Capriati, Playing Hurt, Is Beaten

Jennifer Capriati hit a bump on the comeback trail Friday when, hampered by a strained upper left thigh, she lost to Jana Novotna in the $450,000 Faber Grand Prix tennis tournament at Essen, Germany.

Novotna, a former Wimbledon finalist, beat Capriati, 7-6 (8-6), 2-6, 6-3, in the quarterfinals.

“Everything’s been sore,” said the 19-year-old Capriati, who hadn’t played in a tournament in 15 months and was absent from the women’s tour for 2 1/2 years. “I really pushed it this match. I got tired. I was playing with pain.”

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Michael Chang advanced to a semifinal meeting with Pete Sampras by beating MaliVai Washington, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3, at the Kroger-St. Jude tournament in Memphis, Tenn.

Sampras had to rally from a 1-4 deficit in the second set and a 2-5 tiebreaker deficit to defeat Mark Woodforde, 6-4, 7-6 (9-7).

Mark Philippousis and Todd Martin also were quarterfinal winners.

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Goran Ivanisevic kept his hopes alive for a third consecutive tournament title by winning in the quarterfinals at the European Community Championships at Antwerp, Belgium.

Third-seeded Ivanisevic, who beat Italian Renzo Furlan, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2, will play top-seeded Boris Becker in today’s semifinal of the $1-million event. Becker overwhelmed Spain’s Francisco Clavet, 6-3, 6-3.

Ukraine’s Andrei Medvedev also relied on a second-set tiebreaker to come from behind and upset eighth-seeded Marc Rosset, 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3. Medvedev will play sixth-seeded Michael Stich, who beat Dutchman Richard Krajicek, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4).

Top-seeded Chanda Rubin rallied to beat Katrina Adams, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1, at a women’s tournament in Oklahoma City and will meet Amanda Coetzer in the semifinals.

Golf

Dave Stockton shot a seven-under-par 65 for a one-shot lead after the first round of the American Express Invitational senior tournament at Sarasota, Fla. . . . Battling winds at an LPGA tournament in Honolulu, Sherrin Smyers and Jane Geddes were the only players under par after two rounds.

Winter Sports

Alpine skiing superstar Alberto Tomba finally beat his World Championship jinx, winning the men’s giant slalom at Sierra Nevada, Spain. It was the first World Championship title for the 29-year-old Italian, the most successful Alpine skier in Olympic history with three gold and two silver medals.

Leading after the first leg, Tomba delighted his noisy fans with a storming second run down the Sierra Nevada course for a combined time of 1 minute 58.63 seconds, .44 of a second ahead of Swiss silver medalist Urs Kaelin. Switzerland’s Michael Von Gruenigen was third.

Olympic gold medalist Alexei Urmanov led the men’s competition at the Grand Prix figure skating finals in Paris, and world champion Chen Lu led the women’s event after the short programs.

Christine Witty lost her first 1,000-meter speedskating race of the World Cup season, finishing .09 of a second behind Norway’s Edel Therese Hoiseth at Roseville, Minn.

Pro Football

The Chicago Bears re-signed defensive end Alonzo Spellman, matching an offer sheet he had received from the Jacksonville Jaguars for $12 million over four years. To make room under the salary cap, the Bears released running back Lewis Tillman, who had a year left on a $2.7-million contract.

The Denver Broncos signed unrestricted free-agent linebacker Bill Romanowski, who spent the last two seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles. . . . Defensive end Fred Stokes, who played the last three seasons with the Rams, signed a three-year contract with the New Orleans Saints.

Auto Racing

Chevrolet teammates Terry Labonte and Jeff Gordon swept the front row in qualifying for the Goodwrench Service 400 at North Carolina Motor Speedway in Rockingham, N.C. Labonte, earning his fourth Rockingham pole and the 22nd pole of his career, turned a fast lap of 156.870 mph on the 1.017-mile oval.

Miscellany

African television networks were awarded rights to this summer’s Atlanta Olympics at no cost, according an IOC official.

Second-seeded Lily Yip upset No. 1-seeded Amy Feng, 3-1, in the U.S. Table Tennis trials at Flint, Mich. Yip and Feng will be joined by third-ranked Wei Wang on the U.S. Olympic team.

On the men’s side, No. 4-ranked Jim Butler handed top-ranked David Yong-Xiang Zhuang his only match loss of the trials, and both will go to Atlanta along with third-ranked Todd Sweeris.

Rugby union stars expressed outrage in Gloucester, England, over a nine-month jail sentence given a player for assaulting an opponent during a game. A court in London imposed the longest-ever sentence for on-field violence in British sports history when it jailed Gloucester forward Simon Devereux for breaking Jamie Cowie’s jaw in three places with a punch during a game in February 1995.

Names in the News

Former major leaguer Joe Pepitone, who now works in public relations for the New York Yankees, pleaded guilty to driving while impaired and was ordered to turn over his driver’s license after crashing his car last October. . . . Baylor University officials selected Tom Stanton, a 46-year-old business executive who played basketball and baseball for the Bears, as to be the school’s new athletic director. . . . Taylor Lewis, 71, a member of the UCLA track team from 1946-49 and a Pacific Eight Conference discus champion, was killed along with his wife, Anna, in an auto accident in Oregon. . . . Soccer coach Helmut Schoen, under whom Germany won the European Championship in 1972 and the World Cup in 1974, died in a Frankfurt at age 80.