Martinez Routs Sabatini in Final

Conchita Martinez capitalized on an overpowering first set to win her second consecutive tournament, routing Gabriela Sabatini, 6-1, 6-4, Sunday in the final of the Bausch & Lomb championship in Amelia Island, Fla.

Martinez, who a week ago won the Family Circle Magazine Cup at Hilton Head Island, S.C., sent the Argentine star to her third consecutive loss in the Bausch & Lomb finals.

Martinez won in 74 minutes, with the first set taking only 25 minutes. She dropped her serve only once in each set and earned $79,000 for her 22nd career title.

“It was important to get off to a fast start, especially with the crowd behind her,” Martinez said. “I don’t mind the fans cheering for her, but it does bother me some when they cheer my mistakes.”

Sabatini, ranked seventh in the world, appeared ready to take the second set when she broke the Spaniard in the eighth game to make it 4-4.

But Martinez broke the following game and held serve to win the match after Sabatini’s backhand lob landed in the net.

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Thomas Muster cashed in on his physical resistance and circuit experience to defeat Alberto Costa, 6-4, 6-2, in the final of the $575,000 Estoril Open in Lisbon.

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Martin Sinner of Germany overpowered Frenchman Guillaume Raoux, 6-1, 6-4, to win the South African Open in Johannesburg.

Miscellany

A gunman shot to death an acquaintance in front of Caesars Palace before the Oliver McCall-Larry Holmes boxing match Saturday night and then did a “victory dance” over the victim, police said.

The shooting occurred several hours before the heavyweight fight. No one else was hurt.

A 45-year-old Las Vegas man was booked for investigation of murder. The victim, also 45, was from the San Francisco Bay area. Their names were not released.

A soccer fan died and another was seriously hurt when followers of rivals Manchester United and Crystal Palace fought in the parking lot outside a pub in Walsall, England before a Football Association Cup semifinal.

The dead man, whose identity was not immediately released, was thought to be a fan of Crystal Palace.

The brawl occurred a few miles from Villa Park in Birmingham, where the teams played a 2-2 tie before about 38,000 fans.

Kenyan runners Ismael Kirui and Rose Cheruiyot broke the men’s and women’s 10-mile world records in the Northern Telecom Cherry Blossom Run in Washington, D.C.

Kirui, 21, shattered the men’s 10-mile record with a time of 45:38, 24 seconds faster than the previous mark set in the same race in 1991 by William Sigei of Kenya.

Cheruiyot, 19, finished in 51:40, one second faster than the previous record set by Jill Hunter at New York’s Trevira Twosome in 1991.

Mike Dodd and Mike Whitmarsh won their first tournament of the 1995 Miller Lite/AVP Pro Beach Volleyball season with a 15-9 victory over Randy Stoklos and Adam Johnson at the $100,000 Miller Lite Open at Pensacola, Fla.

Barbra Fontana Harris and Lori Kotas-Forsythe defeated Linda Hanley and Angela Rock, 15-13, to win the $9,400 first-place prize in the Women’s Professional Beach Volleyball Tour’s City of Deerfield Beach Open.

Dave Ullman and his crew from the host Balboa Yacht Club won the Sir Thomas Lipton Cup, the oldest sailing event on the West Coast, dating to 1903, for the fourth consecutive year with consistent finishes of 3-3-2-2-2.

San Diego Yacht Club’s Vince Brun won two races and was a close second overall.

Japan’s national volleyball team defeated the United States, 17-16, 15-8, 15-4, in Nagoya, Japan, for its second victory in a three-game series.