Davenport, Fernandez Take U.S. to Final

Lindsay Davenport outlasted French Open finalist Mary Pierce on Saturday to help lead the United States into the Federation Cup tennis tournament final.

The Americans will meet defending champion Spain, which defeated Germany, 2-1, to reach today’s championship.

Mary Joe Fernandez began the United States’ 3-0 victory over France by defeating Julie Halard, 6-1, 6-3. Then came Davenport’s struggle with Pierce, which Davenport won, 5-7, 6-2, 6-2.

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Australian Jason Stoltenberg defeated David Wheaton, 6-4, 6-2, in the semifinals of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington. Stoltenberg, seeded 14th, will play No. 2 Stefan Edberg, a 6-4, 7-5 winner over unseeded Byron Black of Zimbabwe. . . . Alberto Berasategui outlasted unseeded Bernd Karbacher, 5-7, 6-3, 6-0, and Andrea Gaudenzi beat Andrei Chesnokov, 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, to reach the final of the Mercedes Cup at Stuttgart, Germany. . . . Steffi Graf won two matches to reach the Pathmark Tennis Classic final at Mahwah, N.J. She won, 6-2, 6-1, over Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere and, 7-6 (7-1), 7-6 (8-6), over Pam Shriver. Graf will play Lisa Raymond, who defeated Nino Louarsabishvily, 6-2, 6-3, for the title.

Top-seeded Charlene Hillebrand of San Pedro beat No. 2 Barbara Mueller, 6-7 (7-2), 7-6 (7-5), 6-3, for the 50 singles title in the U.S. Tennis Assn. Senior Women’s Grass Court championships in New York. Mary Boswell won the 60 singles, beating Betsy Roberti of Santa Monica, 7-6 (7-5), 1-6, 6-1.

Hockey

Bob Probert, released by the Detroit Red Wings because of off-ice problems, signed a $6.6-million, four-year contract with the Chicago Blackhawks that includes provisions he stay out of trouble.

Probert, 29, was released last week after two traffic accidents in two days and became an unrestricted free agent.

Motor Racing

John Andretti, Darrell Waltrip and Dave Marcis, three of the fastest drivers in second-round qualifying for today’s DieHard 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, used borrowed engines for their efforts.

Andretti ran 190.738 m.p.h. with a motor from pole-winner Dale Earnhardt. Waltrip used an engine from Sterling Marlin’s team to drive 190.329. Marcis also used an Earnhardt engine to drive 189.212.

Ken Schrader took the lead two laps from the end, then held on to win the Fram Filters 500K Busch Grand National stock car race at Talladega, averaging an event-record 167.472 m.p.h.

Charles Johnson, 30, of Miller, Mo., became the third driver in a month to be killed in a race at Speedway U.S.A. at Bolivar when his car struck a wall Friday night.

Football

Doug Flutie threw for a team-record tying six touchdowns and ran for two more, including a 57-yard run, to lead the Calgary Stampeders to a 58-19 Canadian Football League victory over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers at Calgary.

ESPN has agreed to televise 11 Western Athletic Conference football games per year starting in 1996. . . . Former New York Giant linebacker Lawrence Taylor will be an analyst for TNT’s NFL broadcasts.

Miscellany

Miguel Indurain had his fourth consecutive Tour de France title all but won, leading by 5 minutes 39 seconds as the cycling race went into its last day.

Olympic gold medal sprinter Walter McCoy has been awarded $900,000 by a Tampa, Fla., jury that found he could have won the gold a second time had he not suffered a neck injury in a 1988 hotel elevator accident.

LaKeisha Backus, a junior at Long Beach Wilson High, ran the third-fastest 200-meter time for a U.S. high school girl, when she finished in 22.88 seconds for second place, 0.08 seconds behind South Africa’s Heide Seyerling, at the IAAF World Junior Athletics Championships at Lisbon, Portugal.

Names in the News

Free agent forward Chuck Person, cut by the Minnesota Timberwolves after last season, has agreed to terms with San Antonio and will fill the spot left by Dale Ellis, who will not return to the Spurs, the San Antonio Express-News reported. . . . Tony Mason, 66, former football coach at Cincinnati and Arizona, collapsed at Hopkins Airport in Cleveland and later died, authorities said.