Winning Start for Reneberg, Rubin

Richey Reneberg and Chanda Rubin, who had not met until 24 hours before going on the court, combined for a mixed doubles victory Monday that lifted the United States to a 2-1 triumph over South Africa in Group A of the Hopman Cup team tennis championship in Perth, Australia.

Reneberg and Rubin defeated Wayne Ferreira and Amanda Coetzer, 7-5, 6-3, in the decisive doubles after the teams were tied, 1-1, after the singles.

Coetzer defeated Rubin, 6-2, 6-4, in the women’s singles, then Reneberg beat Ferreira, 6-2, 6-2, in the men’s singles.

In another Group A match, the top-seeded Croatian combination of Goran Ivanisevic and Iva Majoli defeated the eighth-seeded pair from France, Arnaud Boetsch and Catherine Tanvier, 3-0.

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Sweden’s Magnus Larsson defeated Qatari teenager Sultan Khalfan, 6-0, 6-1, on the first day of the $635,000 Qatar Open in Doha.

The 18-year-old was a wild-card entry after the withdrawal of India’s injured Leander Paes. It was the first time a Qatari had played in an ATP tournament.

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Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia fought off two set points to beat Canada’s Sebastian Lareau, 6-2, 7-6 (8-6), in the first round of the Australian Hardcourt championships in Adelaide.

Third-seeded Renzo Furlan of Italy also advanced along with seventh-seeded Greg Rusedski of Britain and Henrik Holm of Sweden.

College Basketball

Boston College joined the top 25 in the Associated Press poll, becoming the fifth ranked Big East team. The Eagles’ only losses in 10 games this season have been to the only two teams from New England having better seasons--No. 1 Massachusetts and No. 7 Connecticut.

Massachusetts again was the runaway choice of the national media panel, receiving 62 of 65 first-place votes and 1,622 points, 94 more than Kentucky.

In a week when the top 10 teams remained the same, the only changes came in the last three spots, where Texas and New Mexico joined Boston College, 24th, in making poll debuts.

UCLA is ranked 20th.

Dropping from the rankings were Missouri, Virginia and Tulsa.

Police are investigating the death of a University of Maryland Baltimore County basketball player, who died after being injured at a New Year’s Eve party in Darnestown, Md.

Nineteen-year-old Matthew Skalsky, from East Lansing, Mich., was found unconscious with a head injury after the party.

Skalsky played in nine of Baltimore County’s 10 games this season, averaging 4.9 points.

Miscellany

Per Ragnar Bergkvist’s 24 saves helped Sweden beat the United States, 3-0, ending the Americans’ medal hopes in the World Junior Hockey Championship at Amherst, Mass. The United States dropped to 2-3-0 in tournament play. Sweden improved to 3-1-1 and earned a spot in Wednesday’s semifinals against the Czech Republic.

A nonprofit charity foundation is suing Bay Meadows Racetrack in San Mateo for allegedly withholding more than $500,000 in state-mandated funding. The Bay Meadows Foundation filed suit Friday, claiming the track, during a two-year period, wrongly subtracted part of its annual overhead from the money it distributes to the charity group.

Reinhard Schwarzenberger, an 18-year-old Austrian, scored his second World Cup ski jumping victory, edging Norway’s Esper Bredesen in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Mika Laitinen remained World Cup leader despite being sidelined because of seven broken ribs and a broken collarbone after a training crash Sunday. He is expected to be out most of the rest of the season.

Bill Nyrop, a former NHL defenseman who walked away from the Montreal Canadiens at the height of his career, died Sunday of cancer. He was 43.