Federer withdraws, citing his sore back
Wimbledon champion Roger Federer withdrew from the Western & Southern Open in Mason, Ohio, on Monday because of a back injury. He has won the Masters series tournament seven times.
The move was announced on the first full day of matches. This U.S. Open warm-up has lost five of the top six players in the men’s rankings.
Federer, a 19-time major champion, said in a statement he tweaked his back last week at the Rogers Cup in Montreal, where he lost Sunday’s final to Alexander Zverev.
Federer, ranked No. 3, is sidelined along with No. 1 Andy Murray, No. 4 Stan Wawrinka, No. 5 Novak Djokovic and No. 6 Marin Cilic, the defending champion.
No. 2 Rafael Nadal, the top-seeded player, remains in the draw.
Tournament officials tweeted that 21st-ranked Gael Monfils also is out because of an undisclosed illness.
Federer’s withdrawal means Nadal, who lost in the third round at Montreal, will return to No. 1 when new ATP rankings are released next Monday. The Spaniard will be No. 1 for the first time since July 6, 2014.
Among those who did play, American Sam Querry became the first seeded player to advance. The 15th seed cruised into the second round with a 6-3, 6-0 win over wild-card Stefan Kozlov.
In women’s first-round action, 2016 Olympic singles gold medalist Monica Puig lost to fellow qualifier Taylor Townsend 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.
ELSEWHERE Augusta National out to halt auction
The Georgia company that owns Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters golf tournament asked a judge to stop a golf memorabilia company from auctioning off a Masters champion’s green jacket and other items it says were never supposed to have left the club’s grounds.
Augusta National Inc. filed the federal lawsuit against Florida-based Green Jacket Auctions Inc., seeking to stop the company from selling the champion’s green jacket worn by Byron Nelson in 1966 (he won the tournament in 1937 and ’42) and two member green jackets, as well as silverware and a belt buckle bearing Augusta National’s map and flag logo.
By mid-afternoon Monday, the online bidding on the jacket, which closes Saturday night, had reached $114,874.
Colleges: The Pac-12 has hired Mark Shuken, the former CEO of DirecTV Sports Networks, to be president of its cable networks.
Shuken, who has also run sports networks for Time Warner Cable, Liberty Media and Fox Sports, will join the Pac-12 Network on Sept. 6. He replaces Lydia Murphy Stephans, who stepped down in June.
The nonconference schedule for the Stanford men’s basketball team features a Nov. 20 home game against defending national champion North Carolina and a Dec. 21 game in Sacramento against perennial power Kansas.