Oudin back in tennis spotlight at Fed Cup

Melanie Oudin has the bright lights on her again.

Oudin surged from nowhere to reach the U.S. Open quarterfinals in September. This weekend in Reggio Calabria, Italy, with the Williams sisters skipping the Fed Cup final against Italy, she commands the stage.

Top-ranked Serena and Venus are skipping the best-of-five series on red clay at the Rocco Polimeni club. That left Oudin and Alexa Glatch the likely singles players for captain Mary Joe Fernandez.

"It's definitely a little bit of pressure without the Williams sisters," Oudin said. "I thought that I might not even be playing, and definitely not No. 1 singles, but it's a good feeling because I like representing our country and I've been on the team twice before. I'm really looking forward to playing and just fighting hard and having a good time again this weekend."

Oudin, who won this year's RBC Women's Challenge tournament in Raleigh, has struggled since knocking off four established players - including three-time major champion Maria Sharapova and Beijing Olympic gold medalist Elena Dementieva - at the U.S. Open.

In her first tournament after her Flushing Meadows run, the 18-year-old player from Marietta, Ga., lost in qualifying in Tokyo, then dropped a three-setter to Glatch in her opening match in Beijing.

"Everyone expects me to win everything now after I did good in one tournament, and I'm still improving. I'm still learning about the game of tennis," she said. "I'm working on a lot of different things in my game. Everyone has ups and downs. ... I'm ready again and I'm going to be ready for next year, and I'm ready for the Fed Cup this weekend."

Agassi pleads for compassion: Andre Agassi responded to criticism of his crystal meth use with a plea for compassion, telling "60 Minutes" he needed help when he took the drug while depressed in 1997.

CBS released excerpts from the interview Thursday and will broadcast it Sunday night.

Swiss Indoors: At Basel, Switzerland, Novak Djokovic won 6-0, 6-0 for the first time at an elite event, blanking Jan Hernych of the Czech Republic. The third-ranked Serb won the second-round match in 53 minutes.

Valencia Open: Top-seeded Andy Murray reached the quarterfinals at Valencia, Spain, where a match against defending champion David Ferrer was averted when the Spaniard withdrew because of a hamstring injury.

Wickmayer banned: U.S. Open semifinalist Yanina Wickmayer, ranked No. 18, was suspended for one year by a Belgian anti-doping tribunal Thursday, accused of failing to report her whereabouts to drug-testing officials three times.

Crew's Marshall top defender

The Columbus Crew's Chad Marshall, 25, has been selected Major League Soccer's defender of the year for the second straight season.

The league also announced Thursday that Alex Prus was voted the top referee and Greg Barkey was selected the top assistant referee.

Marshall, an All-Star this season, led a Columbus defense that gave up a franchise-record low 31 goals in the regular season, trailing only Houston (26) and Seattle (29).

Australia may get sailing race

The most contentious America's Cup in the 158-year history of the event could be headed to Australia, if the teams can agree to end their long, bitter court fight.

Defending champion Alinghi of Switzerland told a New York judge Thursday that it would race American challenger BMW Oracle Racing off Australia in February as a compromise. Alinghi still prefers to race in the Persian Gulf.

Racing is scheduled to start Feb. 8.

Boxing's Lou Filippo dies

Lou Filippo, a World Boxing Hall of Famer who judged 85 world champion fights and had small roles in five "Rocky" movies, has died. He was 83.

Hall of Fame Treasurer Josie Mejia says Filippo suffered a stroke and died Monday at a hospital in the Los Angeles suburb of Downey, where he lived. He had judged a fight only two weeks ago.

Filippo was the hall's former president. He was in more than 250 amateur fights and had a professional record of 28 wins, nine losses and three draws before retiring in 1957. He later became a referee and judge.

Korea coming to Triangle

The USA Baseball Collegiate National Team will play a five-game series against Korea in July, and four of the five games are scheduled to be played in the Triangle, USA Baseball said Thursday.

The series will open with games at 7 p.m. July 14 and 7:30 p.m. July 15 at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary. The fourth and fifth games will be played at Durham Bulls Athletic Park at 7:05 p.m. July 17 and 5:05 p.m. July 18 . The time and site for Game 3 on July 16 will be announced.

Tickets for the DBAP games are available from the Durham Bulls at 919-956-2855. Other ticket information will be posted at www.usabaseball.com.

From USA Baseball news release

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