Graf Defeats Pierce, Regains Top Ranking

Steffi Graf erased a lot of doubts--her own and others--by routing Mary Pierce, 6-2, 6-2, Sunday to win the Paris Open and regain the No. 1 ranking in women’s tennis.

“I came here on Monday and I still felt I wasn’t sure if I was ready to play in a tournament,” Graf said.

Graf had been sidelined for three months because of back and leg injuries, losing her No. 1 women’s ranking to Spain’s Arantxa Sanchez Vicario.

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Todd Martin started slowly, then overpowered Paul Haarhuis with his serve, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4, to defend the St. Jude Indoor tournament title in Memphis, Tenn.

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Russia’s Yevgeny Kafelnikov upset top-seeded Boris Becker, 7-5, 5-7, 7-6 (8-6), to win the Muratti Time Indoor tournament in Milan, Italy.

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Brenda Schultz, using a strong serve to keep her opponent off balance, routed Elena Likhovtseva, 6-1, 6-2, to win the IGA Tennis Classic in Oklahoma City.

Baseball

As players and owners prepared for the possible resumption of talks Tuesday, union head Donald Fehr said that anyone--including minor league players--who appears in exhibition games will be considered a strikebreaker and will be at odds with 1,100 striking major league players.

Winter Sports

Italy’s Alberto Tomba, trying to rebound after the end of his seven-slalom winning streak, failed to finish a giant slalom, skiing off the course at Furano, Japan. Austria’s Mario Reiter was the giant slalom winner in 2 minutes 38.92 seconds. Slovenia’s Jure Kosir was second. 0.11 seconds behind.

Russia won the first gold and silver medals of the 17th Winter University Games, and athletes from the former Soviet Union swept the top six places in women’s cross-country skiing in Jaca, Spain.

Germany’s Wolfgang Hoppe dominated all four heats and won the four-man World Bobsled Championships in Winterberg, Germany.

Trace Worthington and Nikki Stone gave the United States a sweep of the aerials titles at the World Freestyle Skiing Championships in La Clusaz, France.

Japan’s Kenji Ogiwara beat Knut-Tore Apeland of Norway to win a Nordic combined event at Bad Goisern, Austria, and secure the overall World Cup championship for the second consecutive year.

Germany rallied in the final two legs to win the men’s 30-kilometer relay at the Biathlon World Championship in Anterselva, Italy.

The German team also won the women’s 30-kilometer relay.

Italy’s Kurt Brugger and Wilfried Huber had the fastest times in both heats to win the men’s doubles race at the season’s final luge World Cup in Altenberg, Germany.

In women’s singles, Germany’s Otto Sylke won and clinched the overall World Cup title.

Miscellany

Larry Dixon won in top fuel, John Force in funny cars and Darrell Alderman in pro stock in the National Hot Rod Assn. ATSCO Nationals at Chandler, Ariz.

Kevin Mahaney’s Young America defeated Dennis Conner’s Stars & Stripes by more than eight minutes and Spain’s Rioja de Espana won for the first time in 16 races, beating Sydney 95 by more than 11 minutes on the challengers’ course in America’s Cup racing at San Diego.

Names in the News

Franziska van Almsick and Mark Warnecke were among the winners as Germany dominated the final events at the short course World Cup in swimming at Gelsenkirchen, Germany. . . . Britain’s Linford Christie broke the world indoor record for 200 meters with a time of 20.25 seconds at the Lievin international meet in France.