Chang Can’t Get Past Sampras

Top-ranked Pete Sampras continued his dominance of Michael Chang on Saturday night.

Sampras defeated his longtime rival, 6-3, 6-2, in the semifinals of the Kroger-St. Jude tournament at Memphis, Tenn. He has won seven of their last eight meetings.

Sampras will play Todd Martin, a 6-3, 7-5 winner over Australian teenager Mark Philippoussis, for the championship today. Martin has won the event the last two years.

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Goran Ivanisevic stayed on course for a third consecutive tournament victory by beating top-seeded Boris Becker, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), in the semifinal of the European Community Championships at Antwerp, Belgium. Sixth-seeded Michael Stich of Germany needed less than an hour to overwhelm Andrei Medvedev of Ukraine, 6-4, 6-1, in the other semifinal.

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At Essen, Germany, defending champion Jana Novotna ousted hometown favorite Anke Huber, 6-4, 6-4, to reach the final of the Faber Grand Prix. The fourth-seeded Novotna will face top-seeded Iva Majoli of Croatia, who defeated unseeded Asa Carlsson of Sweden, 6-3, 6-2. . . . At Oklahoma City, Amanda Coetzer of South Africa ended Chanda Rubin’s hope of claiming her first career title on the WTA Tour with a 6-4, 6-4 semifinal upset at the IGA Classic. Coetzer will face defending champion Brenda Schultz-McCarthy of the Netherlands, who defeated Russian Elena Likhovtseva, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3.

Winter Sports

Sweden’s Pernilla Wiberg won her second gold medal of the World Alpine Championships by taking the slalom at Sierra Nevada, Spain.

Wiberg won the combined earlier in the week. She took home Olympic golds in 1992 and ’94 in the combined and giant slalom, and a gold in giant slalom in the 1991 worlds.

Vladimir Smirnov of Kazakhstan stopped Bjorn Dahlie’s quest to become the winningest cross-country skier in World Cup history by beating Norway’s Olympic hero in a 30-kilometer race at Trondheim, Norway. Dahlie is tied with Gunde Svan of Sweden for most career wins with 30.

American Kerrin Petty won the women’s 30-kilometer Vasaloppet cross-country ski race at Mora, Sweden, beating Sweden’s Magdalena Wallin by 11 seconds. . . . Hiroyuki Noake of Japan and Gunda Niemann of Germany set track records while winning their events in the World Cup Allround speedskating races at Milwaukee. . . . Sung-Yul Jaegal of Korea, winless on the World Cup speedskating circuit before this weekend, won the 500 meters at Roseville, Minn., for his second victory in as many days. Tomomi Okazaki won the women’s race for the second consecutive day.

Boxing

Terry Norris stopped Vincent Pettway with his third knockdown of the fight in the eighth round at Richmond, Va., to retain the World Boxing Council super-welterweight and International Boxing Federation junior-middleweight titles.

Norris (43-6) punished Pettway with a sold left-hand rib-cage shot 2:41 into the round. Pettway, grimacing in pain, barely managed to beat the count, but referee Larry Doggett waved off the bout.

In heavyweight bouts on the undercard, Oliver McCall stopped previously unbeaten Oleg Maskaev of Kazakhstan in the first round, and former World Boxing Assn. cruiserweight champion Orlin Norris, Terry’s brother, scored a 10-round split decision over 36-year-old former heavyweight champion Tony Tucker.

Francois Botha must give a rematch to Axel Schulz because of a trace of a steroid found in Botha’s system after he won the IBF heavyweight title.

The IBF Executive and Championship Committees also fined Botha $50,000 after a hearing at Newark International Airport.

The rematch must take place within 180 days, with the stipulation that neither fights in the interim. The winner then has 120 days to defend the title against former champion Michael Moorer.

Golf

Meg Mallon turned back rookie sensation Karrie Webb with birdies on the final two holes to win the Hawaiian Ladies Open title at Honolulu with a four-under-par 212. Mallon finished with a final-round 68 to earn $90,000. Webb’s 69 left her at 213.

Graham Marsh, Dave Stockton and Hale Irwin were tied for the lead at 11 under par and 14 players were within four shots after the second round of the Senior Tour American Express Invitational at Sarasota, Fla.

Track and Field

Michael Johnson ran the fastest 400 meters indoors this year and topped a list of five athletes who set meet records at the Mobil Invitational in Fairfax, Va.

Johnson, a two-time world champion and Olympic gold medalist, finished in 45.32 seconds to better the 45.55 he ran last year. The victory was the 50th in a row for Johnson, dating to 1989.

Other record-breakers were Gwen Torrence in the 60, Bob Kennedy in the 3,000, Maicel Malone in the women’s 400 and Brandon Rock in the men’s 800.

Pro Football

Jumbo Elliott, a mainstay of the Giants’ offensive line for eight years, used the free-agent route to move to New York’s other NFL team, the Jets. Elliott agreed to a five-year deal said to be worth between $15 million and $16 million. . . . The Philadelphia Eagles have extended an offer sheet to Miami Dolphin cornerback Troy Vincent. Terms of the offer were not disclosed.

Auto Racing

Mark Martin overpowered the rest of the 42-car field to win the Goodwrench Service 200 at North Carolina Motor Speedway in Rockingham.

In capturing the NASCAR Busch Series event, Martin led for 151 of the 197 laps--including the final 50--on the 1.017-mile oval. There were eight caution flags for a total of 44 laps, slowing Martin’s average speed to only 105.974 mph.

Blaine Johnson (top fuel), John Force (funny car) and Warren Johnson (pro stock) are the leaders heading into today’s finals of the NHRA’s ATSCO Nationals at Firebird International Raceway in Chandler, Ariz.

Names in the News

Holly McPeak and Nancy Reno won the Evian Indoor Pro Beach Volleyball Championship at New York’s Madison Square Garden and, with it, the biggest purse for a pro beach event. McPeak and Reno beat Liz Masakayan and Angela Rock, 15-13, to earn $31,500. . . . Arizona diver Brian Spears finished a sweep of the Pac-10 diving championships at Tucson by winning the platform competition.