Sports briefs 5/7/04

Baseball

Chicago shortstop Alex Gonzalez has a broken bone in his right wrist and could miss six weeks, the latest injury setback for the Cubs. Gonzalez was hurt in the seventh inning of Wednesday night's 2-0 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks when he was struck by the ball on a pitch from Mike Koplove. Home plate umpire Charlie Reliford ruled that Gonzalez fouled the pitch, and after a brief argument, he resumed his at-bat before striking out. Gonzalez then played the top of the eighth inning, fielded a grounder and threw out the runner before leaving the game.

College

Colorado receiver Jeremy Bloom was denied an injunction against the NCAA in his bid to play football while collecting endorsement money from his pro skiing career. The Colorado Court of Appeals agreed with a lower court that Bloom failed to show he would probably win his case or that the NCAA was inconsistent in applying its rules.

Hockey

Atlanta Thrashers center Dany Heatley scored in overtime to give defending champion Canada a 5-4 victory over Finland and a spot in the semifinals of the world championships. In Saturday's semifinals, Canada will meet 2002 winner Slovakia, which downed Switzerland 3-1. The United States plays Sweden in the other semifinal.

Tennis

Kim Clijsters' chances of playing in the French Open are in jeopardy after she pulled out of a tuneup tournament with a recurring left wrist injury. "I hope I can play the French, I don't know. It's a 50-50 chance," Clijsters said at the German Open. The pain in her wrist flared up after she played her first tour match in six weeks, struggling past qualifier Marta Marrero 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 Wednesday in the German Open's second round. Clijsters, the runner-up at the French Open in 2001 and 2003, also played two Fed Cup matches two weeks ago.

Marat Safin, Lleyton Hewitt and Tim Henman joined the long list of top players making early exits from the Italian Open. Safin lost to eighth-seeded Nicolas Massu 7-5, 6-4 in his second match of the day, former No. 1 Hewitt was beaten 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 by Andrei Pavel, and fourth-seeded Henman was eliminated 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 by Mariano Zabaleta. The clay-court tournament's top-seeded trio of Roger Federer, Andy Roddick and Rainer Schuettler lost earlier in the week. Elsewhere, No. 5 David Nalbandian defeated Flavio Saretta 6-2, 6-4 Thursday, and No. 6 Carlos Moya beat Ivan Ljubicic 6-2, 6-4.

-- From wire reports