Boetsch Returns Davis Cup to France

For the first time in five years, the Davis Cup is going back to France.

Arnaud Boetsch outlasted Sweden’s Nicklas Kulti, 7-6 (7-2), 2-6, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 10-8, in the decisive fifth match Sunday night, giving France a 3-2 victory in the final at Malmo, Sweden.

Boetsch faced triple match point trailing 0-40 and 6-7 in the fifth set, but saved them all as Kulti was struggling because of thigh cramps.

Kulti dropped serve to fall behind, 9-8, then Boetsch went up, 40-0, with service and triple match point. Kulti fought off the first two match points, but then hit a forehand long, clinching France’s eighth Davis Cup title.

Earlier, Sweden’s Thomas Enqvist played one of the finest matches of his career, rallying from two sets down and 2-5 in the fifth set to defeat Cedric Pioline, 3-6, 6-7 (8-10), 6-4, 6-4, 9-7.

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World No. 1 Pete Sampras, Michael Chang and Todd Martin have withdrawn from this week’s season-ending $6 million Grand Slam Cup in Munich, the richest event on the tennis calendar, because of injury organizers said.

Winter Sports

Tom Stiansen, of Norway, earned his first World Cup victory in five seasons on the circuit, skiing to a narrow victory over Thomas Sykora of Austria in a men’s slalom race at Breckenridge, Colo.

World slalom champion Pernilla Wiberg of Sweden won the first women’s World Cup super-G of the season at Lake Louise, Canada.

Germany’s Dirk Wiese overtook first-heat leader Brian Shimer of the United States to win a four-man World Cup bobsled race at La Plagne, France.

Baseball

Taiwan baseball star Kuo Lee Chien-fu, a pitcher for Japan’s Hanshin Tigers, is reportedly considering an offer from the Dodgers that would make him the first Taiwanese ever to play in the major leagues. Taiwan’s state-run Central News Agency quoted Japanese sources saying Kuo Lee, 27, was mulling a one-year, $100,000 offer to play for the Dodgers in 1997.

Miscellany

Boxer Mike Tyson fought only three times in 1996 but, according to Forbes Magazine, earned $75 million, more money in one year than any athlete ever. Tyson knocked NBA star Michael Jordan ($52.6 million) out of the top spot in the Forbes’ Super 40 list of highest paid athletes. Laker Shaquille O’Neal moved from No. 5 to No. 4 with his total income computed at $24.4 million.

Creighton defeated Cal State Fullerton, 1-0, on penalty kicks to advance to the third round of the NCAA Division I men’s soccer playoffs. Creighton (16-4-2), which won with a 4-2 margin in the penalty-kick phase, will play Fresno State. Fullerton finished 11-4-6 . . . USC defeated Stanford, 12-5, to win the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation water polo tournament at Berkeley. Cal defeated Pacific, 10-7, for third place.

Peter Senior overcame driving wind and rain to shoot a two-under-par 70 and win the $560,000 Greg Norman Holden Classic at Melbourne, Australia, defeating the tournament host by one shot. Senior finished with a seven-under total of 281. . .Craig Hodges, the former Chicago Bull guard, was granted a leave of absence from his coaching duties at Chicago State for personal reasons. Assistant Phil Gary will replace Hodges.

Misty Hyman only required 16 strokes to set the world short-course record in the 100-meter butterfly at the inaugural Canadian Open swimming competition at Quebec City. The 17-year-old from Phoenix clocked 58.29 seconds, breaking the previous mark of 58.68 by Limin Liu of China at the 1995 world short-course championships . . . Dan Lambert’s power-play goal snapped a third-period tie as the Long Beach Ice Dogs defeated the Las Vegas Thunder 4-2 for their eighth straight victory in the International Hockey League.

Peter Frederick Bronfman, who co-owned the Montreal Canadiens from 1971-78, died Sunday after a brief battle with cancer. He was 68 . . . El Salvador clinched a spot in the final round of regional qualifying for the 1998 World Cup, beating Cuba, 3-0, at San Salvador.