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BENCURTIS—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Eugenie Bouchard of Canada returns to Simona Halep of Romania during their semifinal match Thursday at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in London. ByHowardFendrich TheAssociatedPress LONDON Eugenie Bouchard could have lost her focus after the fourth game of her Wimbledon semifinal Thursday, when play was delayed for five minutes during Simona Ha- lep's medical timeout for a left an- kle injury. Bouchard also could have gotten sidetracked when action was halted again, smack-dab in the middle of a tiebreaker, because an ill spectator was being attended to in the Centre Court stands. And everything really could have unraveled for Bouchard later, as she let match point after match point slip away. Able to steel her- self time and again, the singular-of- purpose Bouchard became Canada's first Grand Slam finalist by beating French Open runner-up Halep 7-6 (5), 6-2 at the All England Club. "I'm able to not worry about the distractions," the 20-year-old Bouchard said. "What I do well is I really don't let it get to me or af- fect me." In only her sixth major tourna- ment, the 13th-seeded Bouchard will play for the championship Saturday against 2011 Wimbledon winner Pe- tra Kvitova. The sixth-seeded Kvitova defeated No. 23 Lucie Safarova 7-6 (6), 6-1 in the first all-Czech women's Slam semifinal. "I know how (it feels) when you hold the trophy," Kvitova said, "so I really want to win my second title here, and I will do everything (so) I can." Waiting in a hallway before walk- ing on court, Kvitova and Safarova chatted, a pair of longtime friends who train at the same club back home. From 6-all in the tiebreaker, Kvitova won 31 of 48 points the rest of the way, using her overpowering serve and forehand that work so well on grass to improve to 6-0 against Safarova. In a year that zero American men or women reached Wimbledon's round of 16 for the first time in 103 WIMBLEDON TENNIS Saturday'swomen'sfinalset Bouchard beats French Open runner-up Halep in semifinals, gets Kvitova The Associated Press OAKLAND The Oakland Athlet- ics have finalized an agreement on a 10-year extension to play at the Coliseum through the 2024 season. The deal was approved Thurs- day by the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority. The deal still needs to be formally ap- proved by the Oakland City Coun- cil and Alameda County Board of Supervisors later this month. The deal settles all outstand- ing issues between the two sides, including a dispute of past rent owed by the A's. The A's will spend more than $10 million on a new scoreboard and the Coliseum Authority will pay for any struc- tural improvements that will be in place by opening day 2015. The rundown Coliseum has had multiple sewage problems in the past year and an outage af- fecting the outfield lights on June 14. BASEBALL A'sfinalize deal to remain at Coliseum By Jenna Fryer The Associated Press DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. It had been 31 years since a driver won both Daytona races in the same season when Jimmie Johnson pulled off the Sprint Cup Series sweep. A year later, his teammate wants to complete the feat. But for Dale Earnhardt Jr. to win the Coke Zero 400, he can't race the way he did at Talladega Superspeedway in May. The Daytona 500 winner went to Talladega thinking he'd win another restrictor plate race, but instead finished 26th in a per- formance that still haunted him Thursday when he showed up at Daytona International Speedway. "It's embarrassing man, I hate to talk about it," Earnhardt said before the first of two practice sessions for Saturday night's race. "The way we ran and what I chose to do at the end of the race was just uncharacteristic really of anybody that is in the field trying to compete. I just got really frus- trated with the way things were working out for us and lost sight of the overall big picture and what you're out there trying to do and NASCAR SPRINT CUP Earnhardt to try for sweep at Daytona UFC bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey has turned her celebrity and charisma into a budding career as an action film star, but isn't leaving the mixed martial arts fighting world just yet. UFC 175 Rousey'scharismagoes from movie set to cage FULLSTORYONPAGEB3 At the 11- and 12-year-old District 1tournament in West Redding, Central Tehama beat Corning in an elimination game Wednesday. Central Tehama was to play Cottonwood on Thursday. LITTLE LEAGUE Central Tehama stays alive, eliminates Corning The Red Bluff Bulls under-15 American Legion baseball team hosts Fairfield for a doubleheader Saturday and a second doubleheader Sunday beginning at 11a.m. The u17 Bulls are in Spokane, Wash. AMERICAN LEGION Red Bluff u-15 Bulls at home this weekend By Carl Steward csteward@bayareanewsgroup.com SAN FRANCISCO The Giants are grasping for something, anything, that can get their stalled motor re- started, and it would seem a stretch to think that one returning player could serve as a master mechanic right now. But Brandon Belt, who has watched the highs and lows of this strange Giants team since May 10 while sidelined with a broken thumb, hopes he can provide some sort of spark of ignition that helps get his floundering team back on point. "I want to come out and be pro- ductive right away," Belt said Thurs- day after the Giants' latest ignomin- ious defeat, a lifeless 7-2 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals that completed a 2-8 homestand at AT&T Park. Belt will be activated when the team travels to San Diego to start a three-game series Friday. The first baseman was a huge part of the team's 42-21 start, and while the club's subsequent catastrophic collapse the past three-plus weeks would seem too burdensome a weight for Belt to take on his shoul- ders alone, any motivated new face will be a welcome one right now. From manager Bruce Bochy's per- spective, everybody in the Giants' clubhouse needs to put on a freshly motivated new face, from himself on down. "There comes a time when you say enough is enough, and that's where we're at," Bochy said after his team concluded a homestand hitting .192 with just two home runs, one stolen base and a .140 average with run- ners in scoring position. Things are so strained that Bo- chy altered his postgame routine, BASEBALL SCUFFLING GIANTS FALL TO ST. LOUIS San Francisco finishes 2-8 homestand by hitting .192 during that stretch with just two home runs ERIC RISBERG — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The San Francisco Giants' Gregor Blanco crosses home plate to score the Giants' first run in the third inning Thursday against the St. Louis Cardinals in San Francisco. ERIC RISBERG — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The St. Louis Cardinals' Seth Maness, right, is tagged out at home plate by San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey, le , in the eighth inning Thursday in San Francisco. Maness was trying to score from third base a er the Cardinals' Jhonny Peralta lined into a double play. CARDINALS 7, GIANTS 2 Up next: Today, Giants at San Diego Padres, 3:40p.m., TV on CSNBA. THESCORE Arizona's largest city has gone four months without any mea- surable rain, and neighboring New Mexico is in the midst of four years of severe drought. But you'll still see and hear fireworks around July 4. FOURTH OF JULY Drought won't stop fireworks in dry West FULL STORY ON PAGE B4 TENNIS PAGE 3 GIANTS PAGE 2 RACING PAGE 2 SPORTS » redbluffdailynews.com Friday, July 4, 2014 MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS B1