Laberboard » Richards can match last seasons scoring totals, howeve

LONDON -- Martina Hingis is returning to play at Wimbledon for the first time in seven years. The former singles and doubles champion from Switzerland was granted a wild card by the All England Club on Wednesday for the womens doubles tournament. Her partner is Russias Vera Zvonareva, a former doubles winner and singles runner-up. In addition to her singles title in 1997, the 33-year-old Hingis is a two-time doubles winner at Wimbledon, with Helena Sukova in 1996 and Jana Novotna in 1998. After a second retirement in 2007, Hingis returned to the game in July 2013 but has restricted her outings to doubles. She last played at Wimbledon in 2007, losing in the third round of the singles. Her last doubles appearance at Wimbledon dates back to 2000, when she went out in the second round. Hingis has been playing doubles this year with Germanys Sabine Lisicki. They won in Miami, giving Hingis her first title since 2007. With Lisicki now concentrating on singles, Hingis turned to Zvonareva, who won the Wimbledon doubles title with Elena Vesnina in 2010 and lost to Serena Williams in the singles final in 2010. However, the 29-year-old Zvonareva has barely competed since 2012 because of illness and injury. Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus, a Wimbledon semifinalist in 2006, was granted a wild card for the mens singles tournament. His ATP ranking has slipped to No. 118. Five British players also received wild cards. Among the women, Kristyna Pliskova of the Czech Republic and three British players were given wild card singles entries. More wild cards will be announced before play begins on June 23rd. Fake NHL Jerseys . Brooks replaces right-hander Yordano Ventura, who left his last outing with a sore elbow. Ventura is expected to miss one start. Brooks has made one relief appearance for the Royals this season, allowing six runs in two innings in a May 3 loss to Detroit. Fake NFL Jerseys . None of them was better than playing with LeBron James again. https://www.fakejerseys.us.com/ . In the other Group A game, the Czech Republic stunned Canada, 5-4 in a shootout. Dominik Simon scored the deciding goal in the tiebreaker. The United States scored its first three goals on power plays. "Overall, I love to see the power-play goals we were able to get tonight," said U. China Jerseys . The 26-year-old Redditch, England, native played three of his past four seasons under Rennie with the Carolina RailHawks of the North American Soccer League. Fake Jerseys From China . "That was a great lift for the staff," Padres manager Bud Black said. Yonder Alonso and Yasmani Grandal homered, and Chase Headley drove in three runs, as the Padres beat the Chicago Cubs 11-1 on Friday night.The Chicago Blackhawks filled their hole at second-line centre by securing the services of a veteran at a cut-rate price. Numbers Game looks at the Blackhawks signing Brad Richards. The Blackhawks Get: C Brad Richards. Richards, 34, has been a productive scorer throughout his career, but that productivity has waned as he approaches his mid-thirties. While he finished with a respectable 51 points in 82 games last season, that 0.62 points per game represented a career low and the second-lowest rate of his career was in 2012-2013, when he had 0.74 points per game. The downward trend is pretty clear at this point. He played 18:40 per game last season, his lowest average time on ice since his rookie season in 2000-2001. Given the massive contract that Richards had with the New York Rangers (nine years, $60-million), and the new recapture penalties that were imposed in the latest collective bargaining agreement, the Rangers had little choice but to buy out Richards, after paying him $33-million for the first three years of his deal. A long and productive career leaves Richards with few needs financially, so he went into his newfound free agency looking for a good fit and settled on joining the Blackhawks, a Stanley Cup contender who could use an upgrade at their second-line centre spot. In the past couple years, even as his point production has started to fall, Richards has had his zone starts tilted towards the offensive zone, with more than 65% of his shifts starting in the offensive zone. As a result, hes had strong possession stats, which may be enough to suggest that, eveen in decline, in a sheltered role, Richards would be an upgrade on Michal Handzus as Chicagos number two centre.dddddddddddd In Chicago, there is a good opportunity for Richards to have a productive year. Any combination of the Blackhawks top scoring wingers includes Patrick Sharp, Marian Hossa, Patrick Kane and Brandon Saad, so playing with two of them ought to give Richards a chance to have decent even-strength production. Whether Richards can match last seasons scoring totals, however, probably will have some dependence on power play production and, over the past couple seasons, Richards has really struggled to produce with the man advantage. Furthermore, Richards presence likely means that top Blackhawks prospect Teuvo Teravainen wont be starting the season in Chicago and that may be fine for his overall development, but if Teravainen shows that hes ready, it would be easy enough to see Richards bumped down the depth chart, as has happened from time to time with the Rangers over the past couple seasons. There is a benefit to the contract that Richards signed with Chicago -- a one-year, $2-million deal -- in that his declining production in New York was frequently contrasted with how much money the Rangers had tied up to get him. Now, Richards is a bargain signing and if he gives Chicago decent second-line production, he would bring a positive return on investment. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. ' ' '