Athletic Association titles and made two NCAA Tournament appearances.
■ John Fields, East Carolina's No. 2 scorer and rebounder last season, has transferred to UNC Wilmington and has enrolled in summer classes.
UNCW officials announced yesterday that Fields two seasons of eligibility, starting in 2009-10. Fields, from Fayetteville, averaged 9.6 points and 5.5 rebounds for ECU last season.
■ Annette Watts, the women's coach at Davidson, yesterday announced the hiring of Ken Butler as an assistant coach.
Butler spent the past three seasons as an assistant at Southern Maine and also has been an assistant at Rhode Island, East Carolina (1998-99) and Mount Olive (1996-98).
Butler, a graduate of Mount Olive, retired after a 22-year career in the Air Force and also has been a high-school coach in Maine.
Football
■ The Carolina Panthers have signed Lester Ricard, a free-agent quarterback who spent last season on the practice squad of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Ricard (6-4, 228) was a three-year starter at Tulane but was not drafted.
■ The New Orleans Saints announced yesterday that free agent linebacker Dan Morgan has retired from football.
Morgan, who signed with the Saints March 11, played in the NFL for seven seasons, all with the Carolina Panthers. The injury-plagued veteran was drafted in the first round out of the University of Miami.
Morgan, who never missed a game in high school or college, sat out five games as a rookie with a broken leg. He missed eight games a year later with groin and shoulder injuries. He hurt his hamstring in 2003, and later sustained the first of at least five concussions.
Entering the 2007 season, the biggest concern was Morgan's head. He missed the final 15 games of 2006 after sustaining two concussions in a month.
■ Carl Eller, a former Minnesota Vikings great, appeared in court yesterday on charges stemming from an alleged scuffle with police last month.
Eller agreed to appear at a pretrial hearing July 29, and a trial date was set for November 4. He hasn't entered a plea.
The charges against Eller include assault on a police officer and making terroristic threats. He was arrested at his home April 9 for drunken driving. Eller, who appeared with his attorneys, declined to comment after the brief hearing before Hennepin County (Minn.) District Judge Margaret Daly.
■ Receiver Preston Parker of Florida State will have to sit out the first two games of the 2008 season after pleading guilty yesterday to two misdemeanor charges.
Parker was arrested in April on a felony charge of having a loaded .45-caliber pistol in the dashboard of his car and a misdemeanor charge of marijuana possession. The felony charge was reduced to a misdemeanor charge of carrying a concealed weapon.
He will sit out games against Western Carolina and Chattanooga and return to play against Wake Forest.
■ The Cincinnati Bengals released linebacker Odell Thurman yesterday, one month after the NFL reinstated him after a two-year suspension. Thurman did not attend the team's three voluntary workouts last week, when he was in Georgia after the death of his grandmother. The Bengals are changing their defense and wanted him to participate.
■ Linebacker Wesley Flagg has been dismissed from the program at North Carolina for violating team policies, Coach Butch Davis said in a prepared statement that did not provide further details. Flagg had 23 tackles last season.
Recruiting
■ Rebecca Womack, a forward from North Davidson, has signed to play women's soccer at UNC Pembroke, Coach Lars Andersson of UNCP announced yesterday. Womack set North Davidson records for career goals (58), assists (36) and points (152) records and was a two-time All-Central Piedmont 4-A selection.
■ Robbie Laing, the men's basketball coach at Campbell, yesterday announced the addition of five recruits for next season. Joining the Camels will be Jabril Bailey (New Castle, Del.), Matt Gwynne (Angier), William Kossangue (Banqui, Central Africa), Miles Taylor (Pensacola, Fla.) and Chad Thompson (St. Louis).
Gwynee, a 6-10 transfer from Tennessee-Chattanooga, has two seasons of eligibility left. The other four are junior-college transfers, with Bailey coming from Cecil (Md.) Community College, Kossangue from Tyler (Texas) JC, Taylor from Pensacola (Fla.) JC and Thompson from Moberly (Mo.) Area Community College.
Miscellaneous
■ Heather Brown, a 1989 graduate of Appalachian State, has been named the women's golf coach at ASU. She replaces Bill Dicus, who coached Appalachian's men's and women's teams for 13 years but will now coach only the men.
Brown, a native of Madison, Conn., has led the Golf Juniors program at Richter Park Golf Course in Danbury, Conn., since 2002. She also helped lead the Danbury High girls team to a state title in 2004-05 and has been a golf pro at several courses in Connecticut.
Ahs was Appalachian's team captain and MVP in 1988.
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