INDIAN WELLS, Calif. cheap jerseys from china . -- Keep the ball in the court. It sounds like the simplest approach possible to the game of tennis. But when the wind is swirling and gusting as it has been this week at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden theres nothing simple about it. Caroline Wozniacki, who won last years BNP Paribas Open, said when she practised Tuesday evening "it was like a hurricane, it was so windy and cold." The weather hadnt changed much Wednesday, when the 12-day, US$11-million event got under way with 16 womens singles matches and winds gusting up to 32 kilometres per hour. Wozniacki, No. 4 in the world, didnt have to play one of those matches. She was one of the 32 seeded players who got first-round byes. So she could sit and watch, and empathize with those who did. Reigning Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova said in those conditions "its not really about the tennis," and Wozniacki said the only viable strategy is to "move your feet and play in the middle of the court - depending on how much wind there is, naturally. If its like this, its just about trying to get it over the net and inside the lines more than the other person." Wozniacki said experimenting with the tension of the racquet strings to alter the pace of the shots doesnt help, either, "because from one side youre hitting the ball hard and it doesnt go anywhere and from the other side you hit it a little bit and it goes into the fence." Later in womens action, qualifier Aleksandra Wozniak of Blainville, Que., lost her first round match, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7) to American Sloane Stephens. The hard-fought match lasted three hours 12 minutes 40 seconds, with Wozniak breaking Stephens twice late in the third set to force 5-5 and 6-6 ties before losing the tiebreaker. In mens play, Vasek Pospisil of Vernon, B.C., qualified for the main draw with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over Belgiums Maxime Authom. Frank Dancevic of Niagara Falls, Ont., failed to qualify, losing 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4 to Bobby Reynolds of the United States. American Jamie Hampton, who made her debut in the top 100 last week, had little trouble keeping her shots in the court and routed Polona Hercog of Slovakia, 6-1, 6-1, in the opening match on stadium court. American Coco Vandeweghe felt she dealt with the wind fairly well in the first set of her match, too. After that it got difficult, however, and Vandeweghe lost to Jarmila Gajdosova, of Austria, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. The oldest player in the womens field, 41-year-old Kimiko Date-Krumm of Japan, was a 6-1, 6-3 winner over 26-year-old Pauline Parmentier of France. But American Jill Craybas, 37, lost to 21-year-old Mona Barthel of Germany, 6-1, 6-2. Barthels reward for the victory is a second-round match with top-ranked Victoria Azarenka. Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic got the first win of the tournament, a 6-1, 6-1 decision over Laura Pous-Tio of Spain, and later in the day Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan, Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland, Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain and Sorana Cirstea of Romania moved into the second round. First round activity will continue Thursday, with the men joining the women and the forecast calling for warm temperatures and winds under 16 km/h. wholesale jerseys . Cross-country skier Brian McKeever won the mens visually impaired 20-kilometre race on Monday. wholesale nfl jerseys .Y. - Dustin Tokarski stopped all 43 shots he faced as the Hamilton Bulldogs blanked the host Syracuse Crunch 3-0 on Saturday in American Hockey League action.DURHAM, N.C. -- Dukes shooting cooled as the game wore on while its defence had trouble consistently slowing down Gardner-Webbs hot shooting. Then again, Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski said, it was an OK performance for a team coming off such a long break. Freshman Jabari Parker scored 21 points to help No. 8 Duke beat Gardner-Webb 85-66 on Monday night in its first game in nearly two weeks. Andre Dawkins added a season-high 18 points for the Blue Devils (8-2), who hadnt played since beating Michigan on Dec. 3 in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. That break, which included final exams, came after a tough stretch of four games in 10 days that included a loss to top-ranked Arizona in the NIT Season Tip-Off championship and a one-point home win over Vermont just before Thanksgiving. "You dont stop playing for two weeks and not have some slippage," Krzyzewski said. "But overall I was pleased with our team." Duke wont have to wait nearly as long to get back on the court. The Blue Devils face UCLA on Thursday in New York in their last game before the Christmas holiday. Duke had its good and bad moments in this one, though it led by a comfortable margin all game. The offence roared to a fast start with accurate shooting and unselfish basketball, though things slowed down after halftime. The defence didnt do much to slow the Runnin Bulldogs (6-6) in the first half, but Krzyzewski said the Blue Devils played better on that end in the second half. Duke led by 14 points at halftime and by 23 in the second half on the way to earning its 108th straight home nonconference victory. Parker said the Blue Devils had a "a little bit of a setback" when it came to talking to each other on the defensive end. "For the Michigan game we were really awake and aware of their players," Parker said. "But this game we kind of let them go to their tendencies and we saw it played out well for them." Quinn Cook, who had 16 points and nine assists for Duke, noticed something else as the Blue Devils couldnt miss on the offensive end through the first 14 1/2 minutes. cheap jerseys. "I think when we get it going offensively like that, we kind of get lazy on defence," Cook said. "We had it going early so we got lazy. But at some point, weve got to just get it out of our system." Duke made 17 of its first 23 shots (74 per cent) with 14 assists on those baskets before finishing the half at nearly 59 per cent. The Blue Devils shot just 8 for 22 (36 per cent) after halftime and finished the game at 50 per cent, though they hit nine 3-pointers and converted 15 offensive rebounds into 13 second-chance points. Jerome Hill scored a career-high 22 points on 9-for-10 shooting to go with nine rebounds to lead Gardner-Webb, which shot nearly 63 per cent in the opening half before finishing at 54 per cent for the game. "We played pretty good offensively the entire first half," Gardner-Webb coach Tim Craft said. "Unfortunately we couldnt get any stops on the other end." Parker finished 7 of 12 from the field with six rebounds in 26 minutes. Dawkins, a fifth-year senior guard who sat out last season while he dealt with his sisters death during his freshman year, finished 6 of 10 from the field, including 4-for-8 shooting from 3-point range. He knocked down his first four shots to help Duke to its fast start, which included a 7-0 burst in the span of a minute. Tyler Thornton knocked down a 3 off an inbounds pass and Parker following with a jumper in the lane and a dunk on an alley-oop feed from Cook to make it 46-25 with 5 1/2 minutes left in the first half. The only problem for Duke? Gardner-Webb didnt miss much, either. Gardner-Webb got as close as 56-44 on Hills layup with 17:07 left, but Rodney Hood (15 points) answered with a three-point play to turn away what amounted to Gardner-Webbs closest push. Dawkins followed with a 3 a minute later for a 62-46 lead, and Duke led by at least 16 the rest of the night. The Blue Devils took their largest lead at 74-51 on Parkers free throws with 10:42 left.cheap jerseyscheap jerseys from china ' ' '
