In Sports from United Press International

Cubs defeat downhearted Cardinals

CHICAGO, June 24 (UPI) -- With the St. Louis Cardinals reeling from the death of star pitcher Darryl Kile, Kerry Wood took a shutout into the eighth inning Sunday night and got support from Alex Gonzalez and Moises Alou as the Chicago Cubs rolled to an 8-3 victory.

Kile, who was scheduled to start this game, was found dead in his hotel room Saturday. He apparently of a blocked coronary artery.

Saturday's game between these long-time rivals was postponed, but the Cardinals voted unanimously to play Sunday night's nationally televised contest.

A moment of silence was held before the game, no pre-recorded or organ music was played at Wrigley Field and the Cardinals wore Kile's No. 57 on their sleeves.

Amid the somber setting, Wood (7-5) allowed two runs and five hits over eight innings with three walks and four strikeouts for his first win in four starts. He did not allow a run until Albert Pujols crushed a two-run homer to the back of the bleachers in left-center field with two out in the top of the eighth.

Gonzalez opened the scoring for the Cubs with a leadoff homer in the bottom of the second and Alou's two-run blast capped a three-run third off rookie Jason Simontacchi (5-1).

"I can't even really tell you how everyone felt about playing the game tonight," Alou said. "It meant a lot, especially for the Cardinals. It meant a lot to us and and it meant a lot to everyone in baseball.

"We had to play today, but win or lose, everybody's mind was not in the game today."

Sunday also brought an end to the first round of interleague play this season, the results from which were: Atlanta 9, Chicago White Sox 1; New York Mets 5, Kansas City 4; Oakland 5, Cincinnati 1; Montreal 7, Cleveland 2; Minnesota 5, Philadelphia 1; Texas 10, Pittsburgh 4; Anaheim 5, Milwaukee 2; Seattle 10, Houston 5; Colorado 6, Tampa Bay 5; Detroit 3, Florida 2; Baltimore 3, San Francisco 1; Los Angeles 9, Boston 6; Toronto 9, Arizona 3; New York Yankees 3, San Diego 2.

Report: Hasek to retire

BUFFALO, N.Y., June 24 (UPI) -- Dominik Hasek reportedly will follow Scotty Bowman into the hockey sunset.

Hasek, who captured the first Stanley Cup of his illustrious career earlier this month, has told the Detroit Red Wings he plans to retire and return to his native Czech Republic, the Buffalo News reported Sunday.

Citing two NHL sources, the newspaper said Hasek told Red Wings general manager Ken Holland of his decision last week. Holland told the star goaltender to take another week to reconsider before making a formal announcement.

Many believed Hasek would retire after he refused to commit to another season at the Stanley Cup championship celebration in downtown Detroit. Fans chanted "One more year, one more year," and several teammates said they were trying to coax Hasek into returning to the Red Wings.

Hasek spent most of his career with the Buffalo Sabres before demanding a trade following the 2000-01 season. He won a Stanley Cup in his first season with Detroit, adding it to six Vezina Trophies as the NHL's top goaltender and back-to-back Hart Trophies as most valuable player.

He also was the key member of a Czech Republic team that won the 1998 Olympic gold medal.

Bowman, the winningest coach in NHL history, announced his retirement moments after winning his record ninth Stanley Cup.

Agassi plays first on Centre Court

LONDON, June 24 (UPI) -- Andre Agassi will be the center of attention Monday at Wimbledon.

With last year's finalists absent from the All-England Club and seven-time champion Pete Sampras nursing a sore back, Agassi will be featured in the first match on Centre Court when the third leg of the Grand Slam gets under way.

Agassi, the third seed, will open against Harel Levy of Israel as he seeks his second Wimbledon title. Agassi has not played a match on grass this year and has not played at all since a quarterfinal loss at the French Open.

Defending champion Goran Ivanisevic would have opened play on Centre Court, but will miss the tournament following shoulder surgery. Pat Rafter, last year's runner-up, is taking a break from tennis.

Sampras would have been the third choice, but he pulled out of an exhibition match Saturday because of a bad back. He will use the extra time to heal and play in the third match of the day on Centre Court.

The second match will feature one of the top players from the women's draw as second-seeded Serena Williams, the French Open champ, will face Australia's Evie Dominikovic.

The top seed on the men's side is Aussie Lleyton Hewitt, who was bounced in the fourth round here last year before winning the U.S. Open for the first Grand Slam title of his career.

Hewitt is coming off a win over Britain's Tim Henman at the Stella Artois Championships. It was his third title of the season and fourth of his career on grass.

Marat Safin of Russia is seeded second, followed by Agassi, Henman, Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia and Sampras, who has not won a title since claiming his record 13th Grand Slam crown here in 2000. He also won Wimbledon from 1993-95 and 1997-2000.

The 30-year-old Sampras played in one Wimbledon tuneup, losing a second-round match to Nicolas Kiefer at the Gerry Weber Open. He has 63 career titles but has been in just one final this year.

Venus Williams is the top seed as she tries to become the ninth female to win three straight Wimbledon singles crowns and the first since Steffi Graf from 1991-93. She has won four of the last eight Grand Slam titles, including the last two U.S. Opens.

Serena Williams, who defeated her sister for the French Open title, is seeded second, followed by Australian Open champion Jennifer Capriati, Monica Seles and Belgians Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin.

Mickelson rallies to win GHO

CROMWELL, Conn., June 24 (UPI) -- Phil Mickelson successfully defended his Greater Hartford Open title Sunday, making a short birdie putt on the final hole to close a brilliant 6-under-par 64 and edge Jonathan Kaye and Davis Love III by a stroke.

Mickelson finished with a four-round total of 14-under 266, two shots off the score he posted en route to last year's title. He is the first player to repeat as champion in the 50-year history of the event.

The second-ranked player in the world holed an eagle from the fairway at No. 7 and overcame a bogey at the 17th hole with four birdies on the back nine. He nearly spun his approach at No. 18 into the hole before making birdie.

The victory was the second of the season for Mickelson, who is second to Tiger Woods among active players on the PGA Tour with 21 career titles. He collected the $720,000 top prize to surpass $21 million in career earnings.

The third-round leader, Kaye had the best chance to force a playoff but badly missed a 12-foot birdie putt at No. 18. He tapped in for par and tied Love for second at 267 -- his fourth runner-up finish in 164 PGA Tour starts.

Love also had a birdie putt to join Mickelson at 266 but pulled a 15-footer and settled for the 22nd runner-up finish of his career. Only one of his 14 titles has come since 1998.

Ricky Rudd wins NASCAR race

SONOMA, Calif., June 24 (UPI) -- Ricky Rudd's recent bad luck changed Sunday as the 45-year-old driver capitalized on Jerry Nadeau's misfortune to win the NASCAR Winston Cup Dodge Save/Mart 350 NASCAR at newly named Infineon Raceway.

Nadeau had a lead of more than six seconds with two laps remaining before the rear end of his Dodge Intrepid blew up coming out of the 11th turn on the 1.999-mile road course in Northern California's wine country.

Nadeau parked his car inside the track as Rudd's Ford Taurus sped by to take the lead. Two laps later, Rudd drove to his 23rd career victory, beating pole-winner Tony Stewart to the finish line by 2.487 seconds.

Terry Labonte was third in a Chevrolet Monte Carlo, followed by Kurt Busch's Ford and Jeff Green's Chevrolet.

Fired last month as one of the drivers at Hendrick Motorsports, Nadeau was trying to give Petty Enterprises its first victory since John Andretti won at Martinsville Speedway in 1999 -- 110 races ago.

FIFA admits officiating errors

SEOUL, South Korea, June 24 (UPI) -- The chairman of FIFA's referee committee admitted Sunday that significant mistakes had been made during the World Cup, but the governing body of international soccer still rejects the idea of using instant replay as an officiating aide.

As the World Cup headed into its final week, with only the semifinals and championship game left in the month-long tournament, the officiating at this year's event became the No. 1 topic.

Those semifinals will include South Korea instead of Spain because of obvious blunders made in the officiating of their game Saturday. In addition, South Korea's second-round win over Italy was marred by questionable calls. The United States even had reason to complain after its quarterfinal loss to Germany because a hand ball was not called in the penalty box.

A statement from referee committee chairman Senes Erzik of Turkey was distributed Sunday that read:

"There have been one or two major mistakes which are cause for concern.

"The referees have been very well prepared. But referees are only human and errors can never be entirely discounted. Emotions have bubbled over which is understandable.

"Conspiracy theories crop up in all walks of life and in 99 percent of cases they are unfounded. This one is one of the 99 percent."

Some of the emotional responses from both Italy and Spain included allegations that games against the co-hosting South Korean team had been fixed.

The most obvious missed call was in South Korea's victory over Spain, which came in a penalty shootout after neither side could score a goal in regulation or overtime.

An apparent winning goal for Spain, however, was disallowed when linesman Michael Ragoonath of Trinidad ruled that Joaquin sent his cross to Fernando Morientes after the ball had crossed the end line.

Replays not only showed the ball had not crossed the line, but also showed that Joaquin was between the ball and the linesman, meaning the official called a play he could not see.

While the controversy over the officiating reached its high point Sunday, FIFA announced the referees for the semifinal games.

On Tuesday night, the Germany-South Korean contest will be refereed by Urs Meier of Switzerland. The Brazil-Turkey game Wednesday night will be officiated by Kim Nielsen of Denmark.