IN BRIEF

TENNIS

Nadal, Federer lead field of eight
in draw for ATP championship

Top-ranked Rafael Nadal was placed in the same group as Novak Djokovic during Tuesday's draw for the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London.

No. 2 Roger Federer faces Paris Masters champion Robin Soderling in his group, along with home favorite Andy Murray and David Ferrer of Spain.

Nadal and Djokovic are joined by Tomas Berdych and Andy Roddick in Group A.

The top two players from each round-robin group will play in the semifinals at London's O2 Arena. The tournament begins Sunday, with the final Nov. 28.

Nadal, winner of three Grand Slam titles this year, has never won the year-end tournament. Federer is bidding to win the ATP Finals for a record-tying fifth time.

UNLV

Women's basketball lands
forward, guard in recruiting

The UNLV women's basketball team announced that forward Alana Cesarz and guard Danielle Miller signed national letters of intent to attend UNLV beginning in the fall of 2011.

Cesarz, at 6 feet 1 inch, is a senior at Delavan-Darlen HIgh School in Delavan, Wis. The two-time conference player of the year averaged 20.9 points and 9.3 rebounds as a junior.

Miller, a 5-8 senior from Lemon Grove, Calif., averaged 14.4 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.5 steals as a junior while leading Mount Miguel High School to the California Interscholastic Federation championship. She's a three-time all-league selection, including a first-team choice last year.

Also: The UNLV men's golf team announced the signings of Carl Johnson and Kurt Kitayama, with both joining the squad for the 2011-12 season.

Johnson, a senior at Bainbridge (Wash.) High School, is ranked 42nd nationally by Golfweek among high school seniors. Kitayama, a senior at Chico (Calif.) High, was the Junior Golf Association of Northern California player of the year in 2009 and took third at the 2009 Callaway Junior World Golf Championships.

UNLV freshman Jessica Heim was named Mountain West Conference women's swimmer of the week. Heim won three events Saturday in the Rebels' dual-meet victory over Colorado State, taking the 500- and 1,000-yard freestyle and the 200 butterfly, and she also swam on the winning 400 freestyle relay team.

MISCELLANEOUS

Ex-NBA superstar Iverson
scores 15 in Turkey debut

Former NBA All-Star Allen Iverson scored 15 points in his debut for Besiktas Cola Turka, but he failed to carry his team to victory against Hemofarm Stada.

Hemofarm Stada defeated Besiktas 94-91 in a European Cup game. Turkish fans shouted "Allen Iverson, the son of Besiktas Cola Turka" during the game.

The 11-time NBA All-Star agreed to a $4 million, two-year contract with Besiktas after no NBA team offered him a contract for the season.

Iverson is 17th on the NBA's career scoring list with 24,368 points over a 14-year career with Philadelphia, Denver, Detroit and Memphis. He won the league's Most Valuable Player award in 2001.

Also: The driver in a single-car crash that injured U.S. national soccer team forward Charlie Davies and killed a female passenger pleaded guilty in Alexandria, Va., to involuntary manslaughter and drunken driving.

Maria Espinoza, 23, faces up to 13 years in prison when she is sentenced in February, though sentencing guidelines suggest she will spend closer to three to four years behind bars. She also agreed to pay restitution to Davies and the family of the female passenger, 22-year-old Ashley Roberta, though that amount was not revealed.

Major League Soccer's reserve league will return in 2011, another step in improving player development. The reserve league will have a 10-game regular season and playoffs, giving young players match experience on a consistent basis. Most top European soccer leagues have similar systems.

The reserve league was disbanded in 2008 after four seasons because of costs and logistics problems, but its return had been expected since Adidas extended its sponsorship deal this summer.

Manchester United's American owners said they have not drawn cash from the English Premier League club to fund the repayment of high-interest loans.

Co-chairman Joel Glazer has told lenders that by Monday he plans to buy back the $353 million in loans that were used to fund his family's 2005 takeover. It's unclear, however, where the money is coming from or whether a new loan has been taken out.

The defending champion FC Gold Pride of Women's Professional Soccer folded after two years of operation in San Francisco. The team said it is disbanding because of slow ticket sales and costly cross-country travel. Its players become free agents today.