Seles Appears in Fine Tune With Amelia Island Title

Monica Seles went to Amelia Island, Fla., to tune up for this week’s Federation Cup meeting with Croatia. She came away with a title.

Seles, seeded second, earn her first tournament title in seven months Sunday, completing a dominating run through the Bausch & Lomb Championships with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over unseeded Ruxandra Dragomir of Romania.

The five games were the most Seles lost in any of her five matches. She dropped only 14 games in the event and never was in jeopardy of losing a set. Only Chris Evert had a better run at this event, in 1981, when she dropped 12 games.

“I took pressure off myself,” said Seles, who had not won an event since the Princess Cup last September at Tokyo. “I just enjoyed every ball, every match, no matter if you win a big match, small match. I think that helped me.”

The title, which earned the world’s third-ranked player $80,000, was surprising considering Seles’ recent early exits at Indian Wells, Calif.; Key Biscayne, Fla., and Hilton Head, S.C. In the past two weeks, she traded time on the court for a more stringent training routine off it, in order to stay fresh for the Fed Cup, the women’s equivalent of the Davis Cup.

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Fourth-seeded Albert Costa of Spain defeated second-seeded Todd Martin, 7-6 (7-4), 2-6, 6-3, to win the Estoril Open at Oerias, Portugal. In the women’s final, Katarina Srebotnik defeated Rita Kis of Hungary, 6-3, 6-1, in the Slovenian’s WTA tour debut.

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Third-seeded Andre Agassi defeated Boris Becker, 6-7 (7-4), 6-4, 6-4, in the final of the Salem Open at Hong Kong in their first meeting in four years.

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Fourth-seeded Byron Black of Zimbabwe won the Gold Flake Open, defeating seventh-seeded Rainer Schuttler of Germany, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, at Madras, India for his second ATP Tour title. Black’s only other victory came in 1996 at Seoul.

Soccer

Nigerian fans and riot police clashed overnight in Lagos after Nigeria’s loss in the World Youth Soccer Championship, the newspaper Thisday reported.

In the city of Bauchi, the United States, led by two goals from Taylor Twellman, defeated Cameroon, 3-1, to advance to the tournament’s second round, where it will play Spain on Thursday. UCLA’s Carlos Bocanegra had the other goal for the Americans.

New York-New Jersey goalkeeper Mike Ammann stopped three of four shootout shots as the MetroStars defeated the Tampa Bay Mutiny, 2-1, in an MLS game at Tampa, Fla.

Names in the News

Ron Artest, a third-team All-American last season as a sophomore at St. John’s, has decided to make himself eligible for the NBA draft, the Associated Press has learned through a source close to Artest. The 6-foot-6 swingman, who led the Red Storm to the NCAA tournament regional final last month, will announce his decision Tuesday at a news conference. . . . With Cleveland Browns Coach Chris Palmer supervising, Tim Couch made his final bid to be the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft with a 90 minute, 115-pass workout at Lexington, Ky.

George Brennan, the nation’s leading harness driver, and two other top drivers at Freehold Raceway at New Jersey have been suspended for six months and fined $500 each as a result of “unsatisfactory” performances after a March 10 race generated “suspicious” wagering payoffs, state athletic commission officials said. . . . The U.S. team of Ian Clark and Bill Bouilliane and Brazil’s ZeMarco de Melo and Ricardo Santosa advanced to the final round of the FIVB Olympic-qualifying event.

Two-time Olympian Worku Bikila of Ethiopia endured a steady downpour to win the 10-mile Cherry Blossom Run at Washington in 46 minutes 59 seconds. . . . Richard Callaghan, who coached Tara Lipinski to an Olympic gold medal, has been accused by Craig Maurizi, one of his former skaters, of sexual misconduct, in a New York Times report. Callaghan denied the allegations.

The sides in the WNBA labor talks met for two hours at New York without reaching agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement. More talks were scheduled today.

The top-ranked USC women’s water polo team was upset, 3-2, by third-ranked California in the championship match of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament at UCLA. The Bruins finished third, UC Santa Barbara seventh and Long Beach State ninth. . . . Late Saturday night, the UCLA women’s gymnastics team advanced to the NCAA finals with a first-place finish at their regional at Oregon State. Heidi Moneymaker won the all-around title with a 39.525 and was named Region I gymnast of the year. The finals will be April 22-24 at Salt Lake City.