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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, May 23, 2009

Safina, Nadal earn No. 1 seeds for French Open


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Venus and Serena Williams have not cornered the market on sibling success in tennis: Dinara Safina and Marat Safin are the first sister and brother to both reach No. 1 in the rankings.

When the French Open starts tomorrow in Paris, Safina will be seeded No. 1 at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time. Now the Russian wants to win her first major title — and she can turn to Big Brother, seeded 20th in the men's draw, for all-in-the-family Slam advice. Safin owns U.S. Open and Australian Open championships.

Serena Williams is seeded second behind Safina, with Venus third.

In the men's draw, four-time defending champion Rafael Nadal is seeded first with Roger Federer second.

GERMANY, SERBIA IN WORLD TEAM FINALS

Germany will face Serbia in the World Team Cup final today in Duesseldorf, Germany.

The Germans beat defending champion Sweden, 2-1, yesterday in the Red Group, while Serbia advanced from the Blue Group after defeating Italy, 2-1.

NFL

JUDGE DENIES CLAIMS BY VIKINGS' PLAYERS

A federal judge in Minnesota has dismissed most of the claims by two Minnesota Vikings stars facing suspension over their positive tests for a banned diuretic.

U.S. District Judge Paul A. Magnuson yesterday remanded two of the claims by Vikings defensive tackles Kevin Williams and Pat Williams to state court.

But Magnuson threw out most of the Williamses' claims and dismissed a lawsuit brought by the NFL players union on behalf of the Williamses and three New Orleans Saints players also facing suspension.

Attorneys for the union and the Williamses argued that league officials knew a supplement called StarCaps contained a banned diuretic back in 2006 and did not specifically notify players.

But the judge agreed with the NFL that players are responsible for what is in their bodies.

AND WHAT'S MORE ...

Dara Torres, 42, set an American record yesterday morning in the 50-meter butterfly (25.84 seconds), then improved that time (25.72) in the evening final at the Texas Senior Circuit No. 2 meet at Texas A&M in College Station, Texas. ... Rashad Evans (18-0-1) with victories over Chuck Liddell and Forrest Griffin in his last two bouts, puts his UFC light heavyweight title belt on the line against Lyoto Machida (14-0) tonight at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas.