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Novotna Latest Victim of Graf; Hingis Wins

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From Staff and Wire Reports

Steffi Graf continued her remarkable resurgence Tuesday night, advancing into the quarterfinals of the Chase Championships with a 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-1 victory over third-seeded Jana Novotna at New York.

After suffering a series of injuries and surgeries, the German is playing again like the woman who dominated women’s tennis for a decade.

Since undergoing wrist surgery in September, Graf has won 11 consecutive matches and two tournaments.

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The top three players in the world have been among her last four victims. And she has won her last nine matches in the season-ending Championships at Madison Square Garden, having won the title in 1995 and 1996 before missing last year while recuperating from knee surgery.

Also advancing into the quarterfinals were second-seeded Martina Hingis and No. 8 Nathalie Tauziat of France. Hingis beat Swiss Fed Cup teammate Patty Schnyder, 4-6, 6-0, 6-3, after Tauziat ousted Natasha Zvereva of Belarus, 6-3, 6-1.

Novotna became the Championships’ first defending champion to lose in the first round. But the Czech ran into one of the best players in history. Graf, because of a lack of matches, wasn’t seeded. And Novotna suffered cramps in both calves, taking an injury timeout in the opening game of the final set.

With the Garden crowd solidly behind her, cheering loudly every time she won a point, Graf put her forehand on display, spraying winners all around the court.

“I’ve been having a great time. It’s great to be back,” said a beaming Graf, who will face the winner of today’s match between fifth-seeded Monica Seles and Anna Kournikova.

Despite her victory, Hingis lost her chance to end the year as No. 1 in the world when Arantxa Sanchez Vicario fell in the first round Monday. Hingis would have needed to reap the Spaniard’s bonus points in a semifinal win to overtake Lindsay Davenport.

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“There is always next year, I am still young,” Hingis said with a laugh.

Pro Basketball

After 11 days of silence, the opposing sides in the 140-day NBA lockout finally spoke in New York and agreed to resume formal bargaining talks on Friday.

“It was, as usual, cordial but unproductive,” Deputy Commissioner Russ Granik said of Tuesday’s meeting. “We didn’t get anywhere.”

Friday’s session will be the first involving the full owners’ and players’ negotiating committees since Oct. 28, the night Michael Jordan sat in on an 8 1/2-hour session.

“We sort of sense that with the holidays approaching, if we don’t start making progress soon the season is in jeopardy,” Granik said. “We’ll give it one more try on Friday.”

The Chicago Bulls’ Dennis Rodman confirmed that he is married to former “Baywatch” actress Carmen Electra, saying in a statement, “I love Carmen and am proud to be married to her.”

Contradicting agent Dwight Manley’s claim that he was intoxicated and taken advantage of, Rodman, 37, in a handwritten statement, said he was indeed in love and apologized “for any false statements given on my behalf regarding my marriage to Carmen Electra.”

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Motor Racing

The Indy Racing League changed its engine rules, although the new guidelines appear to do little to ease the rift with rival CART.

The IRL’s new rules are for 2000 through 2004, giving race teams sufficient time to decide on their programs.

However, engine leasing remains a major difference between the two open-wheel racing series. Championship Auto Racing Teams lets teams lease engines from manufacturers; IRL prohibits it.

The new IRL engine formula reduces the engine size from 4 liters to 3.5 liters, allows a new crankshaft that will alter the pitch and sound of the engine and requires a device limiting revolutions per minute starting in 1999 to control horsepower.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. would be allowed to continue its title sponsorship of NASCAR’s premier racing series under the proposed settlement with state attorneys general. It would be the only tobacco brand-name sponsorship the company would be allowed under the pact.

Soccer

FIFA postponed the Confederations Cup from January until next summer and said in Zurich, Switzerland, that World Cup champion France had agreed to participate. The tournament was originally scheduled Jan. 8-20 in Mexico City and Guadalajara. France had said it would not compete at that time. It will now be played July 28-Aug. 8. The postponement will cause many U.S. national team players to miss games with their Major League Soccer clubs.

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Miscellany

Tiger Woods birdied the 15th and 16th holes to close out Lee Janzen and advance to the championship round of the $1-million PGA Grand Slam of Golf at Poipu, Hawaii. The 3-and-2 victory put Woods into today’s final 18 holes of match play against Vijay Singh, who beat Mark O’Meara, 2-up.

Brian Agler, 40, who coached the Columbus Quest to back-to-back ABL titles the past two seasons, will become the first coach and general manager of Minnesota’s WNBA expansion team. . . . Jennifer Azzi had 21 points to lead four San Jose players in double figures and the Lasers beat the Nashville Noise, 82-80, in an ABL game before 1,511 in Nashville. . . . Point guard Marquis Poole from Centennial High in Compton signed with Washington State.

The New Jersey Athletic Conference threw out aluminum bats for the 1999 season, becoming the first college baseball league to switch back to wood. The league will not play teams using aluminum bats.

Chris Dundee, who turned Miami Beach into a boxing capital and promoted more than 1,000 fights in a 40-year career, died at a nursing home. He was 91. Dundee, also the brother of trainer Angelo Dundee, died Monday. He never fully recovered from a stroke nine years ago.

Larry “Gator” Rivers, a former member of the Harlem Globetrotters, has been arrested and charged with delivery of cocaine in St. Joseph, Mo.

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