FSU legend Bowden in hospital with COVID
Former Florida State coach Bobby Bowden was hospitalized Tuesday for treatment of COVID-19.
Family friend Kim Shiff, Bowden’s former publicist, told the AP in a text message that the 90-year-old college football Hall of Famer was “very fatigued,” but had no other symptoms.
Bowden was being treated treated at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare.
Bowden’s wife, Ann, told the Tallahassee Democrat her husband was scheduled to undergo a chest X-ray and other tests.
Bowden recently returned home from a lengthy hospital stay for an infection in his leg. He was notified he had tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday.
Bowden coached Florida State for 34 years and is second on the career victories list in major college football with 357, behind only the late Joe Paterno of Penn State.Bowden won national titles with the Seminoles in 1993 and 1999.
FRENCH OPEN
Novak Djokovic overcame a bothersome left arm and an early deficit to reach the French Open semifinals for the 10th time.
The top-seeded Djokovic kept flexing and stretching that arm and got off to a slow start Wednesday night before he received massages from a trainer, righted himself and beat No. 17 seed Pablo Carreno Busta 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 to move closer to a second championship at Roland Garros and 18th Grand Slam trophy.
This was a rematch from the U.S. Open last month, when Djokovic was defaulted for inadvertently hitting a line judge in the throat with a ball he smacked in anger. That went into the books as a loss and remains the only blemish on Djokovic’s 36-1 record in 2020.
Djokovic certainly seems to have moved past that episode, winning all 10 matches he’s played since.
He hadn’t even ceded a set at Roland Garros this year until Wednesday, when he was troubled physically at the outset. Djokovic showed up for the match with a bandage on the back of his neck, then made clear from the get-go there was something wrong with his left arm.
He is right-handed, but the left side is important, too. He uses it for his twofisted backhand and to throw the ball in the air on serves. Whatever impediment there was to his play, whatever the pain level might have been, the issue was, at the very least, a distraction.
Djokovic will meet No. 5 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in one of Friday’s semifinals. No. 2 Rafael Nadal faces No. 12 Diego Schwartzman in the other.
Nadal is seeking a 13th title in Paris and 20th major championship overall, which would equal Roger Federer’s record for men. Schwartzman never has played in a major semifinal.
In the women’s semifinals Thursday, it'll be
No. 4 Sofia Kenin vs. No. 7 Petra Kvitova, and 54th-ranked Iga Swiatek vs. 131st-ranked Nadia Podoroska, the first female qualifier to get this far at the French Open.
ETC.
NHL The Florida Panthers took a best-playeravailable approach in Bill Zito’s first NHL Entry Draft as general manager and it meant a lot of sweating out the waits until the Panthers were set to pick. Multiple times throughout the second day of the 2020 NHL Entry Draft on Wednesday, Zito said, Florida’s draft room broke out into a miniature celebration when the team drafting one spot ahead of the Panthers opted not to take the top player on Florida’s draft board.
The results on Day 2 of the NHL Draft for the Panthers: four forwards, three defensemen and an intriguing goaltender prospect with their ninth, and final, selection of the two-day 2020 Draft.
Florida started with a run on forwards, taking Finnish center Anton Lundell with its first-round pick, then opening Day 2 with three more forwards. The Panthers then selected three straight defensemen before finishing the draft with one more forward in the seventh round and a goalie to wrap up a marathon, seven-hour final day of the Draft.
With the No. 43 overall pick in the second round, Florida took Swedish right wing Emil Heineman .In the third round, the Panthers took Quinnipiac center Ty Smilanic with the No. 74 pick and Canadian right wing Justin Sourdif with No. 87 pick.
Florida then pivoted to defense in the middle rounds, taking three straight defesemen in the fourth and fifth rounds. In the fourth round, the Panthers took Denver Pioneers defenseman Michael Benning with the No. 95 pick and Merrimack Warriors defenseman Zachary Uens with the No. 105 pick. With the No. 153 overall pick in the fifth round, Florida took Finnish defenseman Kasper Puutio. The Panthers closed out the Draft with two seventh-round picks, taking Swedish center Elliot Ekmark at No. 198 and Northeastern goaltender Devon Levi at No. 212.
Girls’ volleyball – Florida Christian d. Gulliver (25-14 19-25 25-15, 25-22): Hannah Mira 13 points, 3 aces, 5 digs, 2 kills; Mikaela King 11 points, 2 aces, 8 kills, 15 assists, 17 digs; Briley Wellinghoff 10 points, 2 aces, 18 digs; Andrea Amador 6 kills. … Ransom Everglades d. St. Brendan: Ransom is 3-1.