Hingis Beats Kournikova to Win Family Circle Title

Martina Hingis demonstrated Sunday that at least one young star still has a ways to go to unseat her as the top women’s tennis player in the world.

Hingis defeated Anna Kournikova, 6-4, 6-3, to win the Family Circle Cup tournament at Hilton Head Island, S.C.

Hingis has recently been pushed out of the spotlight by Venus and Serena Williams and by Kournikova’s run through the Family Circle.

“With the Williams sisters and Anna, I was saying, ‘What about me?’ ” said Hingis, who earned $150,000. “I think this was about time.”

Hingis trailed Kournikova, 4-3, in the opening set, but broke the Russian’s serve three straight times in winning the next six games.

When Kournikova struck back to close the second set to 3-2, Hingis broke serve again to regain control. When Kournikova’s forehand slapped the net, Hingis had closed out her third tournament victory this year and her 10th consecutive Family Circle singles victory.

Swimming

Jenny Thompson of the United States won the 100-meter butterfly in 57.65 seconds and was chosen best female swimmer at the World Short-Course Championships in Hong Kong.

Thompson also won the 50-meter butterfly and 100 freestyle.

Masami Tanaka, who swept all three individual breaststroke races, and Mai Nakamura, who won two backstroke events, helped Japan break the world record in the women’s 400-meter medley relay with a time of 3:57.62, beating the mark of 3:57.73 set by China in 1993.

Japan finished with six golds. Thompson accounted for all three of the U.S. gold medals.

In the meet’s final race, Australia made amends for a disqualification in the men’s 800 freestyle relay and broke the world record in the medley relay with a time of 3:29.88. The team broke its record of 3:30.66 set two years ago.

Australian Matthew Dunn was chosen best male swimmer of the meet. He won two of the three individual medleys.

Wrestling

Kerry McCoy pinned Iran’s Ebrahim Mehraban in the final heavyweight match of the 27th World Cup of Wrestling to lead the United States to the team title at Spokane, Wash. Saturday night.

McCoy, of State College, Pa., pinned Mehraban after 1:03 to cap the United States’ 4-0 finish in the two-day, round-robin event.

Iran, which finished 3-1, took second. Cuba (2-2) was third, with Germany (1-3) and Canada (0-4) taking the final two spots.

Six teams were supposed to compete, but the defending champion Russian team did not arrive. The conflict in Kosovo led to the closure of the U.S. embassy in Moscow, and the wrestlers’ visas were inside the embassy and could not be retrieved.

The United States has dominated the World Cup in the 1990s, winning seven of nine team titles, including Saturday’s victory.

Videotapes taken of college wrestlers undressing and showering have been distributed as pornography on the Internet and by mail order, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The footage was apparently taken by cameras hidden in gym bags that were placed in locker rooms at Northwestern University and the University of Pennsylvania during wrestling meets, the newspaper reported.

Some of the tapes were turned over to the FBI last year, including footage taken at Northwestern during the 1995 Midlands Wrestling Championships, but law enforcement officials would not indicate to the newspaper whether an investigation was under way or if the case was even prosecutable.

An investigation by the University of Pennsylvania had failed to trace the source of the videotapes, a school official told the Tribune.

Miscellany

Duke basketball Coach Mike Krzyzewski underwent hip-replacement surgery in Durham, N.C., and should be released from the hospital within five days. . . . Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Namath, 55, has filed for divorce in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Namath and his wife Tatiana, 37, married in 1984 and have a home in Jupiter, Fla. They have two children. . . . Embattled International Olympic Committee member Phil Coles of Australia plans to run the Olympic torch for one kilometer across Sydney’s Bondi Beach regardless of the outcome of any inquiries into his conduct. Coles is under investigation by the IOC over claims he accepted jewelry worth more than $6,300 from the Athens bid committee for the 1996 Olympics. . . . A self-imposed 11 p.m. curfew caused Irwindale Speedway officials to cut the 50-lap super late-model stock car race to 20 laps Saturday night. The delay was caused by an unusual number of cars and many spins and stalls that brought out yellow caution flags. Brendan Gaughan of Las Vegas was the winner over Austin Cameron of San Diego in a duel of ’98 Chevy Monte Carlos.