Seles, Davenport Give U.S. 2-0 Fed Cup Lead

Monica Seles and Lindsay Davenport won singles matches Saturday for the United States, which took a 2-0 lead over Japan in the Fed Cup semifinals in Nagoya.

Seles, in her first match since losing in the second round at Wimbledon, trounced Ai Sugiyama, 6-2, 6-2. Davenport routed Kimiko Date, 6-2, 6-1.

“Of course, I was very nervous before playing today, but I got inspired by Lindsay’s match,” said Seles, a rookie in the Fed Cup, the women’s equivalent to the Davis Cup.

Date, a semifinalist at Wimbledon, had helped Japan reach the semifinals by handing Germany’s Steffi Graf only her second loss of the year. Date started well by breaking Davenport’s service for a 2-0 lead, but dropped her own serve in the next game.

Eleven deuces were exchanged in the five games alone. From the sixth game, the hard-hitting Davenport was in control, keeping the ball deep and not letting Date counterattack.

The winner of the series will play the winner of the France-Spain winner in the Fed Cup final in September. France and Spain split their singles matches in Bayonne, France, on Saturday.

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Hall of Fame Tennis Championships semifinal matches between Leander Paes and Nicolas Pereira and between Daniel Nestor and Grant Stafford in Newport, R.I., were postponed because of rain and will be played today, followed by the finals.

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Stefan Edberg’s hopes of ever winning the Swedish Open ended in disappointment when he was beaten by fellow Swede Magnus Gustafsson, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), in the semifinals in Bastad. Edberg also pulled a groin muscle and defaulted in the doubles.

Gustafsson will face Andrei Medvedev in the final.

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Alberto Costa beat top-seeded defending champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, in the semifinals of the Swiss Open in Gstaad and will play fellow Spaniard and longtime friend Felix Mantilla for the title.

Boxing

Riddick Bowe’s $5 million paycheck from his near loss to unheralded Andrew Golota will remain in state custody until the Bowe camp reveals who in his entourage ignited a melee in New York’s Madison Square Garden.

Four members of the Bowe entourage, including his nephew Stephen, have been charged in connection with Thursday night’s 30-minute brawl, which started after members of Bowe’s camp stormed the ring and which spread to the stands.

One of them, Jason Harris, 22, of Washington, scrambled across the ring to bash Golota in the head with a walkie-talkie and has been charged with assault.

In all, 17 people were arrested in connection with the brawl, which left 14 spectators and eight police officers with minor injuries.

Germany’s Ralf Rocchigiani successfully defended his World Boxing Organization cruiserweight title for the fourth time, winning a unanimous decision over Nigeria’s Bashiru Ali in Essen, Germany.

Jurisprudence

Mary Gain, 66, the wife of former Cleveland Brown defensive tackle Bob Gain, has pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in Painesville, Ohio, after shooting him in the chest seven months ago. Gain has recovered.

Auto Racing

Formula One rivals Damon Hill of England and Germany’s Michael Schumacher condemned an incident of anti-German crowd violence reported at the British Grand Prix in Silverstone in which about 30 English fans reportedly attacked the campsite of the Schumacher fan club, threw stones and tore down German flags.

The flareup follows large outbreaks of violence last month in London directed at German fans after their team defeated England in a semifinal of the European Soccer Championship.

Hill clocked a 130.613-mph lap in a Williams-Renault for the pole position, and his teammate, Jacques Villeneuve, will be alongside on the front row. Schumacher is third.

Andre Ribeiro’s fast lap of 110.616 mph from Friday stood up under a Saturday assault in the rain by his opponents and earned him the pole position for today’s Toronto Molson-Indy race on a 1.784-mile, 11-turn temporary course.

Ricky Craven will start from the pole position for today’s Jiffy Lube 300 after rain washed out the second day of qualifying for the NASCAR Winston Cup race at Loudon, N.H.

Football

Offensive tackle William Roaf’s new eight-year contract is the biggest in New Orleans Saint history and makes him the best-paid NFL offensive lineman ever, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Saints officials would say only that the total package exceeds Leon Searcy’s five-year, $17.5 million deal with Jacksonville, although it does not equal Searcy’s average salary.

The newspaper reported that Roaf will get $27.4 million, including a $5.5 million signing bonus.