Sports in brief

  • 2006-12-06
After losing to Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius, SEB basketball team Zalgiris Kaunas' head coach Ainars Bagatskis announced that he'd be stepping down. "I was unable to make a team from players that I invited," Bagatskis said. "A change of coaches is the only logical decision. I have no complaints against my players. They practice really hard, however, during the actual games a lot of turnovers appear. That's because they try to do too much."

Russia won its second Davis Cup title with an impressive 3-2 victory over Argentina in Moscow last week. Russia's Marat Safin beat Jose Acasuso 6-3 3-6 6-3 7-6 (7-5) in the deciding singles rubber. Argentina's David Nalbandian beat Russian Nikolay Davydenko in the penultimate singles match. Nalbandian won 6-2 6-2 4-6 6-4 to draw the tie level at 2-2. Safin, the former U.S. and Australian Open champion, had been drawn to play Juan Ignacio Chela in the final match, but Argentina captain Alberto Mancini replaced him with Acasuso 's his first appearance in the final. "I'm happy to win in front of my home fans," the Russian said after the match. "It was really hard to win."

SEB basketball club Zalgiris Kaunas announced that it would extend Kirk Penney's contract until the end of the season. The 26-year-old guard from New Zeland had a short period signing, which has already ended. Penney has averaged 10.9 points and 2.4 rebounds in the SEB league. His three-point percentage is 42.3.