Pierce Outlasts Martinez and Delivers on Promise

The more Mary Pierce struggled, the more determined she became to win the Bausch & Lomb Championships at Amelia Island, Fla.

Erratic in dropping the opening set of Sunday’s final in the $450,000 women’s clay court tennis tournament, Pierce bounced back to dominate Conchita Martinez, 6-7 (8-10), 6-0, 6-2, and win her second title this season.

Runner-up here the past two years, the 1995 Australian Open champion had vowed last spring to return to Amelia Island and take care of unfinished business.

“It feels good,” she said. “Finally.”

For more than an hour, though, it looked like she might lose again.

Pierce settled down after making 32 unforced errors in the first set, which she nevertheless extended to a tiebreaker that took a toll on Martinez.

“I thought I ran out of steam,” Martinez said. “It took a lot to win the first set. Instead of being aggressive, I was waiting on her to make mistakes.”

In a rivalry that once produced some of the finest tennis anywhere, John McEnroe defeated Bjorn Borg, 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 10-8, to win a $500,000 event on the Senior Tour of Champions at Doha, Qatar.

This was McEnroe’s sixth senior championship and fifth victory over Borg on the senior tour. They split their 14 matches when they ruled the regular tour.

The first player to win 10 points in the last set, and win by two points, was the winner.

Third-seeded Spaniard Alberto Berasategui rallied to defeat No. 6 Thomas Muster of Austria, 3-6, 6-1, 6-3, and win the Estoril Open at Oeiras, Portugal.

The $625,000 tournament is the traditional opener of the European clay-court season.

Kenneth Carlsen became the first Dane to win an ATP tournament, overpowering Zimbabwe’s Byron Black, 6-2, 6-0, in a rain-interrupted final of the Salem Open at Hong Kong.

Top-seeded Patrick Rafter of Australia won the Gold Flake Open at Madras, India, defeating defending champion Mikael Tillstrom of Sweden, 6-3, 6-4.

Rafter, ranked fourth in the world, needed only 72 minutes to beat Tillstrom, ranked 88th and seeded fifth.

Rafter received $58,000 and Tillstrom got $34,000.

Pro Football

Three-time Pro Bowl running back Chris Warren signed a three-year contract with the Dallas Cowboys, ESPN reported.

Warren, 30, was released last month by Seattle in an economic move after signing Ricky Watters.

Warren, who rushed for 847 yards and four touchdowns last season, will become Emmitt Smith’s backup. ESPN reported that Smith originally was not pleased with the prospect of Warren’s signing.

KDFW-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth said the team would announce the signing today.

Miscellany

UCLA ranks sixth among the eight public schools within the Pacific 10 Conference in the amount of money it spent recruiting football players during the 1996-97 season, according to a story in the Arizona Republic.

The Bruins recruiting budget was $184,000. Most of the money goes to travel expenses for both coaches and for recruits to make campus visits. Arizona spent $293,000 to lead the Pac-10, with Oregon and Washington tied for second ($250,000).

Arizona’s was not the highest in the country, however. According to the report, Nebraska spent $381,778.

Public schools are required by law to report their budgets, but USC and Stanford are private institutions and aren’t required to reveal their numbers. The Republic examined financial records from the 1996-97 fiscal year, the most recent numbers available.

Kay Whitmore stopped 17 of 18 shots as the Long Beach Ice Dogs beat the Las Vegas Thunder, 6-1, in Long Beach to end International Hockey League regular season play.

Long Beach (53-20-9) secured home-ice advantage through the best-of-five playoffs against division rival Las Vegas beginning Friday.

Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher ended the early season monopoly by McLaren, winning the Argentine Grand Prix at Buenos Aires, for his first victory this year.

The two-time world champion averaged 105.21 mph and finished 22.899 seconds ahead of runner-up Mika Hakkinen of the McLaren team in the 72-lap race.

Senior Eric Byrnes scored his 212th run to break a school record as UCLA (17-23 overall and 10-14 Pacific 10) defeated visiting Arizona (27-18, 8-13), 12-7. Byrnes broke the record of 211 held by Torey Lovullo.

Russia beat the travel-weary U.S. water polo team, 7-5, to win the French Open in Bordeaux, France.