Courier Wins His Opener in Florida

Victories don’t come easily these days for Jim Courier, who needed three sets and four match points Friday to beat 18-year-old qualifier David Nalbandian in the first round at the Ericsson Open.

With a 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 victory at Key Biscayne, Fla., Courier won his opening match for only the second time in five tournaments this year.

In a match suspended because of rain late Thursday, Anastasia Myskina of Russia handed Alexandra Stevenson her fifth loss in a row, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.

Top-seeded Martina Hingis of Switzerland defeated Maureen Drake of Canada, 6-1, 6-4; and Patrick Rafter of Australia continued to improve after returning from shoulder surgery, scoring a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Max Mirnyi of Belarus.

Lindsay Davenport, Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras play their opening matches today.

Courier was a hero last year for the U.S. Davis Cup team against England, but he hasn’t won a tournament in nearly two years. He needed 2 hours 10 minutes to put away Nalbandian, an Argentine playing his first match on the ATP Tour.

“Just another good player coming up,” Courier said of Nalbandian. “They’re coming out of the woodwork like termites. They’re just everywhere right now.”

The victory was Courier’s 33rd in this event, formerly known as the Lipton Championships, but the 1991 champion has had little recent success. He’ll try to advance beyond the second round at Key Biscayne for the first time since 1997 when he plays seventh-seeded Thomas Enqvist of Sweden today.

Miscellany

Michael Johnson trimmed more than half a second off the world record in the rarely run 300 meters in the Engen Grand Prix at Pretoria, South Africa. Johnson was timed in 30.85 seconds, breaking the mark of 31.48 set by Danny Everett of the United States and Roberto Hernandez of Cuba on Sept. 3, 1990, at Jerez de la Frontera, Spain.

William Porter, the 1948 Olympic 110-meter hurdles champion, has died in Irvine. He was 73.

Texas retained control of the NCAA men’s swimming and diving meet at Minneapolis and Arizona’s Ryk Neethling edged closer to an achievement reached by only two other swimmers.

The Longhorns won four events to head into the final day with 416 points. Defending champion Auburn was second at 291 and Arizona third at 241 1/2.

Neethling had to come from behind on the last lap to win his third consecutive 200-meter freestyle and his ninth NCAA title. Only Pablo Morales of Stanford (11) and John Naber of USC (10) have won more.

Researchers at the Australian Institute of Sport say they will be able to catch drug cheats at the Sydney 2000 Olympics with the use of a blood test.

Chris Puckett of Boulder, Colo., prevented a Canadian sweep of the men’s downhill by winning the opening event of the U.S. Alpine Ski Championships at Jackson, Wyo. Puckett, 29, edged Darin McBeath of Canada by .32 seconds. Kirsten Clark, 22, of Raymond, Maine, captured the women’s downhill for the third consecutive year, beating Lindsey Kildow, 15, of Vail, Colo., by .68 seconds.

Steve Park set a track record in qualifying for the Winston Cup Food City 500 at Bristol, Tenn. Park turned a record lap of 126.370 mph on the .533-mile track, known as one of the slipperiest in NASCAR. . . . Jeff Green took his second consecutive Busch Grand National pole at Bristol with a lap of 124.428 mph in qualifying for the Cheez-It 250, topping Mark Martin’s 1994 track record of 123.746 mph.

Dominique Moceanu, a member of the 1996 Olympic team that won gold in Atlanta, was among those invited to the national team’s May training camp, USA Gymnastics announced.

She sat out the February and March camps while working herself back into shape.

Murray State was limited to one basketball recruiter next season and the former football coach, Denver Johnson, received a letter of reprimand for minor violations of NCAA rules.

Thomas Hearns will fight what he says is the last bout of his career April 8 at Detroit against former cruiserweight champion Uriah Grant. Hearns, 41, will defend his fringe IBO cruiserweight title in a 12-round bout. Hearns is 59-4-1 with 46 knockouts.

The Kansas City Chiefs signed defensive end Duane Clemons, who started nine games for the Minnesota Vikings last season, to a two-year contract. Meanwhile, former Chief defensive end Neil Smith, who joined the the Denver Broncos in 1997, was in Kansas City to take a physical, a prelude to potential contract talks with the Chiefs.

Virginia running back Antwoine Womack was fined $1,000 for his role in a campus brawl. Womack was convicted in Charlottesville, Va., of misdemeanor assault and battery in December. He was among five people accused of beating two students after they left a party on Feb. 7, 1999.

Dennis Rodman has settled a lawsuit with a cocktail waitress who accused him of sexual assault last spring in Las Vegas. The case was scheduled to go to trial Monday.

Soccer

Two of European soccer’s most storied clubs--defending champion Manchester United and seven-time champion Real Madrid--were drawn against each other for the quarterfinals of the European Champions Cup. Real Madrid will be the home team in the April 4 first-leg quarterfinal, with Manchester United home in the April 19 second leg.

In the other quarterfinal matchups, it’s Chelsea vs. tournament-favorite Barcelona (April 5 and 18), Valencia vs. Lazio (April 5 and 18) and Porto vs. three-time champion and ’99 runner-up Bayern Munich (April 4 and 19).

National soccer leagues around the world will be able to play whenever they want, as long as the games don’t clash with international soccer events. The plans were announced by FIFA, the sport’s ruling body, which had sought a January-to-December soccer calendar. But that plan faced opposition, particularly in Europe and among the prominent teams that wanted to stick to the traditional August-to-May season.