Top-Seeded Coetzer Loses to Lucic, 15

Croatia’s 15-year-old Mirjana Lucic, playing in her first WTA tournament, defeated top-seeded Amanda Coetzer of South Africa, 6-4, 6-3, on Saturday and advanced to the final of the Croatian Bol Ladies’ tournament.

Lucic, the world’s No. 1-ranked women’s junior player, will face Corina Morariu of the United States today for the championship.

Morariu, ranked 129th in the world, defeated Emmanuelle Gagliardi of Switzerland, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3, in the other semifinal.

Coetzer, ranked 10th in the world, led, 4-2, in the first set, but Lucic won 14 consecutive points to take the set. Lucic continued her aggressive play in the second set, taking a 4-1 lead before her serve briefly deserted her. She righted herself and coasted to victory.

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Australia’s hard-serving Mark Phillippoussis defeated defending champion Slava Dosedel of the Czech Republic, 7-5, 7-5, to reach the BMW Open final at Munich, Germany after staving off three set points with aces.

Phillippoussis will face Spain’s Alex Corretja, who defeated Marc Rosset of Switzerland, 6-3, 6-1.

The fifth-seeded Australian trailed, 4-5, in the first set, giving Dosedel four chances to close out the set as he double-faulted twice and ripped two forehands long. But each time Phillippoussis ripped off an ace, including a second serve timed at 117 mph. He finished with 19 aces.

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Jimmy Connors defeated Mansour Bahrami, 6-4, 6-4, to advance to the semifinals of the Coopers & Lybrand Champions at the Riviera Country Club. He will play fourth-seeded John Lloyd, who defeated Mel Purcell, 6-2, 2-6, 10-6. . . . Marcelo Filippini, pulled off another upset at the AT&T; Challenge at Atlanta, using a streak of 12 consecutive points in the third set for a 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 semifinal victory over eighth-seeded Chris Woodruff. Filippini advanced to Sunday’s final against the winner of Saturday night’s match between No. 7 Jason Stoltenberg and Magnus Norman. . . . Fourth-seeded Cedric Pioline of France beat Emilio Alvarez of Spain, 6-3, 6-7 (7-9), 6-1, and moved into the finals of the Paegas Czech Open clay-court tournament at Prague. His opponent in the finals will be third-seeded Bohdan Ulihrach of the Czech Republic, who defeated Fabrice Santoro of France, 6-4, 6-2. . . . Croatia’s Iva Majoli and Romania’s Ruxandra Dragomir defeated inexperienced opponents to reach the final of the Rexona Cup at Hamburg, Germany. Majoli defeated Spain’s Maria Sanchez Lorenzo, 6-3, 6-2, and Dragomir downed France’s Anne Gaelle Sidot, 6-4, 6-0.

Motor Sports

The weather hasn’t cooperated with motor sports at all this year, and the biggest race in America, the Indianapolis 500, was no exception as today’s scheduled opening day of practice was rained out.

The opening day rain out was the third in the last four years at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The forecast calls for sunshine and temperatures in the low 60s today.

French driver Stephane Enjolras was killed when his car crashed and burned during prequalifications for the Le Mans 24 Hours race at Le Mans, France.

Enjolras’ Peugeot left the track and sailed into an adjoining wooden area where it burned. Enjolras, 21, had qualified for the prequalifications with a victory in the Autumn Cup last year.

Joe Amato took the No. 1 spot in the Top Fuel competition in the Lone Star Nationals, setting Texas Motorplex records with a quarter-mile run of 4.592 seconds at 316.56 mph at Ennis.

John Force topped the Funny Car division with a track-record time of 4.905 seconds at 305.18 mph. Warren Johnson led Pro Stock with a 6.955-second run at 199.42 mph. . . . Craig Raudman held off Jim Inglebright after the two had swapped paint and track space in a two-lap shootout, winning the California AAA 200 at Sonoma for his first NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour victory this season.

Boxing

“Prince” Naseem Hamed lived up to his prediction and stopped fellow Briton Billy Hardy in the first round at Manchester, England to retain the International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Organization featherweight titles.

Hamed knocked Hardy down with a right hand midway through the round, breaking the challenger’s nose in the process, then put him down again immediately with a left before referee Paul Thomas stopped the fight at 1:25.

Hamed, 23, extended his record to 26-0. Hardy, who hadn’t been stopped since 1991 in a loss to Orlando Canizales, dropped to 36-8-2.

Also, Ronald Wright of St. Petersburg, Fla., stopped Britain’s Steve Foster in the sixth round with a flurry of body punches to retain the WBO light-middleweight title at Manchester. And, Robin Reid retained his World Boxing Council super-middleweight title with a 12-round decision over Henry Wharton.

Miscellany

The Cincinnati Enquirer, citing records obtained through the Ohio Public Records Act, said that the University of Cincinnati committed several NCAA infractions in the last year.

According to a school compliance office report, former assistant football coach Kyle Lingerfelt admitted to Athletic Director Gerald O’Dell on Dec. 22, 1995, that he stole money that was supposed to be used for prospective student-athletes, their guests and high school football coaches to buy meals on unofficial visits.

An alleged basketball infraction involved player Ruben Patterson, who participated in a summer league without permission.

Sweden scored two goals in the final four minutes for a 3-1 victory over the United States in the World Hockey Championships at Turku, Finland. Travis Green’s goal and an assist led Canada to a 6-0 victory over Italy, securing Canada’s berth in the medal round.

Former Olympic and world gymnastics medalist Dan Grecu, 47, is reported to be seriously ill in a hospital at Resita, Romania. “He has liver, kidney and breathing deficiencies, and is unconscious,” said Ioan Stan, the doctor who has been treating him. “He may not get better.” . . . Ground was broken on a new Stadium for the NFL Oilers at Nashville, Tenn. Groundbreaking for the 67,000-seat, $160 million stadium was delayed 10 months thanks to a bill by an Ohio congressman who wanted to penalize sports leagues for moving franchises. . . . Jason Queen rolled the first 300 game ever in ABC Bud Light Masters stepladder-final play, and followed with a 248-194 victory over Eric Forkel in the championship match at Huntsville, Ala. Queen defeated Bobby Fleetwood of Milford, Conn., 300-245, in the semifinals. . . . The UCLA men’s and women’s track and field teams defeated USC and Brigham Young in a dual meet at USC. The men’s victory, 88-75, was the Bruins’ 19th in a row over the Trojans.