NEWS » serve by Monfils produced a backhand return th

RIO DE JANEIRO -- On a day of firsts for Olympic golf, Marcus Fraser of Australia had the one that mattered -- the first-round lead.Fraser ran off four straight birdies before the wind arrived and kept right on going until he had an 8-under 63, giving him a three-shot lead over British Open champion Henrik Stenson of Sweden and Graham DeLaet of Canada.Better yet? He set an Olympic record Thursday, though that was hardly a surprise considering golf had not been part of the Olympics since 1904.There was plenty for golf to celebrate in its return to the Olympics, from the opening tee shot by Adilson da Silva of Brazil to the first hole-in-one by Justin Rose, who wasnt even sure his 7-iron from 189 yards on the fourth hole had gone in the cup until he heard the crowd.Rose was at 67 with Thomas Pieters, Gregory Bourdy, Alex Cejka and Rafael Cabrera Bello. Byeong Hun An and Nicolas Colsaerts shot 68.Matt Kuchar was the top American at 69. Patrick Reed shot 72, Bubba Watson 73, and Rickie Fowler 75.U.S. SENIOR OPENUPPER ARLINGTON, Ohio -- Vijay Singh rebounded from a bad shot on the 17th to birdie the final hole and take a two-stroke lead after the first round of the U.S. Senior Open.Still playing full-time on the PGA Tour at age 53, the big Fijian shot a 4-under 66 on a hot and humid afternoon at Scioto Country Club in suburban Columbus.Singh pushed his tee shot right and bogeyed the par-3 17th. On the par-4 18th, he hit his second shot to 4 feet. The three-time major champion hit 13 of 14 fairways and 16 of 18 greens.Miguel Angel Jimenez, Jeff Gallagher, Michael Allen, Gene Sauers and Glen Day shot 68.Defending champion Jeff Maggert had a 70. He won last year at Del Paso in California.John Daly also shot 70. Bernhard Langer opened with a 73.JOHN DEERE CLASSICSILVIS, Ill. -- Andrew Loupe topped the John Deere Classic leaderboard at 8 under when first-round play was suspended because of darkness at rain-soaked TPC Deere Run.The 27-year-old former LSU player was facing a 6-foot par putt on the par-4 15th hole when play was called for the day.The tournament was delayed for 3 1/2 hours by a storm that dropped just over an inch of rain. The round resumed at 3:08 p.m., with none of the afternoon starters able to finish.Loupe had five birdies in a seven-hole stretch on the front nine and added birdies on the 11th, 13th and 14th.Zach Johnson, Patrick Rodgers and Ryan Moore were in at 65, and Tom Gillis also was 6 under with two holes left. Johnson won the 2012 tournament. Hes from just up the road in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. cheap nhl jerseys online .S. -- Nikolaj Ehlers registered a hat trick for the third straight game and Jonathan Drouin had a goal and five assists as the Halifax Mooseheads hammered the host Cape Breton Screaming Eagles 10-1 on Tuesday in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action. wholesale jerseys cheap .875,000, avoiding arbitration. Clippards deal Monday means all eight Nationals players who filed for arbitration wound up settling before a hearing. http://www.wholesalejerseyscheapfreeshipping.com/ . The head of USA Boxing came out swinging Tuesday with an open letter to Tyson -- a former Olympic hopeful himself -- that accuses the former heavyweight champion of trying to poach fighters who might be candidates for the U. wholesale nfl jerseys usa . Robredo, ranked No. 16, bounced back from an upset loss to Leonardo Mayer in the second round of the Royal Guard Open in Chile last week to down Carreno Busta in 1 hour, 25 minutes. On a day filled mostly with qualifying matches, fifth-seeded Marcel Granollers of Spain also entered the second with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 win over Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia, while Guido Pella of Argentina defeated Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 7-6 (6), 6-4 to advance. wholesale jerseys . Brazilian national coach Luiz Felipe Scolari has confirmed that the veteran goalkeeper is set to join Toronto on loan, saying it will help him be ready for the World Cup. WASHINGTON -- Things were looking bleak for Gael Monfils, a man with a long history of losing tournament finals.Monfils opponent in the Citi Open title match, Ivo Karlovic, was about to serve for the championship and had not been broken all week.Down but not quite out, Monfils came through. He broke Karlovic twice in a span of four service games and erased a match point in coming back for a 5-7, 7-6 (6), 6-4 victory Sunday at the Citi Open to earn his first trophy in two-and-a-half years.To be honest, Monfils said, today was pure luck.Well, maybe, but he deserves credit for figuring out a way to do enough to neutralize the big serve of the 6-foot-11 Karlovic, who was trying to become, at age 37, the oldest man since 1973 to win ATP singles tournaments in consecutive weeks.Monfils, a Frenchman seeded No. 2, had lost 19 of 24 career finals and eight of his last nine. This time, he earned $348,200 in prize money for his first title since February 2014 at Montpellier, France, and the most important of his career -- his first at an ATP 500 tournament, which refers to the ranking points the champion collects.He noted that he was proud to join Arthur Ashe and Yannick Noah as winners in the U.S. capital whose names are etched on the blue awnings around the main stadium.Theyve been an inspiration for me, Monfils said. I grew up with those names. Definitely to have my name next to them, its priceless.For a while, it didnt look as if hed get that honor. Until 5-4 in the second set, when Karlovic served for the victory, the 13th-seeded Croatian had won all 53 service games in the hard-court tournament.I still had this little hope. ... Maybe he will get tight a little bit. And obviously, he ggot tight a little bit, Monfils said.ddddddddddddMonfils converted his seventh break point of the match when Karlovic pushed a forehand volley long. Karlovic put his hands on his hips, knowing he had come so close to ending things right then and there.On the ensuing tiebreaker, Karlovic was one point from victory at 6-5, but a 116 mph serve by Monfils produced a backhand return that sailed long. A couple points later, Monfils owned that set, and he broke again to lead 2-1 in the third.Soon enough, Monfils ended Karlovics eight-match win streak, which included a title last week on grass at Newport, Rhode Island.Not since 43 years ago, when Ken Rosewall won back-to-back events a month shy of his 39th birthday, has a man older than Karlovic won two ATP titles in a row.Karlovics intimidating serve can take over a match. With the temperature nearing 100 degrees Sunday, it made for even tougher conditions for Monfils to try to deal with those high-bouncing serves.Monfils, who is 29, tried a bit of everything. At the outset, he stood way back to return -- to no avail, as he dropped 18 of the first 19 points Karlovic served (the lone exception was a double-fault).Occasionally, Monfils shuffled back and forth behind the baseline while awaiting serves. Later, he moved closer to the baseline while receiving, a tactic that seemed to help.But the real secret to Monfils success might simply have been that Karlovic wore himself out with his net-rushing tactics.At the end, Monfils said, I knew a little bit that its tough to serve and volley for two hours in the heat. ' ' '