Volley

Down Again, after a stretchlong battle with early leader Serve n' Volley, barely had enough to hold off fast-closing Davie's Lamb by a head to win the $60,500 Mt. Wilson Stakes at Santa Anita Friday before a crowd of 17,937. The winner, who earned $33,500 for Bruce McNall's Summa Stable, carried 114 pounds and was clocked in 1:16 4/5 for the distance of about six and a half furlongs on the hillside turf course. Down Again, trained by Richard Cross, paid $4.40, $2.60 and $2.20 as the favorite in the field of eight.

If you aren't up to speed on what the Transportation Security Administration has labeled Cupcakegate , here's a quick synopsis . Traveler Rebecca Hains of Peabody, Mass., last month had a cupcake confiscated as she passed through airport security at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. The TSA maintains the cupcake raised suspicions because it came in a jar and contained "gel-like" frosting that was deemed to have exceeded the 3-ounce limit. Enter the TSA Compliant Cupcake, a new product from Silver Spoon Bakery in Providence, R.I. "We wanted to take a tongue-in-cheek look at what the ideal cupcake would be to be TSA compliant," Silver Spoon owner Kelly Colgan says Thursday.

Seniors Geoffrey Grey and Dmitri Ketchens of Dorsey completed their impressive run through the City Section doubles tournament Wednesday, defeating top-seeded Alex Leb and Matt Berman of Palisades, 6-3, 6-3, in the championship match at Warner Center Tennis Club in Woodland Hills. Second-seeded Grey and Ketchens won 60 of 77 games and did not lose a set in five playoff matches.

North Korea fired artillery shells that landed near the disputed maritime line in the Yellow Sea on Wednesday, prompting South Korea to respond by firing its own shells toward the North's sea border, officials said. The shells landed in the water and no injuries were reported, officials said. The afternoon exchange took place in an area of sea that in November saw the last lethal flare-up between the two sides when North Korean shelling killed four South Koreans on Yeonpyeong Island.

As a pioneer in tennis' "big game," Jack Kramer always tried to end a point as soon as possible, usually with a powerful service, killing volley or a forehand that is generally recognized as one of the best in the game's history. But now Kramer, one of the game's all-time greats and one of its most perceptive observers, blames a decline in American tennis fortunes on an abandonment of that style of play among many promising young players.

Sweden's Stefan Edberg, escaping from a midmatch letdown, won his second straight Australian Open men's singles title today, defeating hometown favorite Pat Cash, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 5-7, 6-3. The hard-earned victory by the fourth-seeded Edberg ended the hopes of Cash becoming the first Australian to win the Open here since Mark Edmondson in 1976. Saturday, Czechoslovak's Hana Mandlikova upset top-seeded Martina Navratilova, 7-5, 7-6, to win the women's singles crown.

Son of Bjorn, Mats or Stefan, he is not. Sure, Thomas Enqvist is Swedish and, like his tennis-playing countrymen before him, the guy is decidedly low-key. But by design, and necessity, he is his own kind of player. You won't see him serving and volleying, a la Edberg. Or parked well beyond the baseline, creating chaos with topspin. His personal mixture of attacking tennis is overwhelming enough to land him at No. 8 in the world.

There were backhands and forehands, slices and lobs, smashes and passes — and that was just on a single point of the BNP Paribas Open men's quarterfinal between defending champion Rafael Nadal and 19th-seeded Tomas Berdych on Thursday night at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. With a tricky night wind kicking up, giving flight to water bottles and tennis shots, Nadal showed both his grunting power and deft cleverness in a 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) win over Berdych. Next Nadal will get big-serving Croatian veteran Ivan Ljubicic, seeded 20th, who well-described his own tennis as "clever" after his 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 win over 21st-seeded Juan Monaco of Argentina.

Aries (March 21-April 19): Since you love being on time, you should know that today will require an extra effort on your part for this to occur. It could take up to twice as long as usual to travel between places. Taurus (April 20-May 20): Affections increase over time. That's why it will be important to show up and spend a few hours with the people you care about. Gemini (May 21-June 21): You'll make a stellar first impression on someone and get the chance to make an even more significant second impression.

Perhaps Steve DeVries of Cal and Rick Leach of USC have been seeing too much of each other. People are starting to talk. They go way back. When the two tennis players were fixtures of the junior scene, neither was able to gain the edge, although Leach was the more celebrated junior.

The two Koreas exchanged fire Wednesday along the tense western sea border, a face-off reportedly started when North Korean launched three artillery shells that landed near the disputed maritime line in the Yellow Sea, officials said. South Korea responded by firing three artillery shots toward North Korea's sea border. No one was injured in the volleys, officials said. North Korea's shells landed near the so-called Northern Limit Line, according to military officials in Seoul. South Korea responded about an hour later with its three-shot volley.

Google Inc.'s decision to give all of its 23,300 employees a 10% pay raise next year ? and a $1,000 bonus to boot ? is just the latest volley in what has become a full-fledged war for top Silicon Valley talent. With engineers in short supply, technology companies are competing for employees who can write the software programs needed for new products and services. And they're increasingly stealing them from one another. Google is particularly vulnerable. The Internet search giant, long known for aggressively recruiting the smartest in the business, is under siege from Facebook Inc. and other competitors that are trying to lure them away.

Taylor Dent announced his retirement from tennis Monday. It's not a total shock. Dent is 29, and that he was playing for the last 18 months or so was a sweet bonus for a man who spent nearly two years fighting debilitating back injuries, underwent three back surgeries in 2006 and 2007 and wondered sometimes whether he would walk unaided and without pain. But it is a loss for tennis. For Dent is taking with him into retirement the kind of game we don't see anymore. Dent is an unabashed serve-and-volley player, always at the net. In fact, he has always been unwilling to stay at the baseline and pound ground strokes.

Sen. Harry Reid strolled into Nevada Democratic Party headquarters just before lunch Tuesday to thank volunteers busily phoning voters who had yet to cast their ballots. He handed a small loaf of banana nut bread wrapped in yellow cellophane to Ruth Fuggins, though she wasn't exactly sure why. Fuggins, a 66-year-old retired bank supervisor, has been volunteering for the Democrat's campaign for about a year, but doesn't know Reid personally. Regardless, she was touched by the somewhat awkward gesture: Reid isn't a show boater and Fuggins appreciated that.

Aries (March 21-April 19): Since you love being on time, you should know that today will require an extra effort on your part for this to occur. It could take up to twice as long as usual to travel between places. Taurus (April 20-May 20): Affections increase over time. That's why it will be important to show up and spend a few hours with the people you care about. Gemini (May 21-June 21): You'll make a stellar first impression on someone and get the chance to make an even more significant second impression.

Republicans have yet to formally decide their gubernatorial nominee, but California Democrats are already launching their campaign against the candidate they expect to win: frontrunner Meg Whitman. The California Nurses Assn. will begin advertising Wednesday on Spanish-language radio stations about the billionaire's position on immigration, a coalition of unions plans to launch anti-Whitman TV ads next week and presumptive Democratic nominee Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown unveiled his first online spot on Tuesday.

Serena Williams kept the No. 1, and added No. 50. Williams beat Maria Sharapova , 6-1, 6-4 in the final of the Madrid Open Sunday to retain her No. 1 ranking and collect her 50th career title. And Rafael Nadal eased by Stanislas Wawrinka , 6-2, 6-4, for his fifth title since returning from a knee injury. The second-ranked Sharapova would have overtaken the top ranking with a win, but Williams stormed out to an early lead as Sharapova struggled with her serve. Despite Sharapova briefly recovering her poise in the second set, Williams' form never dipped as she eased to the title.

Laughing as they killed, two youths clad in dark ski masks and long black coats fired handguns at will and blithely tossed pipe bombs into a crowd of their terrified classmates Tuesday inside a suburban high school southwest of Denver, littering halls with as many as 23 bodies and wounding at least 25 others.

There were backhands and forehands, slices and lobs, smashes and passes — and that was just on a single point of the BNP Paribas Open men's quarterfinal between defending champion Rafael Nadal and 19th-seeded Tomas Berdych on Thursday night at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. With a tricky night wind kicking up, giving flight to water bottles and tennis shots, Nadal showed both his grunting power and deft cleverness in a 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) win over Berdych. Next Nadal will get big-serving Croatian veteran Ivan Ljubicic, seeded 20th, who well-described his own tennis as "clever" after his 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 win over 21st-seeded Juan Monaco of Argentina.

It is a dream video-game matchup, to be sure: Pete Sampras in his prime against Roger Federer in his prime. But what if such a matchup were actually possible, and they played each other on grass? Who would win? Sampras casts one vote for Sampras. "I think one thing Roger doesn't see on grass is a true serve-and-volleyer, someone that's willing to come in and put pressure on him, make him pass, return," Sampras said during a recent conference call.