Agassi Reverses Downward Momentum, Reaches Final

Plagued by injuries and lack of commitment, Andre Agassi has plummeted to No. 141 in the world after being the world’s top tennis player for 30 consecutive weeks in 1995 and two weeks early in 1996.

But there are days when still looks like his old self. Saturday was such a day.

Playing his first USTA Challenger since his rookie year of 1986, Agassi defeated top-seeded Grant Stafford 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 to advance to the final of the $50,000 tournament.

Agassi, seeded fifth, will meet Christian Vinck of Germany in today’s championship match at UNLV. Vinck, ranked 202nd in the world, defeated No. 3 seed Geoff Grant of Princeton, N.J., 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 in the other semifinal.

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Every time Pete Sampras has lost a round-robin match at the ATP Tour World Championship, he has gone on to win the title.

That should give him a little added confidence, as if he needs it, heading into today’s final at Hanover, Germany against Yevgeny Kafelnikov.

Sampras lost his opening group match against Carlos Moya, but has recovered to reach his fifth final, assuring himself a spot by beating Jonas Bjorkman 6-3, 6-4 in the semifinals.

Sampras lost the opportunity to take revenge over Moya when Kafelnikov beat the Spaniard 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-3) in the other semifinal.

Soccer

Italy qualified for its 10th consecutive World Cup by beating Russia, 1-0, at Naples on a 60th-minute goal by Pierluigi Casiraghi.

At Brussels, Belgium qualified for its fifth consecutive World Cup with a 2-1 victory over Ireland.

At Belgrade, Yugoslavia, banned from the 1994 World Cup because of United Nations sanctions, beat visiting Hungary, 5-0, behind four goals from Predrag Mijatovic to qualify on 12-1 aggregate, becoming one of the 32 nations in next summer’s tournament, to be played in France from June 10 to July 12.

At Kiev, Croatia qualified for the first time with a 1-1 tie at Ukraine, winning the home-and-home series on 3-1 aggregate.

Winter Sports

Chris Witty of West Allis, Wis., finished third in the women’s 1,000-meter race at a World Cup speedskating event at Roseville, Minn., to become the first to qualify for a spot on the U.S. women’s team for the 1998 Winter Olympics, coming up in three months at Nagano, Japan.

Franziska Schenk of Germany won the women’s 1,000 meters in 1:20.18, breaking a track record of 1:22.21 she set last February. Witty was third at 1:21.83.

World champion skater Tara Lipinski finished second behind by Laetitia Hubert at the Lalique Trophy competition in Paris. It was Lipinski’s second loss of the season. Last month Michelle Kwan beat Lipinski in Skate America.

Todd Eldredge, nursing sore ribs, faltered on three different axel jump attempts in the men’s final and dropped to fourth overall. Alexei Yagudin, using a quadruple toe loop, won.

Boxing

Vuyani Bungu, firing crisp right counters and left jabs from a crouch, scored a unanimous 12-round victory over Arnel Barotillo at Pretoria, South Africa to retain his International Boxing Federation junior-featherweight title.

Former champion Roberto Duran pounded out a unanimous eight-round decision over Briton David Radford to boost his record to 101-13. Radford was a late replacement for P.J. Goossen of No. Hollywood, who had to drop out after fracturing an ankle last Sunday.

Jurisprudence

Former LSU football player Ramsey Dardar, whose career with the then-St. Louis Cardinals was cut short by injuries and cocaine, has been arrested a third time for burglary, his latest incarceration coming in Baton Rouge, La.

Auto Racing

Geoff Bodine’s had a record-setting pole speed of 197.478 mph on the redesigned and repaved Atlanta Motor Speedway oval at Hampton, Ga., to put his Ford in the top spot for today’s season-ending NAPA 500. Bodine was one of 48 drivers to surpass the previous track record of 186.507, set in March on the old oval by Robby Gordon. . . . Harris Devane, a peanut farmer from Cuthbert, Ga., came from third to first in the last 100 yards to win the Reese’s 400 ARCA stock car race at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Women’s Basketball

Sheri Sam scored seven of her game-high 21 points in a 15-5 run to start the fourth quarter, leading the San Jose Lasers to an 82-72 victory over the New England Blizzard in an American Basketball League game at Hartford.

Miscellany

China’s Hu Jia captured his third gold medal at the Fina World Junior Diving Championship at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia by winning the boy’s one-meter springboard event.