TennisBoris Becker confirmed that he will defend...

Tennis

Boris Becker confirmed that he will defend his men’s singles title at the Australian Open in January.

Becker’s management said Sunday that he has recovered from an ankle injury that forced him to withdraw from a tournament in Doha, Qatar.

Becker also said he will play in the Colonial Classic exhibition event at Kooyong, Australia the week before the first Grand Slam tournament of the year.

The 29-year old German won his first Grand Slam title in five years at the Australian Open last January in Melbourne.

Becker also finished the year impressively, reaching the ATP championship final, where he lost to Pete Sampras in five sets, then winning the Grand Slam Cup.

The Australian Open will be played from Jan. 13-26 at the National Tennis Center in Melbourne.

Justin Gimelstob and Chanda Rubin scored an upset mixed doubles victory as the United States defeated fourth-seeded France, 2-1, on the opening day of the Hopman Cup team championship at Perth, Australia.

Rubin downed Mary Pierce, 6-4, 6-1, in the opening women’s singles and then teamed with Gimelstob to beat Guy Forget and Pierce, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, in doubles.

Forget, who has been troubled by blisters on his left hand, earlier beat Gimelstob, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3, in the men’s singles.

Gimelstob, a 19-year-old UCLA student from Livingston, N.J., helped the Americans to victory after flying 12 hours to replace Richey Reneberg, who withdrew to be with his wife, who is awaiting their first child.

Goran Ivanisevic and Iva Majoli teamed for a 2-1 victory over Australia as Croatia made a winning start in defense of its title.

Ivanisevic and Majoli beat Mark Philippoussis and Nicole Bradtke of Australia, 7-5, 7-5, in the decisive mixed doubles.

Majoli beat Bradtke, 6-4, 6-3, in the opening women’s singles before Philippoussis surprised Ivanisevic, 6-2, 6-3, in the men’s singles to level the match.

“My serve was falling apart,” said Ivanisevic, who played in borrowed tennis shoes after making an 18-hour flight to Australia without his luggage.

Winter Sports

Luc Alphand of France won a grueling World Cup downhill on the icy and treacherous Stelvio course to record his second victory of the season, at Bormio, Italy.

Alphand, 31, the defending World Cup downhill champion, edged William Besse of Switzerland by 0.21 seconds and Italy’s Kristian Ghedina by 0.67 seconds.

Deborah Compagnoni of Italy scored her first slalom victory in a women’s World Cup race, winning in a combined time of 1:42.94 Semmering, Austria.

Compagnoni won by 1.05 seconds over Patricia Chauvet of France.

Oksana Gritschuk and Yevgeny Platov, the Olympic and three-time world ice dance champions, will miss the European Figure Skating Championships in January in Paris after changing coaches.

Mario Stecher of Austria won a World Cup Nordic combined one-man sprint relay in Oberwiesenthal, Germany, pulling even with Samppa Lajunen in the overall standings behind Finnish front-runner Jari Mantila.

Dieter Thoma, the Olympic team champion from Germany, won the World Cup ski jumping event in Obertsdorf, Germany.

Miscellany

Defensive end Bruce Smith of the Buffalo Bills received 56 of 93 votes from a nationwide panel of sports writers and was named the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year in balloting conducted by the Associated Press.

Smith, 33, who had 13 1/2 sacks to lead the AFC and finish one sack behind Kevin Greene for the league lead, also won the award in 1990.