Federer remains on top of his game

Roger Federer is now two away from another of Pete Sampras's records. The Swiss virtuoso beat Jarkko Nieminen, 6-3, 6-4, yesterday in Basel to win his second straight Swiss Indoors, clinch the No. 1 ranking for the fourth consecutive year, and close in on Sampras's record of six straight years as the world's top player at season's end. Federer has 12 major titles, two fewer than the record 14 won by Sampras. Sampras, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, and Ivan Lendl are the only other men's players to end the season ranked No. 1 four or more times since the inception of the ATP rankings in 1973. Federer is 7-4 in finals this year and has 52 career titles . . . Andy Murray won his third career title, beating Fernando Verdasco, 6-2, 6-3, at the St. Petersburg (Russia) Open. The 20-year-old Briton improved to 41-13 this season and boosted his chances of qualifying for the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, starting Nov. 11. He is 11th in the Champions Race with 326 points, three behind No. 8 Tommy Haas, who is followed by Tommy Robredo (328 points) and James Blake (327). Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Nikolay Davydenko, Andy Roddick, and David Ferrer already have qualified for the event. The two remaining spots will be decided at this week's Paris Masters . . . Sebastien Grosjean won the Lyon (France) Grand Prix for his first title in five years, serving 17 aces and beating Marc Gicquel, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 . . . Second-seeded Daniela Hantuchova defeated Patty Schnyder, 6-4, 6-2, to win the Generali Ladies in Linz, Austria, her second WTA Tour title of the season and third overall.

Kobe Bryant "hasn't thrown his heart and soul into performing on the floor" during preseason, Lakers coach Phil Jackson told the Los Angeles Times after Saturday's practice. Bryant, the subject of daily trade speculation, disagreed. "That [should be] the least of his concerns or anybody's concerns," Bryant said. "I'm ready to play. Period. You don't have to worry about me." The Lakers open their season at home tomorrow against Houston.

Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher all but confirmed an Internet report that he has an arthritic back after a subpar performance in a 16-7 loss to the visiting Detroit Lions. The six-time Pro Bowler, who was credited with just four tackles, told foxsports.com that his back has been bothering him since training camp and that he recently had a specialist in Pittsburgh examine it. "He confirmed what the team told me, that they think it's an arthritis type of thing," Urlacher said.

In his first race independent of the United States ski team, Bode Miller finished fifth. The season-opening World Cup giant slalom in Soelden, Austria, was won by defending overall World Cup champ Aksel Lund Svindal, who had the fastest second run to win in 2 minutes 17.87 seconds. Olympic combined champ Ted Ligety of the US finished second, 32-hundredths of a second behind. Miller posted the second-fastest final run to vault from 17th to fifth with a combined time of 2:18.93. The New Hampshire native's time in the second leg was all the more impressive considering a major mistake he made after coming over the breakover, when he made two wide turns.

Providence's Demetrius Andrade is one victory from qualifying for the Beijing Olympics. Pounding his opponent with strong shots to the body, the welterweight beat Latvian Dmitrijs Sostaks, 19-3, at the World Boxing Championships in Chicago. Light flyweight Luis Yanez, a high school senior from Duncanville, Texas, is also a win away after winning by walkover. Brooklyn lightweight Sadam Ali was eliminated by Armenia's Hrachik Javakhyan, 20-16. Ali will have two more chances to qualify for the Olympics at upcoming tournaments in Guatemala and Trinidad and Tobago. US light heavyweight Christopher Downs fell behind England's Tony Jeffries in the second round and couldn't make up the difference in a 19-8 decision.

Freshman Natalie Crutchfield, a former Acton-Boxboro standout, scored in the 88th minute as the 14th-ranked Boston College women's soccer team (10-3-3, 3-3-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) pulled off a 1-0 upset of No. 3 Virginia (11-2-4, 5-1-3) in Newton . . . Boston University earned a share of the America East regular-season women's soccer crown with New Hampshire, Casey Brown and Marisha Schumacher-Hodge scoring for host BU (9-6-3, 6-1-1) in its 2-0 win over Binghamton. A tiebreaker gave UNH the top seed in the conference tournament . . . Jill Tierney had a goal and two assists as UMass-Lowell beat visiting Bentley, 5-1, in the Northeast-10 championship field hockey match . . . Iraq reached the second qualifying round for the 2010 World Cup with a 0-0 tie with Pakistan in Damascus. Iraq won, 7-0, at Pakistan in the first leg . . . The San Jose Sharks placed forward Ryane Clowe (knee) and defenseman Rob Davison (finger) on injured reserve and recalled forwards Devin Setoguchi and Lukas Kaspar from Worcester (AHL) . . . Nathan Crowell, 22, an amateur hockey player and University of New Haven student, died after a puck struck him in the chest and caused him to go into cardiac arrest Thursday at a rink in Shelton, Conn., officials said . . . Kenyan Wilfred Kigen won his third straight Frankfurt Marathon, finishing in 2:07:58. Melanie Kraus of Germany won the women's title in 2:28:56 . . . Providence's Shad Miller (2:28:39) won for the second straight year, and New Hampshire's Heidi Westerling (2:45:51) made it three straight victories at the Cape Cod Marathon . . . Girma Tola and Aziza Ayilu made it an Ethiopian sweep at the Mayor's Cup. Tola won the men's 8-kilometer race in 23:18. Ayilu became the first woman since Lynn Jennings in 1995 to succesfully defend her title, winning the 5K race in 16:37 . . . Wakefield's Ronda Rousey beat Katy Bryant to win a gold medal the Rendez-Vous Canada judo competition in Montreal.