Venus survives scare at U.S. Open
NEW YORK, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Two-time defending champion Venus Williams narrowly missed her earliest U.S. Open exit Tuesday before getting past fellow American Chanda Rubin in the fourth round.
Williams held off the 14th-seeded Rubin, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, to advance to her 18th quarterfinal in her last 20 Grand Slams. The second seed had lost a total of just six games during her first three matches, but was stretched to three sets here for the first time since beating Martina Hingis in the 2000 semifinals.
The 22-year-old American won her eighth straight match against Rubin, but dropped her first set against her since losing their initial meeting, 6-4, 6-0, at Amelia Island in 1997.
Williams owned a 4-1 lead in the third set, but was broken in the seventh game as Rubin nailed an inside-outside forehand return for a winner. At 5-5, Rubin gained two break points, but hit a running forehand wide and finished a long rally by netting a forehand. Williams hit a service winner before taking a 6-5 lead with a forehand putaway. Williams reached match point in the next game, when she llaced a backhand winner down the line and closed out the match in just under two hours with a forehand approach winner down the line.
Three more former U.S. Open winners were involved in women's fourth-round action. The fourth-seeded Davenport, who triumphed here in 1998, recovered for a 3-6, 6-0, 6-2 victory over Russia's Elena Bovina, and two-time champion Monica Seles dispatched 1997 winner Martina Hingis of Switzerland, 6-4, 6-2.
Seles, seeded sixth, snapped a three-match losing streak to Hingis, improving to only 5-15 in their all-time matchup. The 28-year-old American will face Venus Williams in the quarterfinals. She is 1-7 lifetime against Williams, winning this year in the Australian Open semifinals, but losing in the French Open quarterfinals.
Hingis, who underwent surgery to repair torn and damaged ligaments in her left ankle in May, lost before the quarterfinals here for the first time since her first visit in 1989.
In the evening, Serena Williams battled No. 11 Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia. Williams advanced to the fourth round with a 41-minute rout of No. 20 Daja Bedanova of the Czech Republic on Sunday.
World hoops event continues
INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Unbeaten Team USA should not get much of a challenge from New Zealand Tuesday night in second-round play at the World Basketball Championships at Indianapolis.
The United States (4-0) opened the second round in Group F with an easy 106-82 victory over Russia at Conseco Fieldhouse while New Zealand fell to Germany, 84-64.
After rallying for preliminary-round wins over Germany and China, Team USA never trailed against Russia, which was without its best player, Utah Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko.
Germany will play Argentina and Angola meets Turkey in other Group F games on Tuesday.
In Group E, Puerto Rico continued its surprising run in the tournament with an 85-83 win over powerful Yugoslavia. Jose Ortiz made two free throws in the final minute and Daniel Santiago collected 31 points and 10 rebounds for Puerto Rico, which has won three of four games and will play Spain on Tuesday. Spain is led by NBA Rookie of the Year Pau Gasol of the Memphis Grizzlies.
China will play Russia in Tuesday's other Group E contest..
Dunn steps down as coach of WNBA's Storm
SEATTLE, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Lin Dunn, who led the Seattle Storm to their first playoff appearance in club history this season, Tuesday resigned as coach and general manager of the franchise.
After posting a 16-48 record in her first two years with Seattle, Dunn led the Storm to a 17-15 mark this past season while finishing second in Coach of the Year voting.
Team vice-president Bill McKinney will assume Dunn's duties as general manager, and also oversee the process for selecting a new coach.
Dunn started her professional coaching career in 1996 with the Portland Power of the now-defunct ABL. In her second season in Portland, she led the Power to the Western Conference championship and secured Coach of the Year honors.
Neuheisel gets contract extension
SEATTLE, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- University of Washington football coach Rick Neuheisel apparently has agreed to a contract extension through the 2008 season.
The Seattle Times reported Tuesday that Neuheisel agreed to a deal earlier this summer and that an official announcement would be made by the school either later this week or next week. The newspaper did not report contract terms.
During a news conference Monday, Neuheisel admitted that "we have an agreement that I'm going to be here a little while longer."
The Huskies opened their season with a heartbreaking 31-29 loss at Michigan last Saturday. A costly penalty for too many men on the field set up a game-winning field goal for the Wolverines.
Neuheisel, 41, is currently working on the fourth year of a five-year deal he signed when he came from Colorado in 1999. His contract was modified last September after he lead the Huskies to a Pac-10 Conference title and a win over Purdue in the Rose Bowl, raising his base salary from $997,000 to $1.21 million per season plus incentives.
Vols lose another defender for season
KNOXVILLE, Tenn., Sept. 3 (UPI) -- The defense of the fourth-ranked Tennessee Volunteers has suffered another personnel loss as the school has learned that junior linebacker Kevin Burnett is done for the 2002 season because of a knee injury.
The extent of the damage was to be determined by an MRI on Tuesday. The initial diagnosis was a torn ACL. There was worry about the condition of the knee in the preseason. Burnett missed two of the three fall scrimmages and wore a brace on the knee for part of the preseason.
"Right now the plan, if everything is correct, is he'll have the surgery in about three weeks," Coach Phillip Fulmer told the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
Burnett, a 6-3, 236-pounder from Carson, Calif., said he knew his season was over the instant he was injured. Some 30 family members watched on television in Los Angeles in horror during Saturday afternoon's game against Wyoming.
Burnett will be replaced by Kevin Simon, a 5-11, 225-pound freshman from Walnut Creek, Calif. The Volunteers host in-state rival Middle Tennessee State this Saturday.
Rypien dumped by Seattle
SEATTLE, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Veteran quarterback Mark Rypien, not enjoying the kind of success being experienced by his aging, journeyman counterpart, Rodney Peete, is having in Charlotte, late Monday was waived by the Seattle Seahawks.
Rypien, who was signed as a free agent on Aug. 19, found the going got tough in the preseason after he came out of semi-retirement. He saw action in two preseason games, completing 13-of-21 passes for 97 yards, most of that coming in last week's 31-0 preseason loss at Denver.
Filling his roster spot will be Dave Dickenson, a former University of Montana star who was just released by the San Diego Chargers. He spent his first five pro seasons north of the border with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League. The 5-11, 185-pounder took that team to the CFL's title game in 1999. The next year, he led Calgary to the league playoffs and was named the CFL's Most Outstanding Player after passing for 4,636 yards and 36 touchdowns.
Kentucky F Parker kicked off hoops team
LEXINGTON, Ky., Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Redshirt sophomore Jason Parker has been dismissed from the basketball team at the University of Kentucky for violating undisclosed departmental policy. The announcement was made by Kentucky Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart.
Neither Barnhart nor men's coach Tubby Smith would disclose the nature of the policy that was violated because of privacy issues. Smith was unavailable for comment.
In 2001, the 6-8 Parker, a native of Charlotte, N.C., made the Southeastern Conference All-Freshman team after starting at center all 34 games. He averaged 8.6 points and 4.7 rebounds per contest, and recorded a career-high 22 points and 13 rebounds in the Wildcats' last game that season in an NCAA Tournament contest against Southern California.
In June 2001, he suffered a torn ACL in his right knee. He was scheduled to return to action in January 2002, but tore the ligament again last October just before the start of fall practice, known as Big Blue Madness, which caused him to miss the entire 2001-02 season as a medical redshirt.
Former college coaching great dies
OKLAHOMA CITY, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Abe Lemons, whose combination of college basketball coaching success and enormous sense of humor made him universally popular, dies Monday after fighting numerous ailments. He was 79.
The Dallas Morning News reported that Lemons had Parkinson's disease, spent the past year in a wheelchair, and sustained a broken hip in a fall earlier this month.
Lemons' coaching career spanned 25 seasons. His overall record was 597-344, ranking him 28th all-time among men who coached at four-year schools.
He was the head man at several schools--twice at Oklahoma City (1956-83 and 1984-90), and once each at the University of Texas (1977-82) and Pan American (1974-76). He retired in 1990 and was characterized as "a living legend."
Season over for Cubs P Prior
CHICAGO, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- When the Chicago Cubs announced Monday that prized righthander Mark Prior has been placed on the 15-day disabled list, initially they did not say he would not pitch again this season. Now, they do.
The Cubs have decided to be very careful with Prior, so the trip to the DL because of a strained hamstring will end his first season in the Major Leagues.
"Obviously, I'm upset," said Prior, the Cubs' No. 1 pick in the 2001 draft. "I didn't want to go out this way. I don't think anybody wants to end the season this way. It's tough because I'm happy with what I did, but I'm not happy with what I did. I'm not happy with a 6-6 record and that, when I start games, we have a losing record (8-11). There's a lot of things I'm not happy with that I'll come back with and hopefully use to my advantage. It's been a disappointing couple of days."
Prior was injured while running the bases in the fifth inning of Saturday's 8-1 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. He tried to warm up at the start of the sixth, but could not continue. Saturday's loss dropped Prior to 6-6 with a 3.32 ERA this season. He is tied for 11th in the National League with 147 strikeouts, despite making just 19 starts.
Penguins sign former top draft pick
PITTSBURGH, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- The Pittsburgh Penguins Tuesday signed right wing Colby Armstrong, their first-round pick in the 2001 draft.
Armstrong, 19, played in 64 games for Red Deer of the Western Hockey League last season, collecting 27 goals and 41 points. He added 16 points in 23 playoff contests.
The Penguins also re-signed goaltender Robbie Tallas, who was 6-25-5 with a 3.46 goals against average in 38 games for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey league.
