NEWS » y meant it -- that this

WASHINGTON -- After playing doubles past midnight and getting to sleep at about 3 a.m. on Wednesday, Steve Johnson was less than thrilled to be playing in the first Citi Open mens match in the main stadium at 4 p.m. Thursday.Still, showing the sort of progress that has lifted his ranking to a career-high 25th, Johnson played quality, first-strike tennis and ended qualifier Ryan Harrisons season-best run by winning the all-American matchup 6-4, 6-4 to reach the hard-court tournaments quarterfinals.I was lucky enough to be on the schedule first today. Just good turnaround, the fifth-seeded Johnson said, his words thick with sarcasm. Got a few hours of sleep. Just get back up. Thats life. Hopefully the ATP and those guys dont do that much anymore, because I dont think its fair. Its up to those guys. Theyve got to do what theyve got to do.Tournament director Jeff Newman said the scheduling was affected by rain that washed out play earlier in the week, and court assignments are based on various factors such as a television perspective, a fan perspective, how the draws are matched up.Every player wants to play in a certain position. You try to take feedback and weigh it all, Newman said. Some players will be happy; some people would prefer other spots.Johnson, a member of the U.S. Olympic team headed to Rio de Janeiro next month, broke Harrison once in each set. Johnson didnt face a break point himself and ended the match with a 130 mph ace.A two-time NCAA singles champion in 2011 and 2012, and a member of Southern California teams that won four consecutive national titles, Johnson earned his first ATP trophy at Nottingham, England, last month, then backed that up by making his fourth-round debut at a Grand Slam tournament at Wimbledon.I knew I was capable always of winning a title -- and, hopefully, multiple titles, Johnson said. Once you win it, then you know what it feels like, you know what its like to be serving for a title. You get to those situations a little bit more and you just hopefully become more comfortable.On Friday, Johnson will face top-seeded John Isner, who hit serves up to 143 mph and produced 16 aces in a 7-6 (3), 6-2 victory over No. 15 Marcos Baghdatis. This will be the third year in a row that Johnson and Isner meet in Washington. Johnson won in 2014 and Isner did in 2015, both decided by a third-set tiebreaker.Hell tell you this much: He was playing pretty poorly the first five months of the year. Wasnt getting much going. But he turned the corner [in June], Isner said. Hes carried that confidence over to here. Hes just like anyone else: When he gets confidence on his side, he starts going for his shots and his shots start finding the right spots.Also Thursday, No. 2-seeded Gael Monfils overwhelmed No. 16 Borna Coric 6-2, 6-3; No. 13 Ivo Karlovic hit 21 aces and eliminated No. 3 Bernard Tomic 7-6 (4), 6-3; No. 6 Jack Sock beat Dan Evans 6-1, 7-5; No. 7 Alexander Zverev got past Malek Jaziri 6-2, 5-7, 6-2; and No. 8 Sam Querrey took the last five games in a 7-6 (5), 6-3 victory over 2012 champion Alexandr Dolgopolov.In womens action, third-seeded Monica Puig lost to Lauren Davis 6-4, 6-2; fourth-seeded Kristina Mladenovic beat 2013 Wimbledon runner-up Sabine Lisicki 6-3, 6-3;?Risa Ozaki edged Naomi Broady 6-1, 5-7, 6-4; and Camila Giorgi advanced when Tamira Paszek withdrew before their match because of an upper respiratory infection. 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Selling is hard.So for a team that hasnt held a storewide clearance sale in almost 20 years, you have to hand it to the Chicago White Sox. Theyre turning out to be every bit as good at this as Macys.Two days and two monster trades into their Everything Must Go sale, theyve made two of the best winter-meetings sell-off deals of modern times. And it has changed the face, and the direction, of their franchise. Already.I dont know where their farm system was ranked before this week, said one rival farm director Wednesday night. But its ranked really high now.One day after reeling in two potential superstars (Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech) in the trade that sent Chris Sale to Boston, the White Sox didnt quite top that haul Wednesday, when they agreed to the stunning trade that shipped off?Adam Eaton?to Washington. But all three pitchers they received -- Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez and Dane Dunning -- have top-of-the-rotation upside.So if there was any doubt that the White Sox meant it when they started making noises last month about retooling, we would like to make this important announcement: No further doubting will be permitted by the proper authorities.This. Is. Happening. And guess what? Its not done happening, either.Theyre obviously not done, said a National League executive. [Todd] Frazier is probably next. Why keep him? And Id expect Jose Quintana to get moved. Once you trade Sale, whos one of the five or six best pitchers in baseball, thats what you do. You just keep going.So fasten those seat belts. They could all go now: Frazier and Quintana, Jose Abreu and David Robertson, and who knows how many more. They might not go this week, said White Sox general manager Rick Hahn. They might not even go this month. Some of them might not go until July. But its much more important to do it right, Hahn said, than to do it quickly.To truly appreciate the incredible work Hahn has already done, you need to take a step back and consider the perspective of recent franchise history. And by that we mean: They never, ever do this.Most of the guys theyve traded for this week were in preschool the last time their owner, Jerry Reinsdorf, signed off on Sell mode. That was in 1997, when Reinsdorf and pretty much the entire South Side was scarred permanently by what would forever be known as the White Flag Trade, which you should probably Google if youre not familiar with it.After all the abuse heaped on the franchises powers that be back then, it took nearly two decades for this team to be able to face reality and understand it was time, once again, to sell, sell, sell. But here we are.Its a decision that wass actually made over a month ago.dddddddddddd Hahn and executive vice president Kenny Williams gathered their most trusted scouts and decision-makers in their annual organizational meetings. And after several days of kicking around all their options, they came to a conclusion theyd been talking themselves out of for years.Theyd been patching the roof long enough. And the damned thing was still leaking.The direction they chose, Hahn said this week, doesnt fit with how we have acted over the last several years. Weve been in a more of a win now and patch and play type of situation.But of course, they werent winning. They hadnt enjoyed a winning season since 2012. They hadnt won a postseason game since 2008. They hadnt won a postseason series since Ozzie Guillen, Mark Buehrle and the boys swept the World Series in 2005.Meanwhile, that other team in town -- yeah, you know, that team -- was heading in a slightly different direction. So if this wasnt the time to go print up those For Sale signs, then when the heck was it?The last thing you want to be is caught in between, Hahn said. You dont want to be a club thats not good enough, not capable of winning a championship, but at the same time is just sort of mediocre or stuck in the middle.The funny thing is, though, that to pull this off, they had to do more than simply talk about rebuilding. They had to convince the teams they were talking with that this time, they meant it -- that this time, they were on the same page, all of them: Hahn and Williams and Reinsdorf. No kidding.At the GM meetings, another exec said, they were openly saying that this was what they were going to do. They were ready to rebuild and change the mix. And that told me that even Jerry was on board. Id never heard them say it before. This was the first time. They never said once, Were not trading Chris Sale. So this time, you had to believe they meant it.Yessir. They meant it, all right. And now theyve pulled it off. But it feels so strange, after all those years of going in the other direction, that even Hahn has to admit hes having a hard time handling all the praise hes getting -- for breaking up a team he built.The weird part for me, he said Wednesday, after announcing the Sale deal, is that we walk around here [and] you have a lot of people congratulating you. ... Its a little awkward -- because we traded Chris Sale. Thats not something you feel great about.Yes, but if youre going to sell, you might as well nail it. And two days into Sale-A-Thon 2016, Hahn and his front office have already proved theyve got the hang of this. Fortunately, this time, there isnt a white flag in sight. ' ' '