In brief

tennis

Nadal, Djokovic join Murray, Federer in semis of ATP Finals

Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic completed the semifinal lineup at the ATP World Tour Finals with straight-set victories Friday in London.

The top-ranked Nadal beat Tomas Berdych 7-6 (3), 6-1 in the early match to leave Djokovic needing only one set to finish second in Group A. The third-seeded Serb defeated a listless Andy Roddick, 6-2, 6-3.

Nadal will meet Andy Murray in today's first semifinal. Djokovic will play Roger Federer.

Roddick began his match against Djokovic with an outside chance of reaching the semifinals, but the eighth-ranked American was never in contention and broken three times in a 65-minute loss. He had won his past four matches against Djokovic.

Nadal finished Group A with a 3-0 record.

baseball

Dodgers complete rotation, come to terms with Garland

The Los Angeles Dodgers completed their starting rotation for 2011 by agreeing to a deal with right-hander Jon Garland. The $5 million, one-year contract includes a club option and could be worth $16 million for two years.

Garland, 31, will join Clayton Kershaw, Chad Billingsley, Hiroki Kuroda and Ted Lilly to give Los Angeles one of the deepest sets of starters in the major leagues. The right-handed Garland went 14-12 with a 3.47 ERA in 200 innings for the San Diego Padres in 2010. He is 131-114 with a 4.32 ERA in his 11-year career and has pitched at least 190 innings every season since 2002, his first full year as a starter.

In 2009, Garland played for Arizona and Los Angeles and went 11-12 with a 4.01 ERA.

Also: The Minnesota Twins have 30 days to sign Japanese infielder Tsuyoshi Nishioka after submitting the highest bid for his negotiating rights.

Nishioka led the Pacific League with a .346 batting average this season and had 206 hits, becoming the league's first player to get 200 hits since Ichiro Suzuki.

miscellaneous

UConn wins 82nd straight, sets women's basketball record

Connecticut set an NCAA women's basketball record with its 82nd consecutive victory, defeating Howard 86-25 in Storrs, Conn.

Maya Moore scored 20 points to help top-ranked UConn break its tie with Washington University, a Division III school in St. Louis that won 81 straight games from Feb. 20, 1998, to Jan. 12, 2001.

UConn's last loss came in the national semifinals in 2008 to Stanford. The Huskies are six wins short of matching the 88 straight victories set in the early 1970s by the UCLA men's basketball team.

Also: The New Jersey Nets assigned sixth man Terrence Williams to their NBA Development League affiliate in Springfield, Mass. Williams, a second-year guard who has repeatedly violated team rules, was averaging 6.8 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.0 assists.

Ross Fisher shot an 8-under-par 64 to match the course record and tie Ian Poulter for the second-round lead in the Dubai World Championship in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. They are at 9-under 135, one stroke ahead of Lee Westwood in the European Tour's season-ending tournament.

Westwood tightened his grip on the No. 1 ranking. He is one shot ahead of European money leader and third-ranked Martin Kaymer, who can overtake Westwood only with a top-two finish and the Englishman falling out of the top 27.

Giant Oak won the $500,000 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., after race winner Successful Dan was dropped to third for bumping another horse.

Rick DiPietro turned aside all 29 shots he faced, and Jesse Joensuu and Rob Schremp scored as the New York Islanders ended a 14-game winless streak by shutting out the New Jersey Devils 2-0 in Uniondale, N.Y. The Islanders barely avoided matching the club record of 15 games without a win, set from Nov. 22 to Dec. 23, 1999.

Ryan Huddy scored a first-period goal and goaltender Joe Fallon stopped 17 shots to lead the Wranglers to a 1-0 victory over the Ontario Reign in an ECHL game at Ontario, Calif. Tyler Mosienko got the assist on Huddy's goal as Las Vegas improved to 9-4-1 this season.

UNLV ended its season with a 20-25, 25-23, 29-27, 25-16 victory over Air Force in a Mountain West Conference women's volleyball match at Air Force Academy, Colo. Sara Nehf had 18 kills and 20 digs and Kendra Glendenning had 19 assists and 10 digs to lead the Rebels (10-20, 5-11 MWC).

UNLV was held to just two points over an 11-minute span in the first half, and Oregon State forced the Lady Rebels into a season-high 27 turnovers to pull off a 57-45 win in the second game of the Hyatt Place Lady Rebel Round-Up at the Cox Pavilion.

UNLV fell to 3-1, and will take on Pacific in the consolation game today at 5 p.m.