All Things Considered, Graf Glad to Win in Philadelphia

In her first match since early October, top-ranked Steffi Graf struggled with her serve but still overwhelmed Amy Frazier, 6-2, 6-1, in the second round of the Advanta Championships on Thursday at Philadelphia.

A knee injury had sidelined the German star since the Leipzig Open. When she re-injured it in practice last Thursday, she flew to Florida and planned to skip this tournament. But Advanta organizers left her in the draw, her knee felt better Monday and she decided to play.

“I didn’t serve really as good as I wanted,” said Graf, who lost her serve three times. “But what can I ask for? I haven’t played a match for a long time, I barely practiced, didn’t want to play in this tournament.”

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Kimiko Date, who plans to retire after next week’s season-ending tournament at New York’s Madison Square Garden, drew Monica Seles as her first-round opponent.

Graf, the defending champion, is top seeded. Arantxa Sanchez Vicario is seeded third, followed by fellow Spaniard Conchita Martinez, Jana Novotna of the Czech Republic, Anke Huber of Germany, Switzerland’s Martina Hingis and Lindsay Davenport of the United States.

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The top-seeded Australian team of Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde struggled through three sets and two tiebreakers to beat fourth-seeded Jacco Eltingh and Paul Haarhuis, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-5), in the World Doubles Championship at Hartford, Conn. . . . Jakob Hlasek of Switzerland, 32, announced his retirement from competitive tennis. He reached a career-high No. 7 in the world rankings in 1989 but has slipped to 76th.

Golf

Tom Lehman shot a 10-under-par 134 to break the tournament record and win the PGA Grand Slam of Golf at Poipu, Hawaii.

Lehman’s 68-66 score broke the record by two strokes. Lehman’s score was two strokes better than that of U.S. Open winner Steve Jones (70-66) and five ahead of Masters champion Nick Faldo (67-72). PGA champion Mark Brooks was well back at 74-73--147.

Boxing

Don King was stripped of the rights to promote a World Boxing Council heavyweight title bout, a move that will pay Lennox Lewis $1.5 million less but should assure him a fight in three months. Superior Court Judge Amos Saunders ruled in Paterson, N.J., Don King Productions failed to meet contractual obligations when the WBC on Sept. 26 accepted the company’s $9.2-million purse bid for a Lewis-Oliver McCall fight.

Saunders awarded the bout to Totowa, N.J.-based Main Events, which bid $6.2 million for the fight.

Nigel Benn, former world middleweight and super-middleweight champion, was charged in London with causing grievous bodily harm for his part in a nightclub incident in September.

Soccer

Officials of FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, said the organization plans to give the 2002 World Cup final to Japan, and tournament co-host South Korea will stage the opening match and the third-place playoff. Sepp Blatter, FIFA general secretary, also said the United States might bid to stage the 2006 tournament. FIFA won’t officially accept bids until 1999.

Jurisprudence

Former Dodger catcher Steve Yeager is the target of lawsuits filed by regulators in New York and Illinois in a nationwide attempt to crack down on fraudulent get-rich-quick schemes.

Prosecutors allege consumers lost as much as $3,500 each when they paid to become brokers for Collectibles International Inc. of Laguna Niguel. The company, which used Yeager’s picture in newspaper advertisements, lured consumers with promises of big money, backed by intensive training programs and lists of hot sales prospects.

Prosecutors say some of the leads were people who had died. Yeager, the most valuable player in the 1981 World Series, “played an important role in establishing the credibility of the company,” said New York prosecutor Fred Cantor.

Doug Gottlieb, a former Tustin High and Notre Dame basketball player, was given one year of probation after pleading guilty to theft charges in a St. Joseph (Ind.) court for using stolen credit cards.

Names in the News

Thoroughbred trainer John J. “Butch” Lenzini Jr., 49, who saddled Aloma’s Ruler to victory in the 1982 Preakness, was found dead in his apartment in New York on Wednesday. . . . Todd Hollandsworth, Janet Evans, Lisa Leslie and Gail Devers will be honored by the Greater Los Angeles Press Club at a dinner at the Biltmore hotel tonight at 7. Details: (213) 469-8180.