Seles Is Winner at Eastbourne

It’s been three years since Monica Seles played at Wimbledon and on Saturday she finished her preparation for grass-court tennis’ most important fortnight by defeating Mary Joe Fernandez, 6-0, 6-2, in 45 minutes in the finals of the Eastbourne tournament in England.

Seles won the first 11 points and 20 of the first 22. Though she has an ailing shoulder and is not in the best of shape, Seles swept through this tournament without losing a set.

“I played some of my best tennis today, because I wasn’t making too many unforced errors,” said Seles, who won her 36th singles title. “I was going for my shots.”

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Fifth-seeded Jan Siemerink of the Netherlands defeated unseeded Australian Sandon Stolle, 6-3, 7-6 (7-0), in a windy final of the Nottingham Open grass-court tournament in England.

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Second-seeded Anke Huber of Germany won the first grass-court title of her career, beating Helene Sukova of the Czech Republic, 6-3, 7-6 (7-2), in the finals of the Wilkinson Lady Championships in Rosmalen, Netherlands.

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Niklas Kulti of Sweden defeated American Richey Reneberg, 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (12-10), in a nearly two-hour semifinal match at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany. Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov, the French Open winner, limped through three sets and twice needed treatment, but beat Daniel Vacek of the Czech Republic, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3, in the other match.

Basketball

Reports published in the Arizona Republic and Fort Worth Star-Telegram say the Phoenix Suns have offered Charles Barkley, 33, to the Dallas Mavericks for guard Jimmy Jackson, 26, and Dallas’ first-round choice in Wednesday’s NBA draft.

Suns’ officials labeled the stories as “speculation,” and Keith Grant, Maverick player personnel director, refused to confirm or deny the reports.

Another Phoenix player, guard Kevin Johnson, has told the Suns he’s willing to be traded for the last year of his contract if it would help the team.

Johnson, who has been limited to an average of 55 games over the last four seasons because of injuries, reportedly will earn $7 million on the last year of his contract, which has a no-trade clause.

Nevada Las Vegas Coach Bill Bayno has received a four-year contract extension, with a 10% raise to $110,000. . . . Iowa State Coach Tim Floyd has suspended leading scorer Dedric Willoughby and starting forward Shawn Bankhead one game each for missing classes this summer.

Auto Racing

Ron Barfield Jr. led three times, including for the final 13 laps of the 100-lap Meijer-All Sport 200, an ARCA stock car race at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn.

Barfield, driving a Ford Thunderbird, won at an average of 142.461 mph and finished 1 1/2 car-lengths in front of Kelly Denton.

Alex Zanardi, a former Formula One driver from Italy, used a fast late lap of 117.209 mph in a Reynard-Honda to take the pole position for today’s Budweiser-G.I. Joe’s 200, a CART Indy car race at Portland, Ore.

Busch Grand National series points-leader David Green took advantage of brother Jeff’s misfortune to win the Carolina Pride-Advance Auto 250 race at Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Jeff Green had been leading, but had to pit during a caution period, and David took over the lead and won by 0.95 seconds over second-place Jeff Purvis, earning $22,375 and averaging 71.049 mph on the 0.538-mile track.

Blaine Johnson (top fuel), John Force (funny car) and Rickie Smith (pro stock) stayed on their Friday qualifying times and are No. 1 in their respective divisions for today’s eliminations in the National Hot Rod Assn. Pennzoil Nationals at Millington, Tenn. . . . Driver Alessandro Zampedri was released from an Indianapolis hospital, 28 days after a crash on the final lap of the Indianapolis 500 nearly severed his left foot.

Miscellany

Patrick Muturi, a Washington State student from Kenya, passed up virtually every water station and pulled away in the final six miles to win the Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minn., in 2 hours 13 minutes 43 seconds, more than three minutes ahead of second place Juan Hernandez of Mexico.

The women’s race was won by Mary Alico of Orlando, Fla., who ran the second-best women’s time in Grandma’s history, 2:32:42.

Five players on the Rwandan national soccer team deserted in France on the way home from a World Cup qualifying match, state-run radio reported in Kigali, Rwanda. The players’ identities and whereabouts were not released.

Southland Report

The 11th annual Cedars-Sinai Sports Spectacular will salute Olympic golf-medalist Rafer Johnson, Dodger pitcher Hideo Nomo, USC receiver Keyshawn Johnson and the Galaxy soccer team tonight at Century Plaza Hotel. Ticket information: (310) 855-3664.

The Los Angeles Athletic Club will play host to the FIN International Squash Grand Prix, beginning Tuesday.