HOCKEY

NHL, players to negotiate through the weekend

With the clock ticking down to the start of the season, the NHL and its locked-out players are talking again.

The sides resumed negotiations at league headquarters Friday. These are the first talks since the lockout was put in place and they came a day after the league canceled the remaining preseason games.

The regular season is scheduled to start Oct. 11.

The league and the union are to discuss secondary issues and not the core of the dispute — splitting more than $3 billion in annual revenue.

The negotiations are expected to last through the weekend.

OLYMPICS

LUGE: Julia Clukey of Augusta held off Kate Hansen of La Canada, Calif., to win the USA Luge Start Championship at Lake Placid, N.Y.

Clukey finished in 6.170 seconds, just .01 seconds ahead of Hansen.

The competition tested start reaction to a gate that swung from closed to open to begin each heat.

That same gate start will be used at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, for the newest Olympic luge event — the team relay.

TENNIS

THAILAND OPEN: Top-seeded Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia out-rallied Fernando Verdasco of Spain from the baseline to win 7-6 (5), 6-4 and move into the semifinals at Bangkok.

Tipsarevic set up a match with 2009 champion Gilles Simon, who beat Gael Monfils, 6-4, 6-1.

MALAYSIAN OPEN: Top-seeded David Ferrer of Spain rallied past Igor Sijsling of the Netherlands 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the semifinals against Julien Benneteau at Kuala Lumpur.

Second-seeded Juan Monaco of Argentina beat Vasek Pospisil of Canada 6-3, 6-4 to set up a semifinal match against Kei Nishikori of Japan.

PAN PACIFIC OPEN: Defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska will play Nadia Petrova in the final at Tokyo.

Radwanska overpowered Angelique Kerber 6-1, 6-1, while Petrova defeated Sam Stosur 6-4, 6-2 in the other semifinal.

BASKETBALL

WNBA: Lindsey Harding scored 23 points to lead the Atlanta Dream to a 75-66 win over the Indiana Fever in the Eastern Conference semifinals at Indianapolis.

WNBA scoring leader Angel McCoughtry added 16 points and nine rebounds for Atlanta.

BOXING

RING RETURN: Former world welterweight champion Ricky Hatton will make his comeback against Vyacheslav Senchenko of Ukraine in Manchester, England on Nov. 24.

Hatton, who held titles in both the light welterweight and welterweight divisions, is returning to the ring after three years in retirement.

Hatton, who turns 34 next week and has a 45-2 record, was knocked out by Manny Pacquiao in 2009 and also lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2007.

Senchenko, a former WBA welterweight champion, is 32-1.

CYCLING

NEW RECORD: French cyclist Robert Marchand rode 62 miles in 4 hours, 17 minutes and 27 seconds in Alyon, France. Not all that fast for a record — but Marchand is 100 years old.

No prior record for a centenarian riding 100 kilometers exists, but cycling’s international governing body will recognize Marchand’s feat.

COLLEGES

WOMEN’S SOCCER: Vanessa Caruccio scored two minutes into the second half and Paige Marinelli added a goal with four seconds remaining to give Endicott (5-4-1, 1-1-1 Commonwealth Coast) a 2-0 win over UNE (3-8, 1-2) at Beverly, Mass.

PREPS

GIRLS’ SOCCER: Georgia Barlow scored one goal and assisted on two others, and Brooke Downey added one goal and one assist to lead Berwick Academy to a 3-0 win over Newton Country Day at Newton, Mass.

MOTOR SPORTS

JOURNALIST DIES: Chris Economaki, regarded as the authoritative voice in motorsports for decades, has died. He was 91.

Economaki was known as the “Dean of American Motorsports Journalism,” and worked in TV for more than 40 years.

SOCCER

BARCELONA: The Spanish club invited a Palestinian soccer player to attend its Oct. 7 match against Real Madrid in response to Hamas calling for a media boycott of the club after it gave a free ticket to an Israeli soldier.

Barcelona said it had accepted the Palestinian embassy’s request for tickets for soccer player Mahmoud Al Sarsak, who was held in an Israeli jail for three years.

The Spanish club also said that it had earlier given tickets as requested by Gilad Schalit, the Israeli soldier who was held captive from 2006-11 by Gaza Strip militants.

WORLD CUP: Players’ health in Brazil has not been jeopardized to please European broadcasters, World Cup officials said about matches slated during the early afternoon heat.

The tropical cities of Natal, Recife and Salvador will host two matches at 1 p.m. local time – 6 p.m. in prime viewing time in central Europe — and can expect temperatures around 90 degrees in June.

– From staff and news services