In Brief

LOCAL SPORTS

Gurgel, Duarte in main event
of Strikeforce Challengers 18

Seven-time Ultimate Fighting Championship competitor and former "The Ultimate Fighter" Season 2 cast member Jorge Gurgel will headline the Strikeforce Challengers 18 card tonight at The Palms with a lightweight bout against Joe Duarte.

It will be the second Challengers event held at the venue since Strikeforce announced it would be the permanent home of the series.

Ronda Rousey, a 2008 Olympic bronze medalist in judo for the United States, looks to remain unbeaten in just her third professional fight when she takes on Sarah D'Alelio in a featherweight bout.

Middleweights Danillo Villefort and Nate James also square off on the card. The main card starts at 8 p.m. and airs tape-delayed on Showtime (Cox 240) at 11 p.m.

Also: Silverado (2-2) will be the No. 3 seed when it meets No. 2 seed and northern California representative Red Bluff (2-2) in a semifinal game of the Little League West Regional in San Bernardino, Calif. The game starts at 2 p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN2 (Cox 31).

The second semifinal, set for 8 p.m., features No. 1 seed and Southern California representative Ocean View (4-0) of Huntington Beach against No. 4 seed Washington, Utah (2-2).

The winners of today's games will meet at 6 p.m. Saturday for the regional title and a berth in the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pa.

TENNIS

Red-hot Djokovic keeps rolling;
Federer tumbles to Tsonga

Some top players have shown signs of rust at the Rogers Cup in Montreal, though not top-ranked Novak Djokovic.

The 24-year-old Serb kept up his strong play this season with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Marin Cilic of Croatia on Thursday to reach the quarterfinals of the Masters Series event.

He's now the last of the top four seeds left in the tournament after No. 3 Roger Federer was upset by 13th-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-1.

Djokovic broke the lanky Cilic's heavy serve twice in the second set to improve to 50-1 this year -- including 26-0 on hard courts.

The tournament had already lost defending champion Andy Murray and second-seeded Rafael Nadal to upsets in the early rounds before losing Swiss star Federer in third-round action.

Unheralded Galina Voskoboeva from Kazakhstan, ranked 135th, beat fifth-seeded Maria Sharapova 6-3, 7-5 at the Rogers Cup in Toronto. Sharapova became the latest casualty of a draw which has lost 11 of the 16 seeds.

No. 6 seed Li Na fell in the third round with a 6-2, 6-4 loss to No. 10 seed Samantha Stosur of Australia. No. 3 seed Vera Zvonareva of Russia lost 6-4, 7-6 (4) to Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland.

Serena Williams advanced with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 win over Chinese qualifier Zheng Jie. Williams showed off her powerful serve, firing 10 aces.

A white "9-11-01" will be painted next to the court for the U.S. Open men's and women's singles finals, part of the Grand Slam tennis tournament's commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The men's final in New York is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 11. The women's final is Sept. 10.

MISCELLANEOUS

IOC says 2012 Games' image
not scarred by London rioting

After days of silence while images of fires, looting and riots were beamed across screens around the world, the chief organizer of the 2012 London Olympics finally spoke and essentially said: The state of the Games is fine.

Sebastian Coe, an Olympic great and former Parliament member, said he had conferred with International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge and other sports leaders as the mayhem in England provided a jarring counterpoint to a showpiece event that will be held in less than a year. He said they assured him the image of the Olympics would not be scarred by the violence.

"They know that things from time to time come out of left field in cities," Coe said at Wembley Arena, where the world badminton championships are serving as a test event for next year's Olympics. "Effectively within two days, we had that under control."

Also: Less than 24 hours after President Mark Emmert called for immediate changes in college sports, the NCAA's board of directors approved a measure that would include postseason bans if teams fall below the new Academic Progress Rate cutline. The new mark for the four-year rolling average will increase from 900 to 930. In October, NCAA leaders will consider when the new rules will take effect.

In other action, the board agreed to do away with the single-year APR scores and will only use the four-year rolling average to determine postseason eligibility; agreed to continue providing funding for low-resource schools to help the academic performance of athletes and look at new ways to help those schools; decided to take another look at improving the standards for incoming freshmen and junior college transfers in October; and will consider including family members among the definition of third-party influences, a definition that also includes agents.

Spanish league soccer players said they will go on strike if a new collective bargaining agreement is not signed.

Spanish Football Players Association head Luis Rubiales made the announcement. He was backed by about 100 players representing all 42 clubs in the top two divisions.

Barcelona captain Carles Puyol and Real Madrid pair Iker Casillas and Xabi Alonso attended, along with fellow Spain internationals Fernando Llorente, Javi Martinez and Santi Cazorla.

Rubiales said about 200 players will be owed a total of $71 million by the start of the season. That's up from $17 million to about half as many players last year. Players are concerned clubs will not be able to make the payments.

Howard Schnellenberger, the 77-year-old Florida Atlantic coach who led Miami to its first national championship, has decided to retire from coaching after this season.