Chang Wins Clay-Court Title

Michael Chang won his fourth title of the year and the 30th of his career when he defeated South Africa’s Grant Stafford, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1, in the $289,250 U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships on Sunday at Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

Top-seeded Chang needed 1 hour 44 minutes to overcome unseeded Stafford and collect the top prize of $37,500.

Ranked No. 3 in the world, Chang is expected to move up to No. 2 in the ATP Tour rankings today. He has won 21 of his last 22 matches, the only loss coming to Spain’s Sergi Bruguera in Key Biscayne, Fla., last month.

It was Stafford’s third appearance in an ATP Tour final, all without a victory and all on different surfaces--grass, hard courts and clay.

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Marcelo Rios of Chile won the fifth and biggest title of his career, beating Alex Corretja of Spain, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, in the final of the Monte Carlo Open.

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Amanda Coetzer of South Africa made the most of her late entry in the Budapest Ladies Open, defeating Sabine Applemans of Belgium, 6-1, 6-3, in the final.

“It was a last-minute decision for me to come and play in Budapest, but it was worth it,” Coetzer said. “And gave me a good start to the clay-court season.”

Auto Racing

Paul Tracy led the final 141 laps and for 186 of the 225 miles, holding off Michael Andretti to win the Bosch Grand Prix at Nazareth, Pa.

The victory extended the Roger Penske team’s record to 97, but was its first since Al Unser Jr. won at Vancouver, Canada, in 1995, 20 CART races ago.

Tracy had been winless in 27 events, since Milwaukee in 1995.

Andretti, who had cut a tire and dropped a lap behind into 17th place after only 54 laps, came back to close to within a few car lengths near the race’s end, but the final of 10 caution flags came out with three laps to run and Tracy rolled home a winner.

He averaged 118.919 mph.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen edged his former go-kart friend Michael Schumacher in the San Marino Grand Prix before a record crowd of 90,000 at Imola, Italy, to win his first Formula One victory and create an unprecedented 1-2 finish for German drivers in a championship race.

Frentzen, in his first season with the dominant Williams-Renault team, beat the more successful and more experienced Schumacher, a Ferrari driver, by 1.23 seconds in the fourth race of the season.

Canada’s Jacques Villeneuve, who was seeking this third victory in a row, was knocked out when his Renault developed gear trouble after 40 laps of the 62-lap race.

Steady rain forced postponement of the NASCAR Winston 500 NASCAR stock car race until today. Rain today, which is forecast, would force NASCAR to move the race to May 11, the next open Sunday. If the race is run today, ESPN will televise it live, beginning at 9 a.m. PDT. . . . The NHRA Pennzoil Nationals at Dinwiddie, Va., were rained out after the first round. The drag racing event will resume May 10.

Olympics

As the May 1 deadline for submitting entries approaches, seven U.S. cities have indicated they will seek the 2008 Summer Olympics.

So far, checks have been received from potential bidders in Cincinnati, Houston and Seattle. Groups from Baltimore, New York, San Francisco and Washington also said they will file by the deadline.

International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch, speaking after three days of meetings with the U.S. Olympic Committee in Colorado Springs, Colo., assailed some Olympic sports for ignoring drug use.

Samaranch said that while most sports are fighting drugs, others close their eyes to an issue almost three decades old.

Although he declined to identify the sports failing to act, Samaranch defended track and field and swimming. “All the attention and all the criticism is going to the organizations that are fighting drugs,” he said.

Soccer

Steve Ralston scored in the fifth shootout round to give the Tampa Bay Mutiny a 3-2 Major League Soccer victory over the Wizards at Kansas City. The Mutiny (4-1) won the tiebreaker, 4-3, when Damian Silvera was wide on the final attempt for Kansas City (3-2).

Canada is still without a goal in the final round of World Cup ’98 qualifying after a 0-0 tie against Jamaica at Burnaby, Canada.

Two goals by Tisha Venturini earned the United States women’s national team a 2-1 victory over France at Tampa, Fla.

Miscellany

The United States squandered a three-goal lead but Todd Krygier scored with 6:23 remaining for a 5-4 victory over Latvia at the Hockey World Championships in Turku, Finland.

Jose Loiola and Kent Steffes, the No. 1-seeded beach volleyball team on the Miller Lite/AVP Tour, defeated Mark Kerins and Andrew Smith, 15-7, to win the Coppertone Championships of Florida at Miami.

The Leander Rowing Club of Henley-on-Thames, England, Britain’s foremost rowing club and a bastion of male exclusivity, has dropped its 179-year-old ban on female membership. The club was being threatened with the loss of National Lottery money it needs for redevelopment.

Hartford Whalers General Manager Jim Rutherford plans to deliver a Simsbury, Conn., proposal involving a public-private to owner Peter Karmanos that would keep the team in Hartford. Karmanos has already announced that the team will move to a yet-unnamed city.

UCLA sophomore Eric Valent hit for the cycle, tripling in the first inning, homering in the second, singling in the fifth and doubling in the sixth, as the Bruins defeated USC, 14-4, at Jackie Robinson Stadium.