Sampras Suffers Worst Loss in 8 Years at Monte Carlo

Pete Sampras, ranked second in the world, was routed by Fabrice Santoro of France in the third round of the Monte Carlo Open tennis tournament Thursday, 6-1, 6-1, his worst loss in eight years.

It was the third consecutive tournament in which Sampras has lost before the quarterfinals, and his play does not bode well for next month’s French Open on clay courts.

“It’s definitely not great for the confidence,” Sampras said. “There is still a lot of room for improvement. All I can try to do is move on and learn from this and go from there.”

It was his worst loss since a 6-0, 6-1 defeat in 1990 to Jonas Svensson of Sweden.

Third-ranked Petr Korda defeated Albert Costa in another third-round match, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4. Korda will take over the No. 1 ranking from Chile’s Marcelo Rios if he reaches the final.

Cedric Pioline, who lost to Sampras in last year’s Wimbledon final, defeated last year’s French Open winner, Gustavo Kuerten, 7-6 (8-6), 6-1.

Semi-retired Boris Becker routed Mark Philippoussis, 6-1, 6-1, to move into the quarterfinals against Alberto Berasategui, a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 winner over Slava Dosedel.

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Defending champion Michael Chang overcame stubborn Franco Squillari of Argentina, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4, to advance to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships at Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Romania’s Andrei Pavel beat Justin Gimelstob, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, and seventh-seeded Grant Stafford of South Africa fell to Brazil’s Marcio Carlsson, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2. . . . Rita Kuti-Kis of Hungary, ranked 237th in the world, beat Romania’s Catalina Cristea, 6-3, 6-2, in the $107,500 Budapest Lotto Ladies Open.

Golf

Hal Sutton shot a seven-under-par 65 to take a one-shot lead over South African David Frost and Chris Perry in the opening round of the $2.2-million Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic.

Brad Faxon, Scott Verplank, Bob Estes and Fuzzy Zoeller were tied for fourth at 67.

Wet conditions on the par-72, 7,062-yard layout allowed players to lift, clean and place the ball in the fairways and gun for the pins, but that also made the rough even more difficult.

Dale Douglass, 62, playing on a tour dominated by players in their early 50s, got out before the wind howled and shot a six-under 66 to take a two-stroke lead over Hugh Baiocchi in the $1.4-million Las Vegas Senior Classic.

Boxing

The World Boxing Assn. and the World Boxing Council have agreed to merge, unifying their rules and weight divisions.

The sanctioning groups--which along with the International Boxing Federation are the most widely recognized in the world--still will need to persuade promoters to accept the agreement.

An Indianapolis judge has given former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson permission to leave the country to attend a royal ball in Monaco.

As part of his probation for a 1992 rape conviction, Tyson had to request Judge Patricia J. Gifford’s permission to travel overseas.

Pro Football

The Tennessee Oilers will play their home games this season at Vanderbilt’s 41,448-seat stadium in Nashville. The Oilers, who moved from Houston last fall, averaged a league-worst 28,028 at Memphis last season.

Philadelphia Eagle quarterback Bobby Hoying had surgery to remove an abscess that developed after his emergency appendectomy last week in Columbus, Ohio.

Basketball

Forward Jerome Moiso, rated as the No. 8 prep prospect in the U.S by the Sporting News, has signed a letter of intent to attend UCLA. Moiso, 6 feet 11, was born in the West Indies and attended high school in Paris.

Matt Purdy, an assistant men’s basketball coach at Cal Poly Pomona who was named as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the Northwestern point-shaving scandal, has resigned. Purdy had been under investigation by the university.

Point guard Angie Arnold of Johns Hopkins won the Frances Pomery Naismith Award as the nation’s outstanding female senior.

Italian team Kinder Bologna defeated AEK Athens, 58-44, for the European championship at Barcelona, Spain.

The game before 11,900 went off without incident, after Tuesday’s violent semifinal that pitted Spanish anti-riot police against 2,500 AEK fans. Spanish organizers, determined to regain control erected a 7-foot fence to cordon off the Greeks.

Miscellany

Two Connecticut football players arrested on drug charges have been disciplined by the school.

Michael Robinson, 19, a wide receiver, was dropped from the team and his scholarship terminated. Linebacker Carlos Harris was suspended indefinitely.

Helena Mroczkowska Dow, a four-time national fencing champion and a former U.S. Olympian, died of cancer at 80.

Georgetown won the featured women’s 3,200-meter relay at the Penn Relays.

The Hoyas’ Michelle Muething, Katrina deBose, Sasha Spencer and Julian Reynolds were timed in 8 minutes 36.16 seconds at Philadelphia.