Tashkent, Uzbekistan (Sports Network) - Italys Karin Knapp took down top-seeded Monica Niculescu in Tuesdays first-round action at the Tashkent Open. Knapp beat the Romanian Niculescu by a 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 margin in a match that lasted over 2 1/2 hours. In another upset, qualifier Donna Vekic of Croatia defeated fourth-seeded Slovak Magdalena Rybarikova 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 on the hardcourts at Olympic Tennis School. A trio of seeded players managed to avoid the upset bug. Romanian Alexandra Cadantu, the No. 5 seed, outlasted Russian qualifier Ekaterina Bychkova 3-6, 6-4, 7-5, No. 6 seed Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia got past German Dinah Pfizenmaier 6-2, 2-6, 6-4, and eighth-seeded Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan beat Serbian qualifier Vesna Dolonc 3-6, 6-1, 6-0. Other first-round winners Tuesday were Russians Anna Chakvetadze and Vitalia Diatchenko, Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu, Japans Misaki Doi, Greek Eleni Daniilidou and Czech Eva Birnerova, who was last years Tashkent runner-up to Russian Ksenia Pervak. The former top-10 star Chakvetadze topped Ukrainian fellow qualifier Lesia Tsurenko 6-4, 6-3, while Begu beat two-time Tashkent runner-up Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan 6-4, 6-3 on Day 2. Cheap nfl Jerseys . Klitschko put Thompson on the canvas with a big right hand near the end of the fifth round at Stade de Suisse, and the 40-year-old American southpaw never recovered. Cheap Jerseys . Taylor Heinicke says the seniors were there first when Old Dominions fourth- year football program was being built to a high level of success. http://www.nflcheapjerseysstitched.... . The Three Amigos - Cutler has been in need of a reliable pass catcher ever since the Bears acquired him in 2009. [url=http://www.nflcheapjerseysstitched.com/]Cheap Jerseys From China . And after just 71 regular-season games, the Lakers decided Brown wasnt the man for a pressure-packed job. The Lakers fired their coach on Friday after a 1-4 start to his second season in charge, making one of the earliest coaching changes in NBA history. NFL Stitched Jerseys . Olivier Occean scored in the second half and 10-man Canada held on for a 1-0 win over Cuba to kick off the third stage of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying Friday."What if, what if. Those What ifs. What if I dont perform and it might be my last Olympics? What if people remember me because I fell in [Turin] 2006, I fell in [Vancouver] 2010 and Im a choker or I cant deal with pressure?" - Alexandre Bilodeau Canadas athletes know something about the pressures that come along with hosting an Olympic Games. More than two years ago, this country lifted its amateur sports heroes on a wave of sweeping support and unprecedented flag waving. For every high-five and "good luck" in the street, however, there was a television interview or newspaper column that oozed with expectations: Win the first Olympic gold medal on home soil; defend your title; raise the flag. Own the podium. Canadas athletes did more than hold up under the strain. Whether through intense training, iron willpower or incomparable inner strength, these men and women found ways to compete with confidence and dignity. They rose well above the din. Now, as Great Britains third Olympic party kicks off, the spotlight on Team GB is bright as it ever was on Team Canada. Three of Vancouver and Whistlers best-remembered athletes recently shared their experiences with CTVOlympics.ca, offering words of wisdom to British competitors ahead of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Here is what they had to say: Jon Montgomery: Dont pretend; It is what it is. For Jon Montgomery, the atmosphere surrounding Vancouver 2010 made those Games a different beast. Three out of four years, skeleton events in North America go largely ignored. In 2010, the Whistler Sliding Centre was filled to capacity. "Im definitely the type of person that, I dont try to pretend that something is different that it actually is," Montgomery said of his adapting technique. "So I didnt pretend that there werent 10,000 people at my events, I didnt pretend like it wasnt 9,999 more people than had ever been at an event I was competing at before. I accepted it for what it was." The strategy worked for the Canadian slider, who improved on a fifth-place World Cup ranking to win Olympic gold in front of a home crowd. His subsequent parade through the Whistler streets with a pitcher of beer in his hands is among the best-loved, lingering images from those Games. So what can Britains athletes learn from this? "Find a way to accept reality and to make it work for you," suggested Montgomery. "If the throngs of people give you anxiety in London... then come up with a strategy to deal with it. "Why focus on something that you dont want to have happen? Focus instead on something you want to achieve. [When] its coming down to the 11th hour and its basically the last eight years of your life is going to culminate with your performance tomorrow, I never felt that as an overwhelming prospect. "Instead, I thought, This is what Ive been working toward. This is it. Go out, do what Ive done a million times in my minds eye, hundreds of times on that exact track, and simply execute my game plan." Alexandre Bilodeau: Have no regrets and enjoy the ride Despite his best efforts, moguls skier Alexandre Bilodeau has never been immune to external factors like expectations. "In everyday life, [expectations] do come to my mind. I dont see how it cant come to your mind. It does," he said. "Its the same as the thoughts of winning or losing that day, they go through your mind. You need to find waays to let it go.ddddddddddddDont stick to these ideas, stick to the good ideas instead." It is a constant battle, especially in the long, empty nights before an Olympic race. When all the physical training is done, the mind has a tendency to take over. Two nights before he became the first Canadian to win Olympic gold on home soil, Bilodeau suffered what he calls a "freak out" in the Olympic Village. He called his sport psychologist, Wayne Halliwell, and asked to meet in the athletes cafeteria. "Im freaking out right now, saying, What if, what if. Those what ifs," Bilodeau told Halliwell. "What if I dont perform and it might be my last Olympics? People will remember me because I fell in [Turin] 2006, I fell in [Vancouver] 2010 and Im a choker or I cant deal with pressure." Halliwell reminded his charge that all the hard work was already done. "It will happen," he said. "There are many things you cant control, but you need to focus on the stuff you can. If you do your job well, the odds are on your side to get the win here." Bilodeau thought about it, and felt himself relax. "I kind of realized that [if I dont win] people will be disappointed behind their TVs maybe for five, 10 minutes -- 15, if theyre in your family. But theyre all going to go back to work the next morning. You are the only one the next morning who is going to rip out your hair," he said. "The outside expectations from everybody else should be the least of your concerns. You are doing this for yourself. Trust the training, trust the staff that you have around you. All the preparation is the four years before. Its not at the Games." Mellisa Hollingsworth: Dont let these Games define you. The sun will rise tomorrow. A two-time Olympian, Mellisa Hollingsworth has experienced both all-encompassing joy and devastating disappointment at the bottom of a skeleton track.The Eckville, Alta., native entered Vancouver 2010 as an Olympic bronze medallist, the reigning World Cup champion and the favourite for Olympic gold, but a technical error during her final run put Hollingsworth in fifth place. What came next -- a tearful, televised apology to her fans -- seemed to resonate more strongly than that gold medal ever could have. "It was a pretty tough situation to be in," she said. "To be that devastated and emotional and to immediately be pushed through the media line. "I thought for sure, I did let my country down and sponsors are probably going to drop me and Ill never get another speaking event and my coaches will probably just say, No, dont ever try out again."The only guidance I got was from our media liaison, Chris Dornan, just saying, You know what? Youve just got to be you. And thats what everybody saw. "I wouldnt change [what happened]. I really wouldnt." Hollingsworth calls Vancouver 2010 a learning experience, and says that a lesson in "life balance" helped her to get over the disappointment. "For me, its really important that [my sport] doesnt define me. It is something that I do and I know for a lot of people thats how they identify me and I am grateful for that," she said. "But if I retire after Sochi (the 2014 Olympic Winter Games) or if I retire next year, if something were to happen and I cant continue, does that mean that there is no value left on me? I dont think so." ' ' '