Wednesday, September 02, 2009 NEW YORK: Former world No.1 Maria Sharapova advanced to the second round of the US Open by defeating Bulgaria's 98th-ranked Tsvetana Pironkova 6-3 6-0 in 73 minutes.Sharapova, the 2006 US Open winner, is coming back after a right shoulder injury that kept her from playing in last year's US Open. The 29th-seeded Russian will next face US wild card Christina McHale, who ousted Slovenia's Polona Hercog 6-3 6-1. Top-ranked Dinara Safina avoided becoming the first top-seeded woman ever to lose her opening match at the U.S. Open, rallying to defeat Olivia Rogowska of Australia in three sets.Safina committed 11 double faults and 48 unforced errors against the 18-year-old Rogowska, a wild-card entry who's ranked 167th in the world.A major upset looked to be in the offing as Rogowska took a 4-2 lead in the deciding set. But Safina reeled off four straight games to win 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-4 in just over two and a half hours and remain in the running for her first major title.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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