Kuerten Takes Advantage of Rios’ Latest Setback

With one pulled muscle, Marcelo Rios’ status for the French Open was placed in doubt and No. 13-seeded Gustavo Kuerten gained his first title in six months, winning the Monte Carlo Open Sunday at Monaco.

Kuerten, the 1997 French champion who had not won an event since last October, collected the $361,000 check when former world No. 1 Rios quit in the second set because of the injury in his right thigh.

Tournament doctor Patrick Coudert said that Rios will be out for two to three weeks--a major blow to the Chilean’s preparations for the season’s first Grand Slam tournament, which begins in Paris May 24.

Rios, seeded ninth, said he injured his thigh two weeks ago and aggravated it during a semifinal victory over Jerome Golmard on Saturday. He showed up for the final with his leg heavily bandaged. Brazil’s Kuerten ahead, 6-4, 2-1, in the scheduled best-of-five-set match on red clay when Rio retired. “I need to think long term; I don’t want to be injured for five months,” Rios said.

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Sweden’s Magnus Norman used a dominant serve to win the Clay Court Championships with a 6-0, 6-3 victory over Argentina’s Guillermo Canas at Lake Buena Vista, Fla. The 22-year-old Norman, ranked as high as No. 22 in 1997, took exactly an hour to claim his third career ATP Tour title.

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Sarah Pitkowski of France, the only seeded player to advance beyond the second round, defeated Spain’s Cristina Torrens-Valero, 6-2, 6-2, for the championship of the Budapest Open. . . . Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain won the inaugural Egypt Classic, defeating Irina Spirlea of Romania, 6-1, 6-0, at Cairo.

Soccer

In the worst soccer violence in years in the Netherlands, fans smashed windows, looted stores and attacked riot police after Feyenoord Rotterdam’s Dutch League championship.

Police said they shot and injured three fans in the street fighting. The condition of the fans, shot in the neck, stomach and leg, was not immediately available. Neither were details on the numbers of arrests and injuries, but Dutch television reported ambulances driving to and from downtown, taking wounded to hospitals.

Police said officers were attacked with bottles, stones and other makeshift weapons, and one officer was injured when hit by a stone.

Hundreds of police were brought into the city before the game with NAC Breda, which ended in a 2-2 tie and gave Feyenoord its first Dutch league title since 1993.

In the MLS, Musa Shannon’s goal in the 20th minute lifted Tampa Bay to a 1-0 road win over the New York-New Jersey MetroStars.

Miscellany

La Verne got 33 kills and six blocks from Alex Lienert to defeat D’Youville, of Buffalo, N.Y., and win the Division III men’s volleyball championship at Dubuque, Iowa, late Saturday. The Leopards (12-11) prevailed, 16-17, 15-6, 15-3, 15-13, with 13 blocks overall.

UCLA’s loss to Hawaii late Saturday ensured there will be a new NCAA Division I men’s volleyball champion. The Bruins’ 16-14, 15-11, 14-16, 15-7 defeat came in the first round of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation playoffs. USC eliminated last year’s runner-up, Pepperdine, 15-9, 11-15, 15-9, 15-6, at Malibu. Long Beach State, ranked No. 2, avenged an earlier loss to UC Irvine with a 15-7, 15-10, 15-6 win at the Pyramid.

WBA bantamweight champion Johnny Tapia knocked out Mexico’s Alberto Martinez 1:43 into the first round of a non-title bout at Albuquerque, N.M., Saturday night.