Broken Finger Threatens Seles’ Playing in Australia

Monica Seles, a four-time Australian Open champion who has never lost in 37 matches on that continent, has broken a finger while preparing to defend the tournament title in January.

Seles broke her right ring finger trying to catch a tennis ball while warming up for an exhibition match in Czechoslovakia last week, according to her spokesman in Miami. Seles, who is also recovering from a shoulder injury, is left-handed, but uses the right hand on two-handed swings.

It’s still too early to determine whether the injury will prevent her playing in Australia.

Golf

U.S. Open champion Steve Jones and Rick Fehr defeated Tom Lehman and Duffy Waldorf, 4 and 3, in the opening round of the Diners Club matches in La Quinta.

The Diners Club matches have a round-robin format, and the three major tours are divided into two brackets of four teams each. The winning teams in each bracket will meet in Sunday’s final round to determine the champion of each of the three tours.

The teams of Craig Stadler and John Cook, Scott Hoch and Kenny Perry and Justin Leonard and Mike Hulbert were also winners in the PGA Tour brackets.

Bob Murphy won five consecutive holes and partner Jim Colbert birdied the par-four 15th hole to defeat J.C. Snead and Gibby Gilbert, 4 and 3, in the Senior PGA portion.

Senior teams of Hale Irwin and Dave Stockton, Tom Wargo and John Jacobs and Jay Sigel and Vicente Fernandez also won.

Two-time champions Kelly Robbins and Tammie Green birdied seven of the 14 holes they played en route to a 5 and 4 victory over Liselotte Neumann and Jane Geddes in the LPGA competition.

The other LPGA winners were the teams of Karrie Webb and Michelle McGann, Emilee Klein and Kris Tschetter and Dottie Pepper and Juli Inkster.

Jurisprudence

The widow of former Tampa Bay Buccaneer owner Hugh Culverhouse, Joy McCann Culverhouse, has accused his family trust of paying “hush money” to an unspecified woman she believes had an affair with her husband.

The accusation was made in documents filed in one of three lawsuits related to claims that Culverhouse was deprived of a fair share of her husband’s $350-million estate.

Her lawyers claim he tricked his wife of 51 years into an unfair property settlement, making any extramarital affairs relevant.

In court documents, Joy Culverhouse accused her husband of philandering, the trustees of mismanagement and all of them of conspiring to fool her into signing an agreement to give up half of the estate before her husband died.

Track and Field

Primo Nebiolo, president of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, is expected to announce that about $10 million in prize money will be available to track and field athletes in 1997.

The IAAF, the world governing body for track and field, will award prize money at next year’s world indoor and outdoor championships for the first time, as well as at the grand prix final scheduled for Fukuoka, Japan.

Paris will be the site of the indoor championships and Athens will stage the outdoor version.

Miscellany

Jorge Campos, Galaxy and Mexican national soccer team goalkeeper, will be out for about six weeks after injuring ligaments in his left knee while playing for his Mexican League team, Atlante, in a playoff game at Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium. He tripped while trying to make a save.

Michigan State defeated Long Beach State, 15-4, 13-15, 15-6, 15-8, in the NCAA women’s Central Regional volleyball semifinals at Gainesville, Fla. The 49ers finish at 33-4. Michigan State is 27-6.

Winter Sports

Germany’s Hilde Gerg used a 1-minute 7.81-second run down the Oreiller-Killy course in Val d’Isere, France, to win the super-G skiing event in a World Cup meet there. It was her third top-four finish in as many races this season.

Her teammate, Katja Seizinger, the defending overall World Cup champion, who won three races in as many days at Val d’Isere in 1995, was second in 1:08.20.

Austria’s Patrick Ortlieb, who won the 1992 Olympic downhill in Val d’Isere on another slope, had the best time, 1 minute 52.52 seconds on the 2.1-mile course in practice for today’s World Cup men’s downhill.

Russian Viktor Maigurov capitalized on Frode Andresen’s first-lap fall and won a men’s 7.5-kilometer World Cup biathlon event at Holmenkollen, Norway, in 25 minutes 55.3 seconds. Andresen, a Swede, finished 5.1 seconds behind.