Sampras Upset by Martin in Final at London

Pete Sampras never lost his serve but he still lost to Todd Martin, who served 15 aces and didn’t lose his serve either in a 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-4) victory Sunday in the Queen’s Club final at London.

Martin, seeded fifth, beat his fellow American for the first time in four meetings and avenged a loss to Sampras in this year’s Australian Open final.

“It’s a bit frustrating when you lose the match without losing your serve,” Sampras said. “When it is down to a tiebreaker in grass-court tennis, it’s basically roll the dice. Today, I just didn’t get the breaks and you just have to give him credit.”

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Lori McNeil beat close friend Zina Garrison-Jackson, 6-2, 6-2, in the final of a grass-court tournament at Birmingham, England. McNeil won the tournament for the second consecutive year and earned $27,000. . . . At Rosemalen, Netherlands, Dutchman Richard Krajicek won a grass-court tournament for the first time by defeating Karsten Braasch of Germany, 6-3, 6-4. . . . At Florence, Italy, Uruguay’s Marcelo Filippini beat Australia’s Richard Fromberg, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, to win the City of Florence tournament.

Miscellany

Viacom Inc., the owner of the New York Knicks, New York Rangers, Madison Square Garden and the MSG cable network, is speeding up its efforts to sell the entire package, the New York Times reported.

Viacom, which acquired the teams, arena and network when it bought a majority stake in Paramount Communications Inc. in March, is an estimated $8 billion in debt and could get as much as $1 billion for the four entities.

Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI), which recently purchased Prime Ticket, Cablevision Systems Corp., another leading cable operator, Time Warner, George Steinbrenner, and Stanley R. Jaffe, the former president of Paramount Communications, are among potential buyers.

Clay Moseley of Ruidoso, N.M., beat Kent Bostick of Corrales, N.M., for the individual time trial gold medal in the U.S. National Cycling Championships at Seattle. Bostick formerly trained Moseley. Rebecca Twigg, a Seattle native living in Flagstaff, Ariz., won the women’s gold medal. . . . Eugeni Berzin, who took the lead in the fourth stage and held it the rest of the way, became the first Russian to win the Tour of Italy cycling race. Berzin finished two minutes 51 seconds ahead of runner-up Marco Pantani of Italy. Stefano Zanini of Italy won the final 123-mile stage from Turin to Milan in 4:54.38.

Hortencia scored 27 points in her final international game as Brazil beat China, 96-87, to win the women’s world basketball championship at Sydney. . . . In the bronze-medal game, the United States rallied to defeat Australia, 100-95. Teresa Edwards led the U.S. team by scoring 18 of her 20 points in the second half.

Butch Reynolds lost his fourth 400-meter race in five days, finishing second to Jamaica’s Greg Haughton at an international track and field meet at Duisburg, Germany. Haughton finished in 45.54, compared to 46.18 for Reynolds.