Stolle Makes It Hard for Muster to Stay No. 1

Days after gaining a controversial No. 1 tennis ranking, Austrian Thomas Muster was upset in the opening round of the Dubai Open by lightly regarded Australian Sandon Stolle.

Stolle, 25 and better known for his doubles play and for being the son of Fred Stolle, who won the U.S. and French opens in the 1960s, defeated Muster, 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (7-0), Wednesday.

The result left Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi with a chance to replace Muster atop the rankings with a tournament victory this week.

Agassi and Sampras have been going back and forth with the No. 1 ranking for more than a year. Muster climbed above them Monday, increasing complaints that he is essentially a clay-surface player. The Dubai Open is played on hard courts. Agassi and Sampras are playing in San Jose this week.

Muster arrived in Dubai only hours before his match after winning his reverse singles in Austria’s 3-2 Davis Cup loss to South Africa on Monday.

Skiing

World ski officials took responsibility for a near-tragedy in downhill training at the world championships at Sierra Nevada, Spain, where Russian downhiller Tatiana Lebedeva and an American ski official suffered broken legs.

Lebedeva, 22, broke her upper right leg, and American official Harald Schoenhaar sustained a similar injury, also to his right leg.

Gian Franco Kasper, secretary general of FIS, the governing body of skiing, called the accident an “act of idiocy” on the part of Schoenhaar. Kasper said he had no orders from FIS to be on the course during the women’s training run.

Schoenhaar, 55 and a former U.S. men’s Alpine director and former U.S. coach with decades of experience in the sport, was working as a member of the men’s jury and is an FIS official for Alpine skiing.

Lebedeva crashed into him just after coming off of a jump on the downhill course where ski racers reach speeds of 65 mph.

Kasper said Schoenhaar crossed the downhill run after he had apparently been been notified that racing had been suspended, not knowing that Lebedeva was still on her way down the mountain.

American Donna Weinbrecht and Jean-Luc Brassard of Canada won moguls competitions in a freestyle skiing World Cup event at La Clusaz, France.

Swimming

The international swimming federation welcomed the two-year suspension of American freestyle swimmer Jessica Foschi for steroid use. FINA director Cornel Marculescu said world-class athletes, including Foschi, must accept responsibility for any positive drug test, whether or not they took the banned substance intentionally.

Golf

John Daly and Fred Couples committed to play the $1.2-million Nissan Open, which begins Feb. 22 at Riviera Country Club. The entry of British Open champion Daly means all four winners of last year’s majors are playing. U.S. Open champion Corey Pavin, Masters champion Ben Crenshaw and PGA champion Steve Elkington also have entered. Pavin is the tournament’s two-time defending champion.

Jurisprudence

Tackle Cortez Kennedy of the Seattle Seahawks pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge involving his wife. He was arrested after his wife said he shoved her during an argument and she fell into a bedpost. . . . South Carolina tailback Duce Staley has been suspended from the team after a police officer charged him with resisting arrest, Coach Brad Scott said.

Names in the News

Former San Francisco 49er running back Roger Craig, who retired in 1994, said he’s willing to accept the minimum NFL salary for a chance to prove himself at the team’s training camp this summer. . . . Hall of Fame horse trainer Syl Veitch died at a hospital in suburban Mineola, N.Y. after a brief illness. He was 85.