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Wednesday Daily News Athletes of the Week Banquet, 5:30 p.m. at the Jack the Ribber MLB — Yankees at Athletics, 12:30 p.m., CSNC MLB — Giants at Cardinals, 5 p.m., CSNB Stanley Cup —Game 1, Bruins at Canucks, 5 p.m., NBC French Open — Quarterfinals, 9 a.m., ESPN2 Sports 1B Wednesday June 1, 2011 Heat grab Game 1 Federer to face unbeaten Djokovic at French Open PARIS (AP) — Quickly and rather quietly, Roger Feder- er is back in the French Open semifinals. There will be absolutely nothing low-key — or, it seems safe to say, easy — about what comes next for the 16-time Grand Slam champion: a showdown against Novak Djokovic, who is 41-0 this year and unbeaten in his last 43 matches overall. With attention focused elsewhere, perhaps in part because some assume his best days are behind him, the no-fuss, no- muss Federer simply has won all 15 sets he’s played so far, capped Tuesday by a 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (3) quarterfinal victory over No. 9-seeded Gael Monfils of France. ‘‘For me, the plan is trying to get a step further and into the finals of the French Open,’’ said Federer, who won the 2009 title at Roland Garros to complete a career Grand Slam but lost in the quarterfinals a year ago. ‘‘At the end of the day, that’s, for me, the big picture, and that’s why I entered the French Open. It wasn’t to stop Novak.’’ Nevertheless, their semifinal is sure to be the talk of the tennis world until it’s played Friday. For Djokovic — who didn’t need to exert himself Tues- day, because his quarterfinal opponent, Fabio Fognini, with- drew Monday with an injured left leg — a victory over Fed- erer would guarantee a rise to No. 1 in the rankings for the first time. It also would make the second-seeded Serb 42-0 in 2011, tying John McEnroe in 1984 for the best start to a season in the Open era, which began in 1968. And it would put Djokovic one win from his first French Open title, the objective he cares most about at the moment. For Federer, a victory would put him into his first Grand MCT photo DeShawn Stevenson guards LeBron James during Game 1 of the NBA Finals,Tuesday night. MIAMI (AP) — Dwyane Wade’s night began with a hug for his mom. It ended with an embrace from LeBron James. And the Miami Heat have struck first in the NBA finals. James scored 24 points for his first win in five finals-game appearances, Wade added 22 points and 10 rebounds and the Heat beat the Dallas Mavericks 92-84 in Game 1 of the title series on Tuesday night. The Heat trailed by eight points early in the third quarter before pulling away, remaining unbeaten at home in these playoffs and snapping Dallas’ five-game road winning streak. Chris Bosh scored 19 points — holding up three fingers when it was over, a clear nod to the three wins Miami needs for a title — and Mario Chalmers added 12 for the Heat, who host Game 2 on Thursday night. Wade’s 3-pointer with 3:06 left put the Heat up 82-73, then the largest lead of the game for either team. The Mavs shaved two points off it on the next possession when Nowitzki hit two free throws, but James gave the Heat their first double-digit lead of the finals a few seconds later. He dribbled upcourt against Shawn Marion, crossed his dribble over and got clear for a dunk while being fouled. The free throw made it 85-75, and most in the sellout, white-clad crowd began standing in anticipation. Even then, it wasn’t over. Nowitzki made two more free throws — he was 12 for 12 from the line for the game — with 1:36 left, cutting the Miami lead to six. A momentary blip. Wade grabbed a key defensive rebound, dribbled away from three Dallas pursuers and found Bosh for a dunk with 1:08 left that restored the 10- point lead. Another dunk by James came with 38.6 seconds left, sealing it. Game over, and the Heat fans knew it, breaking into their now-traditional tossing of their white seat covers. ‘‘I just was aggressive,’’ Wade said. ‘‘We understand that this is the kind of game we wanted to play. We had them where we wanted them in the sense of points. You know they wasn’t scoring a lot on us and offensively we just exe- cuted and guys made plays.’’ Mario Chalmers scored 12 for Miami, which outrebounded Dallas 46-36. Dirk Nowitzki scored 27 points and grabbed eight rebounds for Dallas, which got 16 from Marion and 12 from Jason Terry. It was Dallas’ fifth straight loss to Miami in finals games, dating to the Heat rally for the 2006 crown. Dallas had 51 points after 26 min- utes. The Mavericks scored 18 points in the next 18 minutes, 33 over the remainder of the game, as Miami’s defense found another gear. ‘‘That’s kind of the way we’ve been winning games, of late,’’ Wade said. ‘‘You’ve got stay with it. You can’t get frustrated because the ball’s not going in. There’s other ways you can domi- nate the game and we was able to do that tonight. I thought we did a great job in the second half of rebounding the ball, limiting them to one shot as much as possible.’’ So, like was the case so many times this season, the Heat took the difficult route. Miami coach Eric Spoelstra mis- spoke before the game, saying it had been ‘‘425 days’’ since the Heat opened training camp. He meant 245, but some would say this season may have seemed 180 days longer after all that’s happened along the way. There was James’ ‘‘The Decision’’ where he left Cleveland for Miami, of course, something that still has him considered to be a villain in plenty of NBA cities. There was the 9-8 start, capped by a loss and long players-only meeting in Dallas. The Heat were swept by Chicago in the regular sea- son, lost three of four to Boston, then fittingly vanquished both in the Eastern Conference playoffs. The Mavs have an uncanny run of dominance over the Heat — which, for whatever reason, only seems to apply in regular-season games. Cardinals rally to beat Giants Louis. ST. LOUIS (AP) — Skip Schumaker’s infield RBI hit capped a three-run eighth inning, taking tough-luck Chris Carpenter off the hook in the St. Louis Cardinals’ 4- 3 victory over the San Fran- cisco Giants on Tuesday night. Albert Pujols and Allen Craig hit RBI doubles in the eighth before Schumaker, who had been in a 2-for-19 slump, got the go-ahead sin- gle against Javier Lopez (2- 1) on a perfectly placed grounder between first and second. Schumaker’s head- first dive into the bag beat the throw from second base- man Freddy Sanchez, who went far to his left to glove the ball. Ryan Franklin (1-3) struck out the side in the eighth in the first victory for the ex-closer since July 30. Fernando Salas finished for his 10th save in 10 chances. Ryan Vogelsong pitched five effective innings for the Giants, yielding a run and six hits. It was the fifth con- secutive solid outing for the right-hander, who replaced injured Barry Zito in the rotation in late April. Vogelsong had been 1-4 with an 8.49 ERA in 14 career games against St. Carpenter had a season- high eight strikeouts but oth- erwise labored, working with runners in scoring posi- tion all but one of his five innings and leaving down 2- 1 after 103 pitches. The ace right-hander remained at 1-5 but avoided losing four straight decisions for the first time since 2002 with Toronto. Cody Ross had two hits and an RBI and Freddy Sanchez also drove in a run for the Giants. Cardinals leadoff hitter Ryan Theriot singled in the fifth to extend his hitting streak to 14 games, the longest active streak in the National League. Jon Jay and Pujols opened the eighth with dou- bles off Sergio Romo. With one out, Craig doubled off Lopez to tie it and Schu- maker’s hit came with two outs. Pujols has only six doubles after entering the year averaging 42 per sea- son. Lopez has allowed five runs in his last six outings covering three innings. He permitted one run in his first 19 appearances and had been 4-0 in 51 games since joining the Giants last August in a trade with Pitts- burgh. Pujols made his second MCT photo Miguel Tejada tries to field a ball,Tuesday night. start this month at third base after zero starts at the posi- tion from 2003-2010. He had only one chance on a groundout by Miguel Tejada in the third. Outfielder Matt Holliday was scratched for the Cardi- nals, still nursing a left quadriceps injury that hin- dered his running in his first game back on Monday. He pinch-hit in the fifth and took a called third strike. Slam final in more than 16 months, his longest drought since he won his first major title at Wimbledon in 2003. It would allow Federer to make clear to everyone that he’s still at the top of the game as his 30th birthday approaches in August. Plus, it would serve as something of a rebuke to Djokovic, who beat Federer in the semifinals at the U.S. Open in Sep- tember and Australian Open in January. ‘‘There’s less at stake for me than for him,’’ said Federer, who is 13-9 against Djokovic over their careers but 0-3 this year. ‘‘He’s got a lot of things going on.’’ Both men surely are well aware who the last player to defeat Djokovic anywhere was: Federer, a 6-4, 6-1 winner in the ATP Finals at London, way back on Nov. 27. Against Monfils, Federer began poorly, bothered by swirling wind that reached 30 mph and delayed the match at one point because clouds of loose clay dust kicked up into the players’ eyes. He pushed one easy forehand into the net and flubbed a gimme volley. He double-faulted twice in one game while getting broken at love en route to trailing 3-1. ‘‘It was not just playing against Gael,’’ Federer said. ‘‘It was playing against the conditions.’’ It didn’t take long to figure things out, though. Federer broke Monfils to make it 3-all with a half-volley drop win- ner, then again to end the first set by smacking a return of a 128 mph serve so well that a startled Monfils missed a fore- hand. Recalling that he beat Federer the last time they played, Monfils said, ‘‘I told myself, ’Why not?’ But today he was stronger than me.’’ No one in this French Open has tested Federer, whose streak of 23 consecutive Grand Slam semifinals ended in Paris 12 months ago. That was followed by a quarterfinal exit at Wimbledon, too, hastening talk of Federer’s demise. After getting an up-close look at Federer, Monfils was urged to predict the outcome of the Swiss star’s next match. ‘‘I don’t know who’s going to win. But as usual, Roger ... is still right there. He has still a lot of desire,’’ Monfils said. ‘‘I’ll be the first to watch that semi.’’ Federer has won only one title this season — six fewer than Djokovic — and is seeded No. 3 in Paris, the first time he hasn’t been No. 1 or 2 at a Grand Slam tournament since 2004. Instead, five-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal, who faces two-time runner-up and fifth-seeded Robin Soderling in the quarterfinals Wednesday, is seeded No. 1, and Djokovic is No. 2. Wednesday’s other men’s quarterfinal is No. 4 Andy Murray against unseeded Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina. Playing with a torn tendon in his right ankle, Murray won the last five games to finish off a 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-5 come- back victory over No. 15 Viktor Troicki of Serbia in a fourth- round match suspended Monday night because of darkness. ‘‘I’ve done a lot icing. Taking a lot pills,’’ said Murray, who’s won eight of his last nine five-set matches. ‘‘I was given crutches, which I didn’t use, because I didn’t know how to.’’ There was an odd scene at 3-2 in the fifth set, when a ball boy — apparently believing there was a break in action — ran on the court during a point, while Troicki was lining up an overhead smash. Troicki hit the winner, but the chair umpired ordered the point replayed. ‘‘Kid just jumped in and messed up my point,’’ Troicki said afterward, noting that he’d never seen that happen before, in person or on TV. Murray won the do-over, but Troicki actually broke serve to take the game. Eventually, Murray took the match. NBA FINALS Tuesday’s result Miami 92, Dallas 84 Miami leads series 1-0 STANLEY CUP Today’s game Boston at Vancouver, 5 p.m., NBC Series tied 0-0 MLB American League Tuesday’s results New York at Oakland, late Chicago 10, Boston 7 Cleveland 6, Toronto 3 Detroit 8, Minnesota 7 Kansas City 7, Los Angeles 3 Tampa Bay 5, Texas 4 Baltimore at Seattle, late Today’s games New York (A.J.Burnett 5-3) at Oakland (G.Gonzalez 5-2),12:35 p.m.,CSNC Texas (C.Lewis 4-5) at Tampa Bay (Price 6-4), 10:10 a.m. Chicago (Floyd 5-5) at Boston (Wakefield 2-1), 10:35 a.m. Baltimore (Matusz 0-0) at Seattle (Pineda 6-2), 12:40 p.m. Los Angeles (Chatwood 3-2) at Kansas City (F.Paulino 0-0), 1:10 p.m. Minnesota (S.Baker 2-3) at Detroit (Porcello 4-3), 4:05 p.m. Cleveland (Tomlin 6-2) at Toronto (Drabek 3-3), 4:07 p.m. National League Tuesday’s results St. Louis 4, San Francisco 3 Houston 7, Chicago 3 Milwaukee 7, Cincinnati 2 Pittsburgh 5, N.Y. Mets 1 San Diego 5, Atlanta 4 Washington 10, Philadelphia 2 Colorado at Los Angeles, late Florida at Arizona, late Today’s games San Francisco (Lincecum 5-4) at St.Louis (Westbrook 5-3),5:15 p.m.,CSNB Philadelphia (Oswalt 3-2) at Washington (Lannan 2-5), 10:05 a.m. Houston (Myers 1-4) at Chicago (D.Davis 0-3), 11:20 a.m., WGN Milwaukee (Marcum 6-2) at Cincinnati (Leake 4-2), 4:10 p.m. Pittsburgh (Correia 7-4) at New York (Capuano 3-5), 4:10 p.m. San Diego (Richard 2-5) at Atlanta (Hanson 5-4), 4:10 p.m. Florida (Vazquez 3-4) at Arizona (D.Hudson 6-5), 4:40 p.m. Colorado (Jimenez 0-5) at Los Angeles (Garland 1-4), 7:10 p.m. French Open MIA Dallas 84 Miami 92 1-0 Giants 3 St. Louis 4