FOOTBALL

NFL going high-tech to diagnose concussions

The NFL is providing an iPad application to help team doctors diagnose whether a player has a concussion.

League officials demonstrated how the new system will work at the annual scouting combine Friday in Indianapolis. The move comes after a recommendation from the NFL’s Head, Neck & Spine Committee.

The questions and treatments will not change. But the app will create a scoring system to determine if there are large discrepancies between a player’s baseline score and his game day score. If there is a large discrepancy, it would indicate the player has sustained a concussion.

• Baltimore Ravens center Matt Birk retired after 15 seasons. A sixth-round draft selection out of Harvard in 1998, Birk played 11 seasons in Minnesota before going to Baltimore.

• Don Shula, the NFL’s career leader in coaching victories, will be honored March 2 with the Lamar Hunt Award given annually to an individual who helped to shape professional football.

TENNIS

U.S. NATIONAL INDOOR: Top seed Marin Cilic lost in straight sets, 6-2 and 6-2, to Kei Nishikori of Japan in the quarterfinals Friday of the U.S. National Indoor Tennis Championships in Memphis, Tenn.

OPEN 13: Gilles Simon upset defending champion Juan Martin del Potro of Agentina 6-4, 6-3 to set up an Open 13 semifinal against countryman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who saved five match points in a three-set victory against Australia’s Bernard Tomic in Marseille, France.

COPA CLARO: Defending champion David Ferrer advanced to the semifinals with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Italy’s Fabio Fognini in Bueonos Aires, Argentina.

DUBAI CHAMPIONSHIPS: Former Wimbledon champ Petra Kvitova defeated Caroline Wozniacki 6-3, 6-4 to reach the final, where she’ll play Italy’s Sara Errani, who defeated Roberta Vinci.

GOLF

LPGA: Stacy Lewis shot a 3-under 69 to keep her three-stroke lead after the second round of the LPGA Thailand in Chonburi, Thailand.

SKIING

RECOVERING: Lindsey Vonn is pleased with her progress from a season-ending knee surgery, saying she’s ahead of schedule and is on pace to return well before the 2014 Sochi Games and defend her Olympic downhill championship.

NORDIC WORLDS: American teenager Sarah Hendrickson won the women’s ski jumping title, defeating Sara Takanashi of Japan at Val Di Fiemme, France.

BOXING

GOLDEN GLOVES: Middleweight Jason Quirk of Scarborough and light welterweight Liz Leddy of Portland lost two close split decisions at the New England Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions Thursday night at Lowell, Mass.

AUTO RACING

NASCAR TRUCKS SERIES: Johnny Sauter led the final 17 laps and held off Kyle Busch before a last-lap wreck forced the 250-mile race to finish under caution Friday night at Daytona.

It was the 100th win in the series for Toyota and the manufacturer’s seventh straight at NASCAR’s most famous track.

— From staff and news services