Murray revises statement on gambling

Andy Murray tried to clarify remarks he made about corruption in tennis, two days ahead of his scheduled meeting with ATP officials about the comments he made last week. "I never said once that players fix matches and that players were directly betting on matches," Murray said yesterday. "I did say that there was a lot of betting in tennis." Last Tuesday, Murray said that "everyone knows it goes on" after several players said they were offered money to throw matches over the past months. Murray offered a clarification: "Three or four of the players have said that they have been offered matches . . . and, yeah, I did say that stuff was going on, but whether players are accepting money or not, no one's been [found] guilty and to think tennis matches have been fixed, I never said that. I don't think it's as big an issue as it's been made out." Murray said he will meet with the ATP tomorrow to have "a chat" about his comments . . . Top-seeded Novak Djokovic beat Stanislas Wawrinka, 6-4, 6-0, in the final of the BA-CA Tennis event in Vienna for his fifth ATP title of the season. "Great to win another title," the 20-year-old Serb said. "I was good in the first set, but I played some incredible tennis in the second. This was another confirmation of my great shape this year." . . . Ivo Karlovic, the tallest player on the ATP Tour at 6 feet 10 inches, had 27 aces in defeating Thomas Johansson, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, to win the Stockholm Open for his third career ATP title . . . Serena Williams was undone by a slew of errors and lost the Kremlin Cup final in Moscow, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1, to Elena Dementieva, who won her hometown tournament on the third attempt. Top-seeded Nikolay Davydenko gave Russia a sweep of the men's and women's titles by beating Paul-Henri Mathieu, 7-5, 7-6 (11-9), and winning this event for the second straight year . . . Italy's Flavia Pennetta won the Bangkok Open, defeating Taiwan's Chan Yung-jan, 6-1, 6-3, in a final interrupted for four hours because of rain . . . Despite being the defending champion in both events, Maria Sharapova has pulled out of the Zurich Open, which starts today, and the Generali Ladies in Linz, Austria, because of a lingering shoulder injury.

Lornah Kiplagat, 32, established a half-marathon world record in Udine, Italy, to defend her title at the world road-running championships. Kiplagat finished in 1 hour 6 minutes 25 seconds on the 13.11-mile course, slicing 19 seconds off the mark Elana Meyer set in Tokyo eight years ago. Deena Kastor of Mammoth Lakes, Calif., one of the prerace favorites, finished 16th, 3:13 behind Kiplagat . . . Jonathan Ndambuki battled rain, wind, and near-freezing temperatures to win the Denver Marathon by 13 seconds over Charles Kiplagat with an unofficial time of 2:21:34 . . . Jonathan Kiptoo beat Jophat Keiyo in a sprint finish to win the Brussels Marathon in 2:12:17 . . . Aaron Scheidies became the first blind triathlete to finish an Olympic-distance triathlon in under two hours, finishing the US Open Triathlon in 1:58:08 in Dallas. Scheidies, 25, and guide Ben Collins crossed the finish line 48th, about 14 minutes behind winner and Australian Olympian Greg Bennett. Scheidies, of Seattle, was tethered to Collins for the 1.5-kilometer swim and 10K run. In between, they rode a tandem bike in the 40K cycling leg.

Indiana basketball coach Kelvin Sampson will not receive a $500,000 raise and his team will lose one scholarship for next season after violating NCAA-imposed sanctions on phone calls. The action was the second time in 17 months Sampson has been penalized for improper phone calls. The NCAA banned him from offcampus recruiting for one year in May 2006 when the infractions committee ruled Sampson made 577 impermissible calls from 2000-04 while at Oklahoma. As part of the penalty, Sampson was also banned from participating in three-way calls. Sampson said yesterday he unknowingly participated in 9 of 10 three-way calls a review found he was involved in during the 12-month period he had been sanctioned. "I am profoundly disappointed we are dealing with this matter, as is Coach Sampson," athletic director Rick Greenspan said. "We hope these sanctions send a strong message."

Juan Diaz, who added a third lightweight title Saturday with his ninth-round TKO of Julio Diaz in Hoffman Estates, Ill., wants to fight Manny Pacquiao first before a possible unification bout with World Boxing Council title-holder David Diaz. "Of course, I want all the belts," the undefeated champion (33-0, 17 KOs) said. On the undercard, former World Boxing Association heavyweight champion John Ruiz of Chelsea finished journeyman Otis Tisdale in the second round. It was the first time Ruiz, 35, celebrated a win in the ring since he successfully defended the WBA belt with a unanimous decision over Andrew Golota at Madison Square Garden Nov. 13, 2004.

South Africa defeated Argentina, 37-13, in Paris to set up a meeting with defending champion England in the final of rugby's World Cup. The Springboks outscored the Pumas by four tries to one, with Bryan Habana going over twice to improve to a tournament-high eight tries. South Africa will face England Saturday, with both vying to join Australia as the only two-time winners of the sport's biggest tournament . . . Brazil's soccer team, despite fielding stars such as Kaka, Ronaldinho, and Robinho, opened qualifying for the 2010 World Cup with a 0-0 tie with Colombia at Bogota . . . Kate Ziegler of Great Falls, Va., bettered her own 800-meter freestyle short-course world record in Essen, Germany, for her third world record in 48 hours. Ziegler, 19, set a world record in the 25-meter pool with a time of 8 minutes 8 seconds, beating the mark of 8:09.68 she recorded Friday . . . Alec Kessler, the No. 12 overall pick in the 1990 NBA daft, died after collapsing during a pickup game. Kessler was 40 (Obituary, G7) . . . Vernon Bellecourt, who fought against the use of Indian nicknames for sports teams as a longtime leader of the American Indian Movement, died Saturday in Minneapolis of complications from pneumonia at age 75 (Obituary, G7).