RENTON, Wash. - Tharold Simon never started a game in his NFL career until Week 7 of this season when he finally got to line up opposite Richard Sherman in Seattles secondary.Simon was fully aware of what that meant: lots of passes were about to be thrown his way.Its actually fun. You want to get challenged and thats the big thing about it. You dont want to go out there and be bored, Simon said. (Sherman) likes to be challenged, too, every day. Thats fun when you go out there and you know they wont challenge him too much. It just gives you more of an opportunity to go out there and show the people what you can do, show yourself, your coaches what you can do out there and go out there and have fun.Sherman will always receive the majority of the attention in Seattles secondary. But the unwillingness of quarterbacks to challenge Sherman this season — beginning with the opener against Green Bay — has created opportunities for Simon and Byron Maxwell to show off their skills.So far, theyve matched whats become the standard set by Seattles talented secondary, helping the Seahawks have the No. 1 pass defence in the NFL.Every corner we have in here, every DB, its just greatness in that room, Seattle free safety Earl Thomas said. ... Everybody is absorbed in that room because we really love what were doing, we love the environment.At this point, Maxwell is used to playing across the field from Sherman. Maxwell started five regular-season games last season, all three post-season games and entered this season the established starting cornerback on the right side. Hes started nine of 13 games this season, only leaving the lineup because of a calf injury suffered in Week 6 against Dallas.Since returning from the injury Maxwell has added another layer to his game, in part because of how well Simon has played. When facing bigger wide receivers, Seattle has recently moved Maxwell inside to cover slot receivers when extra defensive backs are needed, putting Simon on the outside.Hes worked there before. When he was first coming up through the ranks, he was working as a nickel so he has background in it, Seattle coach Pete Carroll said. He always did OK, so we knew he had that in him. We hadnt featured him in it yet. Hes done really well. It was really cool to see that happen.Maxwells move inside was most noticeable last week against the Eagles when he had four tackles and two passes defenced. While Maxwell was batting passes away meant for Jordan Matthews, Simon was stepping in on the outside.Seattle has finally got a chance this season to see Simon, a third-round pick in 2013 who spent the entire season on injured reserve. The experience hes gotten showed last week with the first interception of his career. Simon had a decision to make on which of two wide receivers to follow. He made the right choice, jumping in front of Riley Cooper for his first career pick.I was like, OK, let me stick to this one, and the ball just ended up right there, lobbed up, and I went up and got it, Simon said.According to STATS, Sherman and Maxwell have been targeted 57 times each this season, but combined theyve allowed only one touchdown. Simon has yet to give up a touchdown pass either, and the ball for his first interception was still sitting in his truck as of Wednesday.Were flexible now. We have flexibility, Carroll said. We can look at matchups and do what we need to do.NOTES: C Max Unger (ankle/knee), TE Cooper Helfet (ankle) and DE Demarcus Dobbs (ankle) all did not practice Wednesday. Carroll said earlier in the week that Helfet was ahead of Unger in recovery from their injuries. ... CB Jeremy Lane (buttocks) was a full participant in Wednesdays practice and is expected to play Sunday.___AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP_NFL DJ Stewart Jersey . "Last year we were in a ton of situations, late-game situations we couldnt pull out. Wed kind of fold under the pressure, get frustrated or let a big shot frustrate us," guard DeMar DeRozan said. Don Baylor Jersey . In a matter of days, he went from unwanted to wanted, from fired to hired, from discarded by the Philadelphia Eagles with reputation tarnished to rock star treatment and a new fat contract from the Washington Redskins. https://www.cheaporioles.com/1728i-paul-...ey-orioles.html. While Chelsea stayed two points behind leader Arsenal courtesy of Etoos hat trick, seventh-place United slipped 14 points from the summit this weekend. And the gap from the Champions League places is growing as well, with Liverpool six points ahead in fourth. Dillon Tate Jersey . -- J.R. Sweezy was the one part of the Seattle Seahawks offensive line that had avoided injuries or having to change positions this season. Alex Cobb Jersey . -- With the Memphis Grizzlies struggling to find their offensive rhythm, O.Wimbledon, England (SportsNetwork.com) - Top-seeded Novak Djokovic and reigning champion Andy Murray were a pair of easy opening-round winners on Centre Court at The Championships, Wimbledon. The former world No. 1 Djokovic won the first 11 games in steamrolling Kazakhstans Andrey Golubev 6-0, 6-1, 6-4 in a mere 87 minutes at the famed All England Club, while the third-seeded Murray also played very clean tennis in taking care of Belgian David Goffin 6-1, 6-4, 7-5. Murray popped eight aces in the predicable just-over-two-hour affair versus Goffin. The French Open runner-up Djokovic titled here in 2011 and was last years Wimbledon runner-up to his good friend Murray. Djokovic, playing his first grass-court tennis of the year, is the top seed at this fortnight, despite being ranked second in the world behind French Open champion and two-time Wimbledon winner Rafael Nadal. "It was a great start," Djokovic said after moving on Monday. Up next for the six-time Grand Slam titlist will be 35-year-old Czech veteran Radek Stepanek. Murray has won 14 straight matches at the AEC, where he captured an Olympic gold medal in 2012 before giving Great Britain its first male Wimbledon singles champion in 77 years last year. Murray entered and exited Centre Court to standing ovations on Day 1. "It was nice," Murray said. "I was nervous this morning, nervous yesterday. Walking through brings back a lot of good memories. I got a nice round of applause and once you sit down in a chair its time to get ready for this year and move on from last year." Among those in the Royal Box for Murrays match were his father and grandparents and former NBA superstar Shaquille ONeal. Murrays new coach, former womens Wimbledon champion Amelie Mauresmo, sat in the front row of the guest box. Up next for Murray will be 23-year-old Slovenian Blaz Rola, who was the 2013 NCAA singles champion while playing at The Ohio State University. Sixth-seeded former Wimbledon runner-up Tomas Berdych joined Djokovic and Murray in the round of 64 with a come-from-behind 6-7 (5-7), 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 victory over Romanian veteran Victor Hanescu, while seventh-seeded David Ferrer held off fellow Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta 6-0, 6-7 (3-7), 6-1, 6-1. Meanwhile, rising Bulgarian star Grigor Dimitrov eased past disappointing American Ryan Harrisson 7-6 (7-1), 6-3, 6-2 and 12th-seeded Latvian and French Open semifinalist Ernests Gulbis topped Estonian Jurgen Zopp 7-6 (9-7), 7-5, 7-6 (12-10).dddddddddddd Dimitrov captured his first-ever grass-court title at The Queens Club in London two weeks ago. Sixteenth-seeded Italian Fabio Fognini went the distance to edge out American journeyman Alex Kuznetsov, 2-6, 1-6, 6-4, 6-1, 9-7, in 3 hours, 11 minutes on Court 18. In other action involving seeds, No. 17 Russian Mikhail Youzhny routed Brit James Ward 6-2, 6-2, 6-1; Aussie Marinko Matosevic served-and-volleyed his way past No. 18 Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2; No. 20 South African Kevin Anderson dismissed Slovenian Aljaz Bedene 6-3, 7-5, 6-2; No. 21 Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov beat Aussie Samuel Groth 7-5, 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-5); Argentine Leonardo Mayer upended No. 25 Italian Andreas Seppi 6-3, 2-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4; No. 26 Croat Marin Cilic got past Frances Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4, 6-7 (2-7), 6-2, 6-1; No. 27 Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut topped American two-time NCAA singles champion Steve Johnson 6-3, 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 7-5; and Dutchman Robin Haase doused No. 31 Canadian Vasek Pospisil 7-6 (8-6), 4-6, 7-5, 6-3. The surging Bautista Agut captured his first-ever ATP-level title, on grass, last week in The Netherlands. Several other men advanced, including Stepanek, Rola, Frenchmen Jeremy Chardy and Gilles Simon, Aussie Bernard Tomic, former Aussie Open runner-up Marcos Baghdatis, and German Benjamin Becker, who was the runner-up in The Netherlands last week. Some action was suspended because or rain, as 14th-seeded French star Jo- Wilfried Tsonga was leading Austrian lefty Jurgen Melzer 6-1, 3-6, 3-6, 6-2, 5-4 and Sam Querrey was ahead of fellow American Bradley Klahn 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-1, 6-5 when rain started to fall just after 8 p.m. local time. Opening-round matches will come Tuesday for the second-seeded Nadal and seven- time Wimbledon champ Roger Federer. The 14-time Grand Slam winner Nadal will take on Slovak Martin Klizan, while the fourth-seeded former No. 1 and 17-time major titlist Federer will encounter Italian Paolo Lorenzi. Also on the Day 2 schedule will be fifth-seeded Australian Open champ Stan Wawrinka, eighth-seeded Canadian slugger Milos Raonic, ninth-seeded American John Isner, and 10th seed Kei Nishikori of Japan. ' ' '