Venus Williams, Hingis to Meet in Italian Final

Venus Williams will meet Martina Hingis in the Italian Open final today after defeating Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5, in the semifinals at Rome.

Williams’ victory on the clay courts at Foro Italico took 2 1/2 hours.

“I wanted to end it quickly, but we all know she likes to hit a lot of balls, a lot of lobs,” Williams said.

Today’s final features two 17-year-olds who are the two hottest players on the tour.

Hingis advanced by routing Mirjana Lucic, 6-2, 6-1.

Italian Davide Sanguinetti, ranked No. 83 in the world, advanced to his first ATP Tour final with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Johan Van Herck of Belgium in the America’s Red Clay Championship at Coral Springs, Fla.

Sanguinetti will play Andrew Ilie of Australia in today’s title match. Ilie defeated Justin Gimelstob, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.

In the early ‘90s, Sanguinetti, who resides in La Spezia, Italy, attended UCLA, where he reached the NCAA semifinals in 1993.

Alex Corretja, fighting through his fourth three-set match in three days, outlasted Felix Mantilla, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, to set up an all-Spanish final against Albert Costa at the German Open at Hamburg.

Costa hardly had to work up a sweat to advance. His opponent, Karol Kucera, retired because of foot blisters with Costa leading, 3-0.

Motor Sports

Scotsman Dario Franchitti edged Italian Alex Zanardi for the pole for today’s CART Rio 400 at Rio de Janeiro with a speed of 172.039 mph, getting around the 1.846-mile Nelson Piquet Raceway in 39.005 seconds.

Zanardi had a lap 171.341 mph and Brazilian Tony Kanaan, the rookie points leader in the CART FedEx championship series, was third-fastest at 171.289.

Mika Hakkinen won the pole for the Formula One Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona, covering the 2.937-mile Circuit of Catalunya road course in 1:20.262 at 131.8 mph.

Buckshot Jones overcame a broken radiator and came from last place to win the 200-mile Busch Grand National NASCAR race at the New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon.

Jack Sprague held off Ron Hornaday to win the $300,000 NAPACARD 200 at Monroe, Wash., and extend his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series point lead over Hornaday to 18 points.

Belgian motorcyclist Michael Paquay died of injuries at a Monza, Italy, hospital after he fell off his motorcycle during trials at the Monza track in northern Italy and was struck by another cycle. Hospital officials refused to give details of Paquay’s injuries.

Soccer

Lens won its first French first division soccer title, tying Auxerre, 1-1, at Auxerre and host Metz beat Lyon, 1-0, to finish second. Lens (21-8-5) and Metz (20-6-8) each finished with 68 points, but Lens won on better goal difference: plus 25 to plus 20.

Lens and Metz will play in the Champions’ Cup next season.

College Basketball

Jesus J. Rodriguez, 20, of Puerto Rico, a Virginia Tech player who already had asked to be released from his scholarship because of an unproductive season, has been charged with six counts of theft.

Police say Rodriguez stole at least $3,000 in jewelry and other items from six students April 22, and stole a watch and compact discs from a campus dormitory.

Diving

China’s Cai Yu Yan, 15, performed a magnificent final dive to edge Mission Viejo’s Erica Sorgi, 15, and win the FINA-USA Diving Grand Prix at Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Both Cai and Sorgi did a forward 3 1/2 somersault pike with 3.0 degree of difficulty on their last dive. Sorgi, considered the United States’ best up-and-coming women’s diver, finished with a total of 509.64 points, 3.99 behind Cai.

Miscellany

Undefeated Shane Mosley successfully defended his International Boxing Federation lightweight title by stopping John John Molina with a torrent of unanswered punches in the eighth round of a scheduled 12-round bout at Atlantic City, N.J. . . . Parker Bohn III became the 12th bowler in PBA history to roll a televised 300 game during the American Bowling Congress Masters at Reno, then lost to Mike Aulby, 224-192, in the final. . . . Team USA, lead by falls from Eric Akin and Jon McGovern, turned out victories in seven of eight matches to defeat Team Russia, 24-6, in the first Dan Gable Classic at Des Moines, Iowa.