Agassi Storms Into Semifinals

Andre Agassi beat Sweden’s Jonas Bjorkman and an approaching storm Friday, reaching the semifinals of the BMW Open tennis tournament with a 6-2, 6-2 victory at Munich, Germany.

At one point, as Agassi was preparing to serve, there was a boom of thunder and Agassi jokingly sought cover behind a lineswoman.

His semifinal opponent will be Galo Blanco of Spain, who beat Tomas Nydahl of Sweden, 7-5, 5-7, 7-6 (7-1).

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Martina Hingis, No. 1 in the world, beat former teen prodigy Jennifer Capriati, 6-1, 6-3, to reach the semifinals of the German Grand Prix at Hamburg.

Second-seeded Jana Novotna, a 6-1, 6-3, winner over German qualifier Julia Abe, will play Patty Schnyder, another Swiss player, who beat three-time Hamburg champion Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain, 6-3, 6-0.

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Top-seeded Pete Sampras struggled to victory in the $315,000 AT&T; Challenge at Duluth, Ga., edging Ramon Delgado of Paraguay, 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-3), to reach his third semifinal of 1998.

Sampras hit only 48% of his first serves and had seven double faults.

Today’s first semifinal features second-seeded Jason Stoltenberg of Australia against sixth-seeded Andrei Pavel of Romania. Stoltenberg made quick work of ailing Richey Reneberg, 6-4, 6-1, and Pavel was a 6-1, 6-2 winner over Franco Squillari of Italy.

Sampras plays 81st-ranked Alex Calatrava of Spain, who advanced when Steve Campbell was unable to continue.

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Slava Dosedel of the Czech Republic beat Spain’s Jacobo Diaz, 6-1, 6-4, and reached the semifinals of the Czech Open at Prague.

Golf

Jack Stephens announced that he will retire later this month as chairman of Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters tournament. Stephens, 74, will be succeeded May 18 by bank executive William “Hootie” Johnson, 67, a member at Augusta since 1968.

Lee Janzen, battling swirling wind that dried the course, shot a steady 69, three under par, and pulled into a tie with Dan Forsman for the lead after two rounds of the Houston Open at The Woodlands, Texas. They were at 6-under 138.

Dawn Coe-Jones finished with a double bogey and a bogey for a 2-under-par 70 that put her at 135, one stroke ahead of LPGA champion Chris Johnson, Kris Monaghan and hard-charging Annika Sorenstam of Sweden after the second round of the Mercury Titleholders Championship at Daytona Beach, Fla.

Terry Dill shot the best round of his pro career and tied a course record with a 9-under 63 that gave him a three-stroke lead after the first round of the Bruno’s Memorial Classic at Hoover, Ala.

Dill is seeking his first Senior PGA Tour win in six years.

Tiger Woods will lead the golf world with $28 million in endorsement income this year, according to a survey by SportsBusiness Journal.

Jurisprudence

Former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards said that he returned to San Francisco 49er owner Edward DeBartolo most of the $400,000 DeBartolo had given him to lobby for a riverboat casino project. Edwards said he kept $90,000 to defray legal expenses. The money has been at the center of a more than yearlong federal investigation into Edwards’ business dealings.

Federal prosecutors claimed the money was evidence of wrongdoing and was connected to mail or wire fraud and extortion.

FBI agents confiscated the cash in April 1997 but prosecutors returned the money to Edwards last February, rather than disclose what evidence they might have against the former governor.

Miscellany

The Denver Broncos signed several free agents, most notably former San Diego Charger center Courtney Hall. Hall, who was voted as an alternate on the AFC Pro Bowl squad four times, spent eight seasons with the Chargers from 1989 to 1996 but did not play in the NFL in 1997.

Defending champion Canada, trying to erase the sour memory of its collapse in the Winter Olympics, beat Austria, 5-1, in the first round of the World Hockey Championships at Zurich, Switzerland.

In the Group A opener at Basel, Olympic champion Czech Republic routed newcomer Japan, 8-2.

In another Group A game, Belarus’ Oleg Romanov and Aleksandr Andrievsky silenced a boisterous, flag-waving group of German fans by scoring third-period goals for a 4-2 victory over Germany.

Loren Woods, a 7-foot-1 center once considered a likely successor to Tim Duncan at Wake Forest, will resume his college basketball career after transferring to Arizona. He will have two years of eligibility remaining after sitting out next season.

Brian Fogel, 33, was named basketball coach at UC Davis, replacing Bob Williams, who left the Aggies for the coaching job at UC Santa Barbara.

Drag racing’s Doug Kalitta, Cruz Pedregon and Scott Geoffrion were the leaders after the first night of qualifying for Sunday’s $1.7-million Lone Star Nationals at Ennis, Texas.