SPORTS BRIEFS: Di Mauro suspended for betting on matches

By: Associated Press - | Saturday, November 10, 2007 11:56 PM PST ∞

SHANGHAI, China ---- Alessio Di Mauro was suspended for nine months Saturday for betting on tennis matches, becoming the first player to be sanctioned under the ATP's new anti-corruption rules.

The 124th-ranked Italian was also fined $60,000 after being found guilty of making 120 bets with an online bookmaker from Nov. 2, 2006 to June 12 this year.

Di Mauro, who faced a maximum penalty of three years, is banned until Aug. 12, 2008.

The investigation found none of the bets were on his matches and no results were affected.

Gipper wasn't the father

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. ---- A paternity test shows college football hero George Gipp wasn't the father of a girlfriend's child born shortly after his death, a family member said, but bitterness persisted over the exhumation of the body.

The remains of Notre Dame's first All-American, who inspired the rallying cry "win one for the Gipper" and was portrayed on screen by Ronald Reagan, were taken last month from a grave in Michigan's Upper Peninsula -- 87 years after he died from pneumonia and a strep infection.

His right femur was removed and DNA samples compared with skin tissue from Bette Bright Weeks of Crown Point, Ind., who died last January at age 86. Weeks had been told Gipp was her father, said Mike Bynum, a sports author planning a book on the football legend.

Busch leaves bad luck behind

AVONDALE, Ariz. ---- Kyle Busch's run of bad luck officially ended at Phoenix International Raceway.

Busch followed his Friday night Truck Series win with a victory Saturday in the Busch Series, giving him a chance Sunday in the Nextel Cup event to become the first driver to sweep all three of NASCAR's national series at the same track on the same weekend.

It's a turn of events for a driver who arrived in Phoenix frustrated by what he considered four-straight losses. He was on pace to win the Cup event two weeks ago in Atlanta until a slow final pit stop took him out of contention.

Et cetera

MLS: Nate Jaqua and Dwayne De Rosario scored goals and the host Houston Dynamo advanced to its second straight MLS Cup with a 2-0 win over Kansas City in the Western Conference final. The Dynamo will face New England next Sunday for the title.

Baseball: Delwyn Young hit a three-run homer in the first inning to lead the United States to a 5-1 victory over Japan at the 37th Baseball World Cup at Taipei, Taiwan. ... Free-agent reliever J.C. Romero re-signed with the Philadelphia Phillies, agreeing to a three-year, $12 million contract.

Horse racing: Garrett Gomez tied Jerry Bailey's record of 70 stakes wins in a year with a victory aboard Hucking Hot ($7.40) in the $65,000 Audrey Kenis Skirball stakes at Hollywood Park in Inglewood. ... Annabill ($4.40) beat Bayou's Lassie by a half-length in the $200,000 Elmer Heubeck Distaff Handicap at Calder Race Course in Miami Gardens, Fla. In another $200,000 race, Electrify ($6.20) beat Imawildandcrazyguy by 1 1/4 lengths in the Carl G. Rose Classic Handicap. ... Dave ($31.60) rallied from far back to beat True Cause by one length in the $150,000 Red Smith Handicap at Aqueduct.

Motorsports: Team Australia's Will Power won his fifth pole of the Champ Car season with a record-breaking day of qualifying on the Hermanos Rodriguez track in Mexico City.

Tennis: Defending champion Justine Henin will play Maria Sharapova in the Sony Ericsson Championships final at Madrid, Spain. Henin beat fourth-ranked Ana Ivanovic 6-4, 6-4, and Sharapova defeated No. 7 Anna Chakvetadze 6-2, 6-2 in the semifinals of the round-robin tournament that features the top eight players.

Winter sports: Americans Johnny Weir and ice dancers Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto rallied for wins at the Cup of China in Harbin, China. Weir edged Evan Lysacek in a duel between the former and current American champions, earning his first Grand Prix victory since 2004. Belbin and Agosto won in the final free dance, taking advantage of lift penalties by Russians Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin. ... Marlies Schild won the World Cup slalom at Reiteralm, Austria, despite losing time after losing control of her ski on her second run. Schild, the defending World Cup champion, edged Nicole Hosp by 0.06 in difficult conditions because of heavy snowfall on the Gasselhoehe course. She finished in a two-run combined time of 1 minute, 55.53 seconds.

Boxing: David Haye knocked out Jean-Marc Mormeck in the seventh round to take the Frenchman's WBC-WBA cruiserweight title at Levallois, France.