M arch 31,1999
(The ftortlanò (fibserurr
Shaky, But Back On
Top
Pete S am p ras rec laim ed the
No. 1 ranking w hen C arlos M oya
su ffered an early -ro u n d loss at
th e L ip to n C h a m p io n s h ip s .
H ow ever, M oya, w ho w as N o. 1
for two w eeks, is only nine points
b eh in d S am p ras, the seco n d -
sm allest m a rg in in ran k in g h is­
tory. In 1992, Stefan Edberg held
a three-point advantage ov er J im
C ourier for three straight w eeks,
w hile in 1996, T hom as M uster
led S am pras by n ine p o in ts for
one w eek.
Butyrskaya
Dethrones Her
Own Idol
M aria Butyrskaya beat the
skater she regards as an "idol"
w hen she deth ro n ed M ichelle
Kwan as w orld w om en’s figure
skating cham pion on Saturday.
In the greatest m om ent o f her
skating life, the glam our girl from
M o sc o w b e c a m e th e o ld e s t
w om en’s w orld cham pion at 26
years 272 days and the first from
Russia as she capped the first title
sweep by one country at the world
cham pionships.
Orioles 3, Cuba 2,
1 1 innings
It’s not as if C uban president
Fidel Castro revealed a w ell-kept
secret w hen he casually told B alti­
more O rioles m anager Ray M iller,
"T his is a good baseball tow n.’’
G ood baseball town? N o ques­
tion.
Very good basebal 1 players, too.
Cuba proved Sunday it can com ­
pete with ju st about any team in
world, am ateur or otherw ise, giv­
ing the Orioles all they could handle
in a 3-2 loss.
Harold B aines, only 6 days old
w hen m ajor league team s last
played in Cuba, singled in the
tiebreaking run in the 11th inning
to help B altim ore avoid an em bar­
rassing defeat.
King Caught in
Tyson Hoax
Boxing prom oter Don King ap­
parently w as the victim o f prank­
ster claim ing to be jailed former
h e a v y w e ig h t ch a m p io n M ike
Tyson, the New York Post reported
Saturday.
The new spaper said King re­
ceived a telephone call Thursday
night from someone with a high-
pitched lisping voice claiming to be
Tyson. The caller said he was at the
M ontgom ery County Detention
Center in M aryland, where Tyson
is serving a one-year sentence for
assaulting two motorists.
The caller told King that, despite
their falling out last year when Tyson
slapped the promoter with a $10
million lawsuitover lost earnings, all
was forgiven. The caller said he des­
perately need to see King.
“The guy w as asking for help,”
a King spokesperson told the news­
paper.
Purdue Students
Cheer NCAA Title
Looking weary after a long flight
home. Purdue’s NCAA w om en's
basketball champions appeared to
be re-energized after being greeted
at the airport by about 75 screaming
fans today.
S om e o f th e B o ilerm a k ers
headed into the crow d, w here they
hugged fam ily m em bers, friends
and fans, signed autographs and
proudly show ed o ff their cham pi­
onship rings.
Purdue defeated Duke 62-45 at
San Jose, C alif., to win the title
Sunday night. T he plane arrived
about 2 1/2 hours late at the
university’s airport after being
fogged in and briefly rerouted to
Indianapolis International A irport
for refueling.
When will Venus
and Serena meet
again?
Tennis fans, tournam ent prom ot­
ers and Serena W illiams are ready for
a rematch.
Richard Williams wants to recover
from Sunday first.
As the father o f the finalists at the
Lipton Championships, Williams ad ­
m itted that the occasion was em o­
tionally wrenching. He led the cheers
at the start o f the match and was in his
seat at the finish, w hen Venus com ­
pleted a 6 -1 ,4 -6 ,6 -4 victory for her
second consecutive Lipton title.
But during the match, Richard's
thoughts turned to the poor neighbor­
hood in Compton, Calif., where the
family lived before moving to Florida
in 1991. The memories stirred his emo­
tions and sent him out the stadium
tunnel for a calming cigarette.
W illiam s’ hands shook during a
new s conference the day before
Serena played big sister Venus, and
he w asn ’t much calm er at a news
conference after the match.
“ W e’re used to being on the cor­
ner in Com pton w here people are
shouting and doing drugs,” he said.
“This is very strange to me, sitting up
here and you people talking to me. I
actually feel like a fool.”
The sibling showdown attracted
attention from the international m e­
dia. T hey ’re eager for a rematch, but
they’ll have to wait, because Serena
and V enus aren’t scheduled to play
the same tournam ent again until the
Italian Open in early May.
The consensus, how ever, is that
Sunday’s W illiam s-W illiam s final
could be the first o f many.
Venus, 18, is ranked sixth this week.
Serena, 17, is a career-high 11th. Dad
predicts they’11 eventually be 1-2,and
his opinion counts, because he said
years ago that his daughters were
destined for greatness.
“The first time I ever took Venus to
the tennis court, I w alked hom e and
told my wife, ’ Baby, w e have a cham ­
pion. This girl is rough, tough, strong
and m entally sound. T hose are the
four qualities all cham pions have.” ’
H ow old w as V enus at the time?
“Four years, six m onths and one
day,” her dad said. “At 5 years old, I
took the racket out o f her hand. I
w ouldn’t let her play for a year b e­
cause she loved it too m uch.”
Serena started playing at about
the sam e age, and she benefited from
such p ra c tic e p a rtn e rs as Jo h n
M cEnroe and Pete Sampras.
“ Because Serena co u ld n ’t beat
those guys with pow er, she had to
learn to do angles and drop shots,”
Richard W illiams said. "R ight now, 1
think Serena is hitting angles and
drop shots better than anyone.”
But w ill she overtake V enus?
Serena trails 3-0 in the sibling rivalry,
and there’s division within the family
regarding how many tournaments she
and V enus should enter together.
Richard Williams said he once paid
a psychiatrist to study the effects
w hen sisters play each other.
“ W e learned that tennis is the
only gam e th at’s extrem ely rough on
a fam ily,” he said.
But he said his daughters are old
enough to decide for them selves
w hich events to enter.
“W e’ll be in a lot o f the same
tournam ents,” V enus said.
“W e’re Jehovah’s W itnesses, and
we really believe that fam ily com es
first,” Serena said. “No m atter how
many tim es we play each other, 1
could never say that it w ould affect
my relationship with V enus.”
Duval Replaces
Woods as
World #1
LO ND O N , M arch 29 (R euters) -
A m erican D avid D uval took over
from T iger W oods as g o lf s w orld
num ber one after his victory by two
shots in the Players Cham pionship
at Ponte V edra on Sunday.
W oods had been num ber one for
41 weeks.
D uval becom es the 1 1th play er
to head the official w orld rankings
since the list w as launched alm ost
13 years ago.
Top 20 rankings
( U .S . unless stated ):
KNNrS AVERAGF
l.DavidDuval
12.75
2. Tiger Woods
12.62
3. Davis Love III
10.33
4. MarkO’Meara
9.96
5. Ernie Els (South Africa)
9.15
6. Lee Westwood (Britain)
8.89
7. Vijay Singh (Fiji)
8.85
8. Nick Price (Zimbabwe)
8.33
9. Colin Montgomerie (Britain)
8.22
10. Fred Couples
7.43
His Airness Breaks Silence on
Possible Hornets Ownership
C H A R L O T T E , N .C . (A P ) —
M ichael Jordan is used to conquer­
ing challenges.
Tum ing around the Charlotte Hor­
nets appears to be his next mission.
Jordan went on record Monday that
he’shad preliminary talks about co-own­
ing the Charlotte Hornets, but he wasn’t
sayingmuchmoreabouthis plans. Hedid
confirm that he has been in touch with
Hornets and NBA officials
“ In response to reports, I can con­
firm that I have been contacted by
G eorge Shinn and (NBA com m is­
sioner) David Stem regarding co-
ownership o f the Charlotte Hornets,”
Jordan said in the statem ent issued
M onday through agent D avid Falk’s
office in W ashington.
Jordan spoke w ith Shinn earlier
this month about buying a 50 percent
share o f the NBA franchise, accord­
ing to officials with the H ornets and
the league.
Hamilton Leads
UConn to NCAA
Title
Richard H am ilton thought the 27
points he scored in leading C onnecti­
cut to its first national cham pionship
w ere no big deal.
See the basket. Shoot the ball.
Score the points.
He m akes it sound so simple.
“ I d o n ’t th in k it w as h a rd ,"
H am ilton said in his low -key style.
“I ’ve been doing the sam e thing all
year. G ive credit to m y team m ates.
They set extra screens for me. They
ju st get the ball to m e w hen I’m open
and I hit the shots.
“ The same thing has been going
on all year. I got open opportunities
and I ju st took advantage o f them .”
T h e re ’s n o th in g c o m p lic a te d
about any o f that, if you believe
Hamilton. T h ere’s som ething more
involved, though, according to coach
Jim Calhoun.
"The first thing is, h e’s a great bas­
ketball player,” he said. “Great scorers
score so many different ways and can
beat you so many different ways. He
has a tremendous mind for the game.”
It added up to an A ll-A m erican
season for H am ilton. H e also shared
the Big East Conference P lay ero fth e
Y ear award, joining Patrick Ewing and
Chris M ullin as the only players to
win that aw ard twice. A nd w hen he
w ent over the 2,000-point m ark in
Saturday’s sem ifinal victory over
O hio State, it m ade him the second
highest scorer in U Conn history.
All very nice, but Hamilton was
really after a national championship.
To do it, the Huskies would have to
beat a Duke team that had lost just once
all season and w on 32 games in a row.
“ W e felt w e had a c h a n c e ,”
Hamilton said. “ If w e cam e in and
played our gam e, w e had a good
chance to win.
“W e knew w e had to attack. W e
didn’t w ant to be ju m p er happy. If we
got to the paint, w e w anted to take
advantage.”
He and the H uskies did that in the
77-74 victory.
Calhoun know s w hat a special
player H am ilton has becom e.
“He scored 27 tonight,” the coach
said. “ Som etim es he puts up 30 and
I’ll ask him ifh is m om and dad were
keeping score.”
No need for that. Hamilton had all
the help he needed from his teammates.
“W e played w ith a lot o fh eart,” he
said. “Everybody ’ s got the m entality
o f refuse to lose.”
Hamilton struggled a bit w ith his
shot in the first half, making five o f 13
attempts. But was 5-for-9 in the final 20
minutes, including apairof3-pointers.
The second one was perhaps his most
impressive shot o f the night.
With 3:50 to play and the score tied
at 68, Hamilton took a shot to the mid-
p.ctivafG
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section from Chris
L’arraw ellandw as
doubled over, try­
ing to catch his
sreath After a mo­
ment, he walked to
die foul line and hit
tK>th free throws
fora 70-68 lead.
Then, 12 sec­
onds later, C on­
necticut got the
ball b a c k an d
Hamilton’s23-foot
shot gave the Hus­
kies a five-point
lead. Duke never
quite recovered.
As time ran out
M o n d a y n ig h t,
H a m ilto n
re­
in 2 7 years of coaching.
flected on w hat
had happened.
old fashioned Irish blarney to co n ­
“Y ou really can ’t describe that
vince him to stick around.
feeling,” he said. “1 still d o n ’t under­
“I ’m glad 1 stayed for my ju n io r
stand what w e did. I’m ju st happy to
year,”
he said. “ He told me, ‘Rip,
put a sm ile on co ach ’s face.”
y
o
u
’ve
got a chance to w in a national
He did the sam e thing last spring
championship.’
I really didn’t believe
w hen he decided to stay at C onnecti­
him . N ow that w e’ ve w on it, I ’m very
cut for his ju n io r year instead o f leav­
appreciative.”
ing for the NBA. A t the tim e, he
h
lin I u tili r K in I Jr. I I v i.
1
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