Capriati’s Father Admits He Erred in Pushing Her Too Hard Too Early

The father of Jennifer Capriati, acknowledging mistakes he made raising the troubled teen-age tennis star, says she will be released next week from a treatment center and again will be a productive player.

Capriati, who turned pro just before her 14th birthday, left the tour last year after losing in the first round of the U.S. Open. Now 18, she was arrested on May 16 on marijuana possession charges and is undergoing rehabilitation.

“I put too much pressure on her,” Stefano Capriati was quoted as saying Thursday in an interview in Milan with the Italian sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport.

“Sometimes she would say, ‘I don’t want to practice this week.’ But I would insist that she prepare for the next tournament.

“When she was 15, I shouldn’t have made her play all those exhibitions, but I didn’t know how good she was and wanted to see how she did against stronger players. Maybe I made a mistake.”

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Pam Shriver, 31, beat Rachel McQuillan of Australia, 6-0, 6-4, in the third round of the DFS women’s grass-court tournament at Birmingham, England, after which McQuillan refused to shake hands with the American and said she was too old and should retire.

Football

Richard Dent, 33, a four-time Pro Bowl defensive end with the Chicago Bears, has agreed to a two-year, $3-million contract with the San Francisco 49ers.

A fire destroyed the home of Falcon wide receiver Andre Rison in suburban Atlanta, and his girlfriend, Lisa (Left Eye) Lopes, a hip-hop performer with the rap group TLC, said she would turn herself in today to answer an arson warrant.

Former Miami Dolphin receiver Mark Duper pleaded not guilty to drug charges at his arraignment in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Duper and his brother-in-law, Brian Briggs, were charged last month with possession of cocaine and conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute.

Four San Diego State football players, who pleaded guilty in April to misdemeanor assault and vandalism in an attack on a campus fraternity house, were sentenced to 100 hours of volunteer work for charities. Kyle Turley, Daniel Nilsen and twins Matthew and Mark Roe pleaded guilty to misdemeanors in exchange for having felony assault, burglary and conspiracy charges dropped.

Miscellany

Heineken, the only entry with an all-female crew, sailed across the finish line in Southampton, England, the final yacht to finish the Whitbread Round the World race.

The Western Athletic Conference said the expanded league will be divided into four quadrants, each having four schools.

With expansion to 16 teams after picking up Rice, Southern Methodist and Texas Christian from the Southwest Conference, San Jose State and Nevada Las Vegas from the Big West and Tulsa, the quadrants will be: (1) Rice, SMU, TCU and Tulsa; (2) Air Force, Colorado State, UNLV and Wyoming; (3) BYU, New Mexico, Texas El Paso and Utah, and (4) Fresno State, Hawaii, San Diego State and San Jose State.

Florida State Athletic Director Bob Goin is being investigated by the state comptroller, who wants to know how Goin got a new roof for his home from a company that is also working on a $96-million stadium expansion at the school.

Harry Tracy, 43, who served unscathed through 18 months in Vietnam, was in satisfactory condition after being struck in the groin by a stray bullet while coaching a Little League team in Tampa, Fla.

The Westside High School All-Star baseball game has been rescheduled for Sunday at 2 p.m. at UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium.

Names in the News

Tim Hardaway, the Golden State Warrior guard who missed the season because of a knee injury, had arthroscopic knee surgery. The team said this rehabilitation should take four to six weeks. . . . Teresa Edwards scored 10 points in the final six minutes as the defending champion United States earned a semifinal berth in the Women’s World Basketball Championship qualifying tournament with a 103-96 victory over Slovakia in Sydney. . . . Roger Caron, a former assistant at Williams (Mass.) College, was named football coach at Pomona-Pitzer. . . . Linda Bruno, who chairs the NCAA’s Division I women’s basketball committee, was appointed commissioner of the Atlantic 10 Conference. . . . The Seattle SuperSonics hired former player Wally Walker as a consultant for two months to help with basketball operations.