Tennis

Defending champion Pete Sampras defeated Jonas Svensson of Sweden, 6-4, 6-2, in a first-round match in the New South Wales Open at Sydney, Australia.

No. 2-seeded Andrei Medvedev was forced out by a knee injury that could keep him from this year’s first Grand Slam tournament, the Australian Open, which begins Monday.

Doubles star Richey Reneberg turned in a surprise by ousting eighth-seeded Karel Novacek of the Czech Republic, 6-1, 6-3.

Ivan Lendl easily won a battle between two former top-ranked players when he trounced Mats Wilander of Sweden, 6-2, 6-1.

In women’s play, second-seeded Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina defeated Natalia Medvedeva of Ukraine, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4, in her first-round match.

Third-seeded Mary Joe Fernandez opened with a 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 victory over Julie Halard of France, and fourth-seeded Anke Huber of Germany was beaten by Leila Meskhi of Georgia, 6-7 (2-7) 6-2, 6-1.

Speedskating

Kristen Talbot, a longshot medal hopeful at next month’s Lillehammer Olympics, underwent a 40-minute operation to donate bone marrow to save her brother’s life.

Dr. Richard Jones, who performed the bone marrow transplant at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins Hospital, said donating marrow may slow an athlete whose success hinges on fractions of a second.

The one pint of marrow taken from Talbot was about 2% of the marrow in her bones, equivalent to the amount of blood taken during routine donations, Jones said.

Jones said the two-time Olympian’s blood count should return to normal within several days, but she will be “somewhat anemic” in terms of health standards for athletes.

“We feel very certain she’ll be able to compete,” Jones said.

Talbot was the fourth and final qualifier for the 500 meters in the Olympic speedskating trials last Saturday at Milwaukee.