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Sports
Nadal Survives Scare Eight-time champion tops Ferrer to set up matchup vs. Murray
In Women’s Action … No. 4 Simona Halep and No. 28 Andrea Petkovic both moved into the semifinals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time with wins Wednesday. They’ll face off today for a spot in the French Open final. Today’s other semifinal will be 2012 champion Maria Sharapova against 18th-seeded Eugenie Bouchard; they won quarterfinals Tuesday. (AP)
Robert Griffin III throws a pass on Wednesday during practice at Redskins Park.
RGIII Says Full Offseason Of Work Is ‘Very Valuable’ Redskins Quarterback Robert Griffin III is getting a full offseason workload this year after missing the Redskins’ offseason practices last year while working his way back from knee surgery. Griffin said Wednesday that he has an appreciation of what that means. “You always understand the value of the offseason,” Griffin said following organized team activities, or OTAs, at Redskins Park. “That’s when you build your foundation to get ready for the season. When you have a hand dealt to you where you don’t have an offseason, you don’t use it as an excuse. That was the message that was trying to be sent last year.” Former Redskins coach Mike Shanahan shut down Griffin for the final three games of last season, saying at the time that he wanted to avoid Griffin being hurt and missing another offseason. Griffin said at the time that he was disappointed with the decision and wanted to play but accepted Shanahan’s
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Meanwhile … “Super Bowl 50” just looks better than “Super Bowl L.” With the unbalanced L in line for the 2015 season, the NFL decided to scrap the Roman numerals for a year. The championship game in Santa Clara, Calif., on Feb. 7, 2016, will be known as “Super Bowl 50.” Starting last April, NFL executives viewed more than 70 potential logos for the 2016 game. They found it’s hard to build an attractive image around what league vice president Jaime Weston calls “the lonely L.” (AP)
authority in the matter. Now he’s getting a full offseason under the team’s new head coach, Jay Gruden. “Obviously just spending more time with your teammates out on the field doing drills,” Griffin said. “I was out there last year but I wasn’t able to do the seven-on-seven teamtype things and make the adjustments at the line. So it’s very valuable. I’ve never denounced that.” MARK MASKE (THE WASHINGTON POST )
Year contract extension quarterback Colin Kaepernick received from the San Francisco 49ers.
ESPN reported the deal is worth more than $110 million. Kaepernick led the 49ers to their first Super Bowl in 18 years after the 2012 season — losing by three points to Baltimore — and then to the NFC championship game last season, a three-point defeat to the Seattle Seahawks. (AP)
Briefly, and only briefly, Rafael Nadal was in a difficult spot in the French Open quarterfinals. For the first time in this year’s tournament, the eight-time champion dropped a set. And Nadal’s opponent, David Ferrer, was the runner-up at Roland Garros a year ago — to Nadal, of course — and he also beat Nadal on clay the last time they played each other. So how did Nadal handle this test? Perfectly. From late in the second set, he won 10 games in a row, and 13 of 14 the rest of the way, to come back and beat Ferrer 4-6, 6-4, 6-0, 6-1, setting up a semifinal Friday against Wimbledon champion
DAN ISTITENE (GETTY IMAGES)
EVAN VUCCI (AP)
French Open
Rafael Nadal defeated David Ferrer in the French Open quarters Wednesday.
Andy Murray. “At the beginning,” Nadal acknowledged, “David was playing with a higher intensity than me.” The route Murray took during his 6-4, 6-1, 4-6, 1-6, 6-0 vic-
tory over No. 23 Gael Monfils of France was far more circuitous, finishing right on the cusp of dusk. In front of a crowd loudly pulling for Monfils, Murray was terrific at the outset, mediocre in the middle, then closed on a high. Murray raced through the fifth set in 24 minutes, winning 24 of 31 points. HOWARD FENDRICH (AP)
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