Kournikova Stays Hot With Win Over Davenport

She may not have a WTA championship to her credit, but Anna Kournikova is playing as well as any player in the world right now.

She proved it with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over top-seeded Lindsay Davenport on Thursday in the Bausch & Lomb Championships at Amelia Island, Fla. The victory continues the hot streak that began for the ninth-seeded Russian about a month ago.

Combined with her march to the final of the Family Circle Cup last week, Kournikova has a chance to move up as many as 11 places in the rankings over a two-week span with a title in the Bausch & Lomb tournament.

The last victory of this magnitude for the world’s 16th-ranked player came against Martina Hingis last May in Berlin.

“This was important for me because I haven’t beaten a top, top player in some time,” she said. “So, this is very good. It gives me a lot of confidence. I need this.”

Her next match will be against sixth-seeded Patty Schnyder, a rematch of Kournikova’s victory in the semifinals last week.

Elsewhere in the round of 16, No. 2 Monica Seles, No. 5 Amanda Coetzer and No. 7 Conchita Martinez all advanced.

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Carlos Moya of Spain moved within two victories of regaining the top spot in the ATP Tour rankings, defeating Wayne Black of Zimbabwe, 6-3, 1-6, 7-5, in the Gold Flake Open at Madris, India. . . . Todd Martin advanced to the quarterfinals of the Estoril Open with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Nuno Marques of Portugal at Oeiras, Portugal. Second-seeded Marcelo Rios and No. 5 seed Gustavo Kuerten also advanced.

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Three-time champion and eighth-seeded Michael Chang was upset by Hendrik Dreekman of Germany, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, in the second round of the Salem Open at Hong Kong, adding to Chang’s dismal performances in 1999, which have dropped him to No. 40 in the world rankings.

College Basketball

Buzz Peterson, who paced Appalachian State to 20-victory seasons the last two years, was hired Southwest Missouri State. Peterson replaces Steve Alford, who left Southwest Missouri to take the Iowa job.

Peterson was 56-30 in three seasons at Appalachian State, including a 21-8 mark this year.

Two Clemson players, Pasha Bains and Willie James Solomon, were charged with possessing a laptop computer valued at $3,000 that had been reported stolen from a campus apartment last month, campus police said. Solomon bought the computer for $300 and Bains agreed to split the cost, according to arrest warrants. Neither Coach Larry Shyatt nor the university had taken disciplinary action as of Thursday. . . . North Carolina State’s leading scorer, Adam Harrington, and freshman reserve Keith Bean from Fontana will not return to the team next season.

St. Francis College hired Bobby Jones, an associate coach at Minnesota since 1997, as its coach. . . . Duke promoted Johnny Dawkins to replace Quin Snyder as associate head basketball coach, named former guard Steve Wojciechowski as an assistant and said Coach Mike Krzyzewski has been released from the hospital following hip replacement surgery on Sunday.

Baron Davis was named UCLA’s MVP at the team’s annual awards banquet.

Football

NFL prospect Cecil Collins avoided prison by pleading guilty to charges he fondled two women while at Louisiana State. The running back, a possible first- or second-round pick in the NFL draft, will serve four years probation and must also be tested for drugs every week, give $2,500 to a women’s shelter, perform 300 hours of community service and stay away from LSU for the length of his probation. He is allowed to leave Louisiana only for employment. . . . Former Washington Redskin and Dallas Cowboy receiver Alvin Harper, 31, was charged with two counts of auto theft in Washington.

A year after creating controversy by attacking homosexuality and using racial stereotypes before the Wisconsin Legislature, former NFL star Reggie White wrote that he’s against allowing reporters of the opposite sex into the locker rooms of professional athletes in an opinion piece published in Thursday’s editions of the Wall Street Journal. . . . The Chicago Bears decided to hold onto center Casey Wiegman, matching the Miami Dolphins’ $1.4 million, two-year offer for the former Iowa lineman.

Miscellany

Eugenia Williams, the boxing judge criticized for her scoring in the Evander Holyfield-Lennox Lewis heavyweight title fight, told a federal grand jury that no one tried to sway her decision, her lawyer said. . . . The World Boxing Council proposed a new system to announce judges’ points after the fourth and eighth rounds of title fights and the World Boxing Assn. proposed “open scoring,” announcing the points after each round, in a fight on the same card.

Japan defeated the United States, 3-1, at the FIFA world youth soccer championships at Bauchi, Nigeria, putting the Americans (1-1) in danger of first-round elimination.