The ATP has announced that it has signed FedEx as a platinum sponsor.

The company will be the tour’s official carrier and also become a sponsor of 17 ATP tournaments. As part of the deal, the ATP will provide statistical data in new areas like surface records. The deal will begin at the ATP Wourld Tour finals in November and extend for the next three years.

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP)—Marcos Baghdatis has decided to quit Cyprus’s Davis Cup team to concentrate on regaining his place in the top 10.

The 25-year-old has carried the Cyprus team in Davis Cup competition for years, earning 54 wins in 67 appearances. In singles matches, his record is 38-3.

Baghdatis reached a career-high ranking of No. 8 in 2006, when he reached the Australian Open final and the semifinals at Wimbledon. But injuries caused him to drop out of the top 100 last year.

This season, he has defeated Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal and climbed back up to No. 18 in the rankings.

NEW YORK (AP)—Vera Zvonareva let her opponent self destruct, taking advantage of 60 unforced errors to win her U.S. Open quarterfinal 6-3, 7-5 over Kaia Kanepi on Wednesday.

No. 7 Zvonareva, who made the Wimbledon final earlier this year, will play the winner of the day’s later quarterfinal between No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki and unseeded Dominika Cibulkova.

The 31st-seeded Kanepi struggled on a windy afternoon in Arthur Ashe Stadium. She hit only 18 winners to go with her 60 unforced errors.

“In these conditions, the most important thing is to find the right balance,” Zvonareva said. “It’s between keeping the ball in play and going for your shots, and I think I was able to find that balance.”

The tone for the match was set early, when the players traded service breaks right away to make it 1-1, and they combined for 12 unforced errors and one winner through the first two games.

“It was tough for both of us,” Zvonareva said. “We tried to show our best today and sometimes we had some ridiculous rallies.”

Other matches scheduled for Wednesday were men’s quarterfinals between No. 17 Gael Monfils and No. 3 Novak Djokovic and a night contest between No. 2 Roger Federer and No. 5 Robin Soderling.

The first women’s semifinal was set up Tuesday, when a pair of two-time winners at Flushing Meadows, No. 2 Kim Clijsters and No. 3 Venus Williams, each won.

NEW YORK (AP)—A point that meant little on the scoreboard Wednesday in the U.S. Open offered a clue about the difference between a player struggling to reach the top and another who’s much closer.

Though a regular swing would have sufficed, 17th-seeded Gael Monfils jumped up, brought his racket around his body and through his legs and hit a trick shot – straight into the bottom of the net.

It was a telling moment in his 7-6 (2), 6-1, 6-2 loss to No. 3 Novak Djokovic – “The Joker” – who can be equally entertaining on the court, though usually more discerning about when to put on a show.

Djokovic, the 2008 Australian Open champion who can do impressions of everyone from McEnroe to Nadal to Sharapova, reached his fourth straight semifinal at Flushing Meadows. The Serb has been eliminated the last three times, including in the 2007 final, by Roger Federer, who was scheduled to play Robin Soderling later Wednesday.

Djokovic fought through gusty winds at Arthur Ashe Stadium to roll to his victory and now gets two days of rest before the semifinal on “Super Saturday” at the Open.

“These are the worst conditions so far in the tournament,” he said. “I don’t think the crowd really enjoyed the tennis too much. We did have some acrobacy on the court.”

Monfils, he of the long limbs, the stylin’ clothes and unending charm, was hoping to make his second Grand Slam semifinal. But he was overmatched. After getting up an early break in the first set, he didn’t do any damage. He finished with 17 winners and 37 unforced errors – one of them more memorable than the rest.

The Frenchman offered the following explanation for the trick shot he tried while leading 40-0 early in the first set.

“No, I think it was going too fast, and I was like leaning the other way,” Monfils said. “So the ball came, and I just stopped and tried to do it, because I think, ah, I don’t have enough time to do that or to do that, so I try between the legs.”

In a women’s quarterfinal, No. 7 Vera Zvonareva let her opponent self destruct in the wind, taking advantage of 60 unforced errors to defeat No. 31 Kaia Kanepi.

Zvonareva, who made the Wimbledon final earlier this year, will play the winner of Wednesday evening’s quarterfinal between No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki and unseeded Dominika Cibulkova.

The 31st-seeded Kanepi struggled, hitting only 18 winners to go with her 60 unforced errors.

“The weather was definitely not for the good tennis out there,” Zvonareva said. “But no matter what match had to be played, we were both trying our best.”

The tone for the match was set early, when the players traded service breaks right away to make it 1-1, and they combined for 12 unforced errors and one winner through the first two games.

Asked how much she could blame on the wind and how much on her own play, Kanepi said, “Well, 50-50, I think.”

“I think I can’t blame the wind for everything,” she said. “I didn’t play well. Vera obviously played very well.”

NEW YORK (AP)—The head of the men’s tennis tour said on Wednesday he expects a decision soon on proposals to increase the ATP offseason from five weeks to seven or eight by 2012.

ATP chief executive Adam Helfant wants a “formal decision” no later than at the last board meeting of this year, at the Nov. 14-21 season-ending tournament in London.

“There’s never unanimity in tennis, but I think there is consensus that we need to do something about it,” ATP chief executive Adam Helfant said in an interview with The Associated Press at the U.S. Open. “And even though this is something that’s been talked about for a long time, and we haven’t made progress, there is a commitment to make progress on it by the end of the year.”

Helfant said there have been no talks with the Australian Open about moving it from January, indicating that any changes would involve ATP tournaments.

The top men’s professional tennis players have complained for years about the sport’s calendar and called for a shorter season.

“I don’t think it’s a matter of opinion,” former world No. 1 Andy Roddick said last month. “When you ask someone, ‘Is the schedule too long?’ The schedule is too long. I mean, that’s not really an opinion.”

Roddick’s recent drop to No. 11 meant that for the first time in the 37-year history of the rankings, there were no U.S. men in the top 10. Sam Querrey’s loss in the fourth round on Tuesday means that this is the second consecutive year at the U.S. Open with no American men in the quarterfinals—something that hadn’t happened before 2009 in the history of a tournament that began in 1881.

But Helfant said that whatever problems American men have been having are not hurting the tour in the U.S. He cited several positives, including an increase of about 3 percent in attendance at the tour’s events in the United States, a jump of about 20 percent in TV broadcasting hours, and Thursday’s announcement of the ATP’s new global sponsorship deal with FedEx.

“I can understand why Americans would be concerned because they’ve gotten used to having guys dominate the top 10 … but the game is global and the biggest problem Americans have is how play has developed outside the U.S.,” Helfant said. “I don’t think I have anxiety about it.”

PRINCETON, N.J. (AP)—The NCAA has reprimanded and censured Princeton University for a major violation in its women’s tennis program.

The Division I committee on infractions says the case centered on a Princeton alumnus who paid $33,000 in impermissible educational expenses for a student-athlete to attend the school.

Because of the limited nature of the case and the university’s efforts to uncover and report the violation, the NCAA imposed only minimal penalties on the school, among them vacating the student-athlete’s athletic records.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Princeton University said it appreciated the NCAA’s recognition of the limited nature of the case and the minimal penalties, but it believes the isolated and inadvertent nature of the infraction should have made it a secondary one.

The incident covered the 2007-08 academic year and 2008 fall semester.

The relationship between the student-athlete and alumnus originated at a local tennis club near their respective homes, where a local club’s tennis professional introduced them prior to the student-athlete’s ninth-grade year. The relationship developed based on a mutual interest in the sport of tennis and the student-athlete’s athletic abilities.

The NCAA said the money the student-athlete received provided the school with a competitive advantage because it allowed the tennis player to attend and participate on the team.

Princeton said the alumnus self-reported the contributions to Princeton’s athletic department in September 2008 after an e-mail notification sent to all alumni supporters of athletics as part of a proactive rules-compliance initiative.

The university then notified the Ivy League and conducted an internal investigation.

Although the alumnus’ contributions in support of the student’s educational expenses violated NCAA rules, Princeton and the Ivy League office concluded the violation was isolated and inadvertent and did not provide the tennis team with a recruiting or competitive advantage.

The school said that the alumnus had a family like relationship with the student for several years. The tennis player applied and was accepted to Princeton before she was aware that the alumnus was willing to assist with her educational expenses.

“We looked closely at the circumstances surrounding this isolated and inadvertent infraction and at the relationship between the alumnus and the student’s family, and we are convinced that even though the alumnus is a longtime supporter of tennis at Princeton, he was acting only with the interest of helping a family friend pursue an educational opportunity for which her parents were not willing to provide financial support,” Princeton President Shirley M. Tilghman said.

“We do not believe that this should have been characterized as a major violation, but we certainly regret the infraction and remain firmly committed to complying with all NCAA rules.”