It was one of my best matches on clay, certainly this year.”Sixth seed Verdasco earned the right to meet his compatriot with a 7-5 6-4 triumph over France’s Richard Gasquet.”It’s sure to be a really tough match. I was close to losing to him in Australia,” added Nadal referring to his five-set win over Verdasco in this year’s Australian Open semi-finals. I could read his first serve,” said the world number two, who is seeking his first title of the year.”I didn’t have a problem to attack his serve, whereas last year I was just trying to get the ball into play and then obviously he was able to mix it up and make me doubt much more.”"I had the control from the baseline I’m really happy with the performance today. It’s just important that I work hard and get back to my best.
I know I’m very close to it.”Next up is German qualifier Mischa Zverev, who sprang a surprise by whipping French eighth seed Gilles Simon 6-4 6-1.After knocking out Britain’s world number four Andy Murray Wednesday, Argentine qualifier Juan Monaco reached the last eight with a 6-4 6-4 win over Croatian 15th seed Marin Cilic.It is the first time in the history of the men’s tournament in Rome that two qualifiers have reached this stage.Monaco will now face Chilean Fernando Gonzalez, the 12th seed, who scraped past Austria’s Juergen Melzer 3-6 6-3 7-5. Sports France. “Report to the Commissioner of Baseball of an Independent Investigation into the Illegal Use of Steroids and Other Performance Enhancing Substances by Players in Major League Baseball.” Sounds official doesn't it?But does the “Mitchell Report” really help solve baseball's drug problem or was it just a ploy by the Commissioner's office? Bud Selig knew he needed to do something about steroids or his legacy would go down the drain. The day before the report was released to the public, Selig commented, “I haven't seen the report yet, but I'm proud I did it.” He's proud he did it. Right.Wouldn't it have made more sense for Selig to say that he hadn't yet seen the report but was anxious to review the findings and recommendations of Senator Mitchell?The Mitchell Report contains 409 pages of information regarding steroids. But we need to remember that it isn't evidence of anything. Aside from the few cases in which evidence was produced, there's no proof that anyone took steroids.
Brian McNamee told Senator Mitchell he injected Roger Clemens with steroids a few years back. But there's no proof. Senator Mitchell said he had complete confidence in the accuracy of McNamee's testimony but excuse me if that doesn't make me feel all better. I would hope that Mitchell would feel “confident” before publishing a report that could ruin players' careers with no hard facts.When Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, and Brian McNamee, among others, testify before Congress later this year, it's possible that we'll get more information. But until then, keep in mind that the Mitchell Report hasn't helped Major League Baseball nearly as much as it could potentially hurt it.. * Cost cuts were effective in Q1 * Company could save $200 mln this year * Sees signs of stabilizing demand, sales decline may slow * Prepared to cut jobs if demand deteriorates By Nick Zieminski NEW YORK, April 30 (Reuters) – Cost cuts at Monster Worldwide Inc (MWW.N), parent of the Monster jobs site, could save the company about $200 million this year, but the company is prepared to take aggressive steps including job cuts if demand deteriorates, its Chief Executive said on Thursday. Efforts to contain costs — including freezing incentive compensation and 401(k) contributions, and lowering headcount through attrition — were key to the company’s performance in the latest quarter, CEO Sal Iannuzzi told Reuters in an exclusive interview ahead of the company’s quarterly conference call with analysts. “We took a number of additional actions to reduce costs and they were effective,” Iannuzzi said. “If the situation deteriorates, we are prepared to take more reductions in the company It would involve people,” he said.