IN BRIEF

TENNIS

Nadal back from injury, wins as Ferrer retires

Rafael Nadal won his first match since May when David Ferrer retired with a left knee injury in the first set of their match Wednesday at the Rogers Cup in Montreal.

Nadal led 4-3 when Ferrer informed the chair umpire he could not continue. Afterward, Ferrer said the injury wasn't serious and that he probably would be back next week for a tournament in Mason, Ohio.

It was an ironic twist because Nadal was returning for his first match since the French Open after suffering from tendinitis in both knees.

Nadal, who looked strong on the court as Ferrer made him run, will face German Philipp Petzschner in the third round today.

Earlier, Andy Roddick beat Igor Andreev 6-1, 7-6 (3) to reach the third round.

Also: Playing her second competitive match in more than two years, Kim Clijsters reached the third round of the Cincinnati Open with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Patty Schnyder.

Clijsters who retired in May 2007 and gave birth to a daughter in February 2008, knocked out 12th-seeded Marion Bartoli in straight sets Monday. Clijsters followed up by never losing her serve against the 20th-ranked Schnyder.

Clijsters will meet sixth-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova in the next round, with a possible quarterfinal match looming against top-seeded Dinara Safina. Clijsters has won six of her seven matches against Kuznetsova.

Second-seeded Serena Williams had 14 aces, nine in the second set, on her way to a 6-3, 6-2 win over Kateryna Bondarenko.

BASKETBALL

Duke gets top seed for NIT Tip-Off Tournament

Duke is the top-seeded team in the National Invitation Tournament Tip-Off Tournament that includes second-seeded Connecticut, third-seeded Louisiana State and fourth-seeded Arizona State.

The tournament's 16-team field was announced Wednesday. The top four teams will host regional games beginning Nov. 16. The regional winners will head to Madison Square Garden in New York for the semifinals and Nov. 27 championship game.

In the first round, Duke will play Coastal Carolina, UConn will take on Colgate, LSU will host Indiana State and Arizona State will face Texas State.

Also: Jeremy Tyler, the 18-year-old basketball phenom who is skipping his senior year at San Diego High School, signed a one-year contract with Maccabi Haifa of the Israeli Premier League.

Tyler is the first American-born player to leave high school early to play basketball professionally overseas.

The contract is worth $140,000.

Tyler is expected to return to the United States when he becomes eligible for the 2011 NBA Draft.

MISCELLANEOUS

Pavlik-Williams bout scheduled for Oct. 3

Middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik has agreed to defend his two title belts against Paul Williams, perhaps the most avoided fighter in boxing.

They will fight Oct. 3 at Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall, Williams promoter Dan Goossen said.

The bout is a risk for Pavlik (35-1, 31 knockouts), who rebounded from his one-sided loss to Bernard Hopkins last year by stopping Marco Antonio Rubio in February for the second defense of his WBC and WBO 160-pound titles.

"There's a lot of money out there for him to make, and sometimes making that type of money makes you a lot braver," Goossen said of Pavlik.

Few prominent champions are willing to fight Williams (37-1, 27 KOs), an uncommonly versatile fighter who creates awkward matchups.

Though he considers himself a welterweight, Williams claims he has no trouble moving between 147 and 168 pounds.

Also: Las Vegas Legacy scored five runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to pull out a 12-9 victory over Glendale, Ariz., and advance to the semifinals of the Little League Baseball West Regional Tournament in San Bernardino, Calif.

Legacy (2-2) will be the tournament's No. 3 seed when it meets Southern California representative Chula Vista (4-0), the No. 2 seed, at 4 p.m. Friday. Northern California representative Granite Bay/Loomis (4-0) will face No. 4 seed Glendale (1-3) in the other semifinal at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Jonathan Horton has moved halfway to his first national title after closing the night with a strong high bar routine that helped him overtake David Sender for the lead at the U.S. gymnastics championships in Dallas.

Horton, the defending Olympic silver medalist on the high bar, closed with a 15.9 to finish with 91.25 points, 0.65 ahead of Sender, the defending champion.

Tim McNeill was third, another 2.1 points back.

Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez said cornerback J.T. Turner has been academically cleared to play.

The highly touted freshman from Massillon, Ohio, is expected to practice with the Wolverines today.

IAAF secretary general Pierre Weiss said Jamaica has withdrawn its request to ban sprint star Asafa Powell and several teammates from the track world championships.

The Jamaican athletics federation has been in a dispute with the athletes after they missed a mandatory training camp for the worlds last week.