Blaming Illness, Agassi Falls to Sampras in Straight Sets

His head clogged and his stomach upset, Andre Agassi played to a booing and whistling crowd Wednesday in a 6-2, 6-1 loss to Pete Sampras, then dropped out of the ATP Championship at Hanover, Germany.

“I am still feeling weak; I wasn’t fit to play,” Agassi said. “It wasn’t enjoyable to go and play out there.”

Agassi said he became ill two days before coming to Germany. He will be replaced in the season-ending tournament by alternate Thomas Enqvist.

Thomas Muster stayed alive in the $3.3-million event by beating Michael Chang, 6-4, 6-3. Goran Ivanisevic advanced to the semifinals by defeating Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek, 6-4, 6-7 (7-4), 7-6 (7-1).

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Conchita Martinez of Spain defeated Judith Wiesner of Austria, 6-1, 3-6, 6-4, to advance to the quarterfinals of the Chase Championships at New York.

Olympics

Four unidentified athletes from the Atlanta Olympics could be banned for four years if the International Olympic Committee orders the retest of potentially positive samples.

The samples, which detected anabolic steroids, were done by a test known as high resolution mass spectrometer (HRMS). The IOC decided not to accept the results because the equipment used was previously untested. The IOC has not identified the athletes or their sports.

The IOC’s medical commission will decide at its next meeting next month whether the samples should be retested using conventional methods. If they are retested and the tests prove positive, the competitors could be banned and stripped of any medals.

Two Atlanta competitors were banned using the standard testing procedures. Bulgarian triple jumper Iva Prandzheva and Russian hurdler Natalya Shekodanova tested positive for steroids and were suspended for four years.

Boxing

Don King said he didn’t need Lennox Lewis to put on a show, promising to incorporate a tribute to Elvis Presley and a new song by Hank Williams Jr. into a weeklong series of events climaxing with a World Boxing Organization heavyweight title fight Jan. 11 between Henry Akinwande and Scott Welch in Nashville, Tenn.

King lost the right to promote the more prestigious World Boxing Council title fight between Lewis and Oliver McCall last week because he failed to produce a contract to stage the fight within 15 days of getting the promotional rights, as required under WBC rules.

The Nashville card will feature five championship bouts, including Felix Trinidad challenging Kevin Lueshing for the International Boxing Federation welterweight championship.

Golf

Kelli Kuehne, who won her second consecutive U.S. Women’s Amateur championship this year, turned professional and will make her pro debut at the JCPenney Classic next month.

Kuehne, 19, said she had invited Tiger Woods to be her partner in the male-female, better-ball event.

Names in the News

Terry Jastrow resigned as senior producer for ABC Sports golf coverage, effective Jan. 1, to devote more time to his television partnership with Jack Nicklaus. Jastrow, 48, has been a producer of golf at ABC Sports for 27 years. . . . Ubiratan Pereira Maciel of Brazil and longtime Spanish coach Antonio Diaz-Miguel were nominated for election to the Basketball Hall of Fame. Pereira Maciel, a center, helped Brazil to five South American championships and the 1963 World Championship. Diaz-Miguel coached the Spanish national team in six Olympics, winning a silver medal in 1984.