Sports briefs 4/12/04

Baseball

Chicago pitcher Kerry Wood tied a Cubs record when he struck out seven consecutive Atlanta Braves. Wood, working with a cut on his pitching hand, finished with 11 strikeouts while allowing one run and five hits in seven innings as the Cubs beat the host Braves 10-2. Wood also struck out seven straight as a rookie against Houston on May 6, 1998, when he tied the major league record of 20 in a nine-inning game. Mark Prior also struck out seven straight batters against the Astros on Aug. 5, 2002. The record for most consecutive strikeouts in a game is 10, set by Tom Seaver of the New York Mets against San Diego on April 22, 1970.

Boxing

Lamon Brewster came off the canvas late Saturday night to stop Wladimir Klitschko in a WBO heavyweight title fight that was waved to an end by referee Robert Byrd after the bell sounded to end the fifth round. Byrd stopped the fight after Klitschko had gone down following an exchange with Brewster that lasted after the bell. Also on the card in Las Vegas, Cory Spinks of St. Louis won a unanimous decision over Zab Judah to remain the undisputed 147-pound champion. Spinks (33-2), son of former heavyweight champion Leon Spinks, retained the welterweight titles he unified in December against Ricardo Mayorga.

Tennis

Closing with a record 152 mph serve, Andy Roddick beat Jonas Bjorkman 7-6 (3), 6-4, 6-0 to clinch a U.S. victory over Sweden in the Davis Cup quarterfinals in Delray Beach, Fla. Roddick's victory gave the U.S. an insurmountable 3-1 lead in the best-of-five series. The Americans will host a semifinal Sept. 24-26 against Belarus, which swept Argentina 5-0 in Minsk. Roddick broke his own serving record of 150 mph on match point. Bjorkman managed to get his return in play but then hit a backhand in the net, giving the American the victory. The other Davis Cup semifinal will be between Spain and France. Spain beat the Netherlands 4-1, and France defeated Switzerland 3-2.

Lindsay Davenport beat an exhausted Amelie Mauresmo 6-4, 6-4 to win the Bausch & Lomb Championships in Amelia Island, Fla., for her 40th WTA Tour title. Davenport is just the 10th woman with that many tournament victories, and her $93,000 winner's check pushed her over $17 million in career earnings. Only Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova and Martina Hingis have won more money in women's tennis.

Top-seeded Emilie Loit of France won her first career WTA Tour singles title, beating Ludmila Cervanova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-2 at the Grand Prix SAR in Casablanca, Morocco. Loit also won the doubles championship, teaming with Marion Bartoli to beat Els Callens and Katarina Srebotnik 6-4, 6-2. It was Loit's eighth doubles title.

--From wire reports