Tomba’s Winning Streak Ends

Alberto Tomba’s seven-race winning streak ended today when he skied off course during the first run of a World Cup slalom at the Japanese resort of Furano.

Four of the first six racers failed to reach the finish on the tight course. One who did get to the bottom was Slovenia’s Jure Kosir, the nearest challenger to Tomba in the race for the World Cup overall title. Tomba has 1,050 points. Kosir, who finished fourth, ranks second with 620. Austria’s Michael Tritscher won the slalom, his first World Cup victory in four years.

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Austria’s Anita Wachter won her second World Cup giant slalom in a row, her combined time of 2 minutes 1.87 seconds beating defending overall champion Vreni Schneider of Switzerland by 0.51 seconds at Are, Sweden.

Tennis

After twice getting within match point of victory, Pete Sampras, the No. 1 player in the world, lost to Todd Martin, 4-6, 7-6 (8-6), 6-3, in the semifinals of the St. Jude Indoor tournament at Memphis. Paul Haarhuis beat unseeded Jonathan Stark, 6-4, 7-5, in the other semifinal.

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Steffi Graf, the former No. 1 player in the world, was a 6-3, 6-2 semifinal winner over Jana Novotna in the Paris Open.

Graf advanced to a title match against Australian Open champion Mary Pierce, who beat Iva Majoli of Croatia, 6-3, 6-4, in the other semifinal.

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Top-seeded Boris Becker struggled to a 7-6 (7-3), 6-7 (7-3), 6-2 victory over Czech Petr Korda to reach the title match at the Muratti Time Indoor tournament in Milan. Becker will take on Yevgeny Kafelnikov, who defeated Goran Ivanisevic, 7-5, 6-7 (7-4) 6-4, in the other semifinal.

Golf

Barb Thomas shot a two-under-par 70 to score a five-stroke victory in the $550,000 Hawaiian Ladies Open in Honolulu. It was her first success after 11 years on the tour. Thomas finished with a 54-hole total of 204, 12 strokes under par. Sharing second place at 209 were Hiromi Kobayashi of Japan, Kris Tschetter and Chris Johnson.

Dave Stockton, Gary Player and Dave Eichelberger were tied at six-under-par 136 and held a one-stroke lead over J.C. Snead and Bob Charles going into the final round of the Senior PGA Tour’s GTE Suncoast Classic at the Tournament Players Club of Tampa Bay.

Australian Lucas Parsons fired a five-under-par 68 in the third round at Melbourne to take a two-shot lead in the Australian Masters over Tom Watson, Peter Senior and Mike Clayton.

Jurisprudence

Prosecutors in Pontiac, Mich., say they will appeal a judge’s decision to dismiss a home invasion charge against national figure skating champion Nicole Bobek, saying she was given preferential treatment. Bobek, 17, was charged after members of a Bloomfield Hills family said they saw her carrying cash out of the house.

Sailing

Dennis Conner’s Stars & Stripes came from more than a minute behind America 3on the final run to find a better breeze and score a surprise victory over the all-female team in the America’s Cup trials off San Diego.

On the challenger course, Team New Zealand trounced Spain’s Rioja de Espana; oneAustralia defeated France 3 and NZL-39 came from behind to beat Japan’s Nippon Challenge.

Miscellany

Colombia’s Francisco Tejedor became the International Boxing Federation flyweight champion when his opponent, Jose Luis Zepeda of Mexico, failed to come out of his corner for the seventh round of their fight in Cartagena, Colombia. . . . Angela Kennedy of Australia broke one of swimming’s oldest world records--the 58.91-second 100-meter butterfly mark held by Mary T. Meagher--touching the wall in 58.77 seconds on the first day of the short-course World Cup meet in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. . . . The defending world champion United States women’s soccer team will play China, Denmark and Australia in the first round of the Second FIFA Women’s World Championship in Sweden June 5-18.