Davenport Can’t Handle Tauziat

In her first match since winning the U.S. Open and closing in on the No. 1 ranking, Lindsay Davenport lost to Nathalie Tauziat of France on Thursday in the Grand Slam Cup at Munich, Germany.

“It’s a good wake-up call for me,” Davenport said. “The first tournament in Europe, I need to play a lot better the next two tournaments.”

Tauziat, the losing Wimbledon finalist, rallied to win, 4-6, 6-1, 7-5, despite 12 double faults and 37 unforced errors.

Venus Williams made sure there would be at least one American in the semifinals of the $6.7-million tournament when she beat French Open champion Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain, 6-3, 6-2.

In a men’s quarterfinal, Mark Philippoussis of Australia, one of the biggest servers in the game, beat Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden, one of the best returners, 4-6, 7-6 (7-1), 6-1.

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Junior Wimbledon champion Roger Federer of Switzerland pulled off his second upset at the Toulouse Open, beating seventh-seeded Richard Fromberg of Australia, 6-1, 7-6 (7-5). Federer, 17, has beaten two top 50 players in his first professional tournament. In the first round, he defeated France’s Guillaume Raoux.

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Sergi Bruguera routed fellow Spaniard and second-seeded Alex Corretja, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3, to reach the third round of the Marbella Open clay-court tournament at Palma De Mallorca, Balearic Islands. Top-seeded Carlos Moya of Spain defeated Slava Dosedel of the Czech Republic, 6-4, 6-4, and will face Thomas Schiessling of Austria, who defeated Vemic Dusan of Yugoslavia, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Boxing

Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson is tentatively scheduled to go back before the Nevada State Athletic Commission on Oct. 19 in his ongoing battle to get his boxing license back. Meanwhile, a psychiatrist’s evaluation of Tyson’s mental state could be made public as early as today, despite efforts by Tyson’s attorneys to keep it confidential.

District Judge Gene Porter ruled that there was no state statute that would force the commission to keep private the reports, expected to be received Thursday night or this morning.

Jurisprudence

Former NFL safety Gene Atkins no longer faces an attempted murder charge in connection with a firebombing at the house of his former business partner. The Broward State Attorney’s Office in Miramar, Fla., said it has replaced 11 initial police charges with just one count--solicitation to commit aggravated battery--in connection with Molotov cocktails thrown into the home of Alfred and Angela Simmons in late March and early April. No one was injured in the attacks.

Michael Williams, 44, a former Louisiana State and San Diego Charger defensive back, was arrested in Covington, La., in an undercover drug sting and accused of selling crack cocaine within 1,000 feet of a school. If convicted, he faces up to 60 years in jail. . . . Former heavyweight champion Tommy Morrison will appear in court later this month on a drunk-driving charge, following a delay granted in Tulsa, Okla. Morrison’s attorney said he sought the delay because the ex-boxer expects to learn the results of his appeal of a six-month jail term in a 1997 drunk-driving case.

Names in the News

Larry Bird will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame tonight in Springfield, Mass., along with players Marques Haynes of the Harlem Globetrotters and Arnie Risen, like Bird, a former member of the Boston Celtics. Other inductees are coaches Alex Hannum of the 1967 NBA champion Philadelphia 76ers, Jody Conradt of the University of Texas and Aleksandar Nikolic of Yugoslavian national team. . . . Dave Blaney’s first-year NASCAR Busch Grand National team got another boost when he won the pole for the All Pro Bumper to Bumper Auto Parts 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.

Miscellany

Los Angeles is one of nine cities hoping to be the American bidder for the 2012 Summer Olympics that submitted proposals to the U.S. Olympic Committee, but the panel said it wanted to review the plans before deciding if all met minimum requirements. USOC President Bill Hybl said a report on the bids would be made to the panel’s executive committee in Phoenix next Friday. . . . Emilio Gasbarrone, chief of the Italian Olympic Committee’s drug-testing laboratory, was fired after complaints that positive tests in soccer had been covered up. The Italian Olympic Committee’s (CONI) ruling body dismissed him as secretary general of the medical commission in an emergency session at Rome. . . . In a women’s college volleyball match involving two highly ranked teams, fourth-ranked UC Santa Barbara (13-0) plays host to No. 2 Long Beach State (12-0) tonight at 7. In another match, No. 8 USC (8-3) plays host to UCLA (3-7) at 6 p.m. . . . Synchronized swimming star Bill May will not compete at the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Canda, after the Amateur Swimming Union of the America’s ruled to continue to exclude men from competitions under its jurisdiction.