Sports briefs 6/12/04

College

Cincinnati basketball coach Bob Huggins apologized to players, friends, his school and the community Friday night for his arrest this week on a drunken driving charge. "I made a very poor decision that's reflected negatively on the basketball program and the university," Huggins said, fighting tears. "For that, I deeply regret it. I take responsibility for my actions. I'm going to do my part to make sure that something like this will never happen again." Huggins, 50, was arrested on charges he was driving drunk after visiting with a recruit. Huggins, 50, had trouble staying in his lane, had slurred speech and smelled of alcohol when he was pulled over Tuesday in the village of Fairfax, according to a police report.

Motorsports

There were no crashes or bad luck for Kasey Kahne at Pocono Raceway. Kahne put aside the disappointment of a wreck at Dover that cost him his first career victory and rebounded Friday to set a track record and claim the pole for the Pocono 500 Kahne, driving a Dodge for Evernham Motorsports, turned a lap of 172.553 mph for his fourth pole of the season, adding to top qualifying efforts at Las Vegas, Darlington and California. His qualifying time broke Tony Stewart's record of 172.391 set in 2000 Another rookie, Brian Vickers, was second at 172.308, and Joe Nemecheck was third in 172.183

Tennis

Martina Navratilova will play singles at Wimbledon for the first time in a decade. The nine-time Wimbledon singles champion was awarded a wild card Friday, signaling her return 10 years after she lost to Conchita Martinez in the 1994 final - and 31 years after she made her debut at the All England Club. The 47-year-old Navratilova also played singles at the French Open last month, losing a first-round match to Gisela Dulko 6-1, 6-3, leaving her with an 0-3 singles record this year. Navratilova reached the semifinals of the women's doubles at Roland Garros with partner Lisa Raymond. Last year, she won the Wimbledon mixed doubles title with Leander Paes, making her the oldest champion in the tournament's history.

Andy Roddick broke his own record for fastest serve with a 153 mph ace Friday during a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Paradorn Srichaphan at the Queen's Club grass-court tournament. Roddick served the ace at 1-0, 15-0 in the second set. It's the third time this year Roddick has improved the record. He had a 150 mph serve in a Davis Cup match against Austria in February, and another 152 mph serve in Davis Cup play against Sweden in April. He will face Lleyton Hewitt in the semifinals. The Australian, a three-time Queen's champion, won the last four games of each set to defeat Russia's Igor Andreev 6-3, 7-5.

Top-ranked Roger Federer moved into the semifinals of the Gerry Weber Open with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Arnaud Clement on Friday. Federer, who has won 15 straight grass matches, will face third-seeded Jiri Novak in Saturday's semis. Novak beat Tommy Haas 6-4, 7-6 (1) at the warmup event for Wimbledon.

Track and field

Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey broke the women's 5,000-meter world record by more than three seconds at the Bislett Games on Friday. Abeylegesse, who took control of the race with five laps to go, was timed in 14 minutes, 24.68 seconds. Bo Jiang of China held the mark of 14:28.09, set in 1997 at a meet in Shanghai.