July 31 2009
Sports Bites

The winner draped himself triumphantly on the lane rope, thrusting his right hand in the air to celebrate a world record. It's a familiar scene for Michael Phelps. This time, all he could do was watch. Germany's Paul Biedermann handed Phelps his first major individual loss in four years — and snatched away his world record, too — with a stunning win in the 200-meter freestyle at the world swimming championships on Tuesday. Virtually unknown outside his country before this meet, Biedermann has erased Ian Thorpe from the record book in the 400 free and knocked off the winningest Olympian in history — all in the space of three days.

Spurs guard Tony Parker has a sprained ankle and injured thigh after colliding with an Austrian player during a recent basketball game. Parker is unlikely to be available to play for France in Thursday's game in Paris against Hungary in Eurobasketball 2009, according to sports daily L'Equipe. The Spurs' star hurt his right thigh and ankle in a collision with Stjepan Stazic in a game Friday. Parker issued a statement saying he was hit in his thigh and turned his ankle. The statement also said tests on Saturday showed no sign of ligament tears or other serious complications, and that he could resume training later in the week.

Rafael Nadal says treatment on his painful knees has been going well enough for him to have started training seriously, and he hopes to defend his Montreal title in two weeks.
Speaking for the first time since he withdrew from Wimbledon and didn't defend his title at the All England Club, Nadal said he had grown tired of always playing tennis with searing pain in his knees. "I had spent several months like this and when I came back from Miami (in April) it really hurt badly, especially my right knee, and the truth is that it was a different pain," Nadal told Spanish TVE1 television on Tuesday.

New Barcelona signing Zlatan Ibrahimovic is expected to be sidelined for three weeks after undergoing surgery on a broken bone in his left hand. Barcelona said that it hoped Ibrahimovic would be fit for its Spanish Supercup second leg against Athletic Bilbao on Aug. 23. The European and Spanish champions added that Ibrahimovic would travel with the team when it sets out on its tour of the United States west coast on Wednesday. Barcelona plays Los Angeles Galaxy, Seattle Sounders and Mexico's Chivas. Ibrahimovic, who joined Barcelona from Inter Milan on a five-year contract on Monday, was injured during the Italian club's friendly with Chelsea in Los Angeles last week.