Becker, Rios Take Shots at Men’s Tennis

Boris Becker calls it “sick.” Marcelo Rios calls it “boring.”

Men’s tennis is coming under attack again--this time on the eve of the Australian Open.

Becker, the three-time Wimbledon champion, called for the ATP Tour to stage fewer tournaments and force the top players to play each other more often.

“It can’t be that Pete Sampras doesn’t have to play against a top-10 player until August--that points to a system that’s literally sick,” Becker told the Berlin daily, the Tagesspiegel.

Rios, the No. 2-ranked player, said the game should be slowed and players allowed to display emotions on court.

“Tennis has gotten boring--unjustifiably so,” the Chilean said in the German magazine, Der Spiegel. “Especially the top players are constantly watched, constantly punished and therefore always more well-behaved.”

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Top-seeded Tim Henman advanced to the second round of the $1-million Qatar Open at Doha, Qatar, by defeating Dutchman Sjeng Schalken, 6-2, 6-3, in the opening day of the tournament. No. 4-seeded Goran Ivanisevic needed more than two hours to beat Francisco Clavet of Spain, 6-3, 6-7 (6-1), 6-4. Jeff Tarango beat No. 8 Jan Siemerink of the Netherlands, 6-3, 6-3.

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Lleyton Hewitt, the Australian teenager who made a surprising run at the Australian Open title last year, beat Germany’s Nicolas Kiefer, 7-5, 6-4, in the Australian Men’s Hardcourt Championships at Adelaide. . . . No. 4-seeded Barbara Schett of Austria advanced to the second round of the Auckland Women’s Classic at Auckland, New Zealand, routing Germany’s Elena Wagner, 6-1, 6-0. . . . No. 4-seeded Ai Sugiyama of Japan began her title defense in the Australian Women’s Hardcourt Championships at Gold Coast, beating American Corina Morariu, 6-2, 6-7 (8-6), 6-3.

Boxing

Ruling out reports to the contrary, George Foreman’s attorney, Steve Kantleman, confirmed that the Foreman-Larry Holmes heavyweight bout, scheduled for the Houston Astrodome on Jan. 23, has been canceled. Promoter Roger Levitt, who owed Foreman $9 million and Holmes $3.6 million after giving each fighter a nonrefundable 10% of their respective purses, couldn’t come up with the money despite receiving an extension of his original Dec. 24 deadline.

Soccer

Big names in soccer are split over a proposal to stage the World Cup every two years.

While UEFA, the sport’s European federation, is against the idea, superstar Ronaldo of Brazil likes it. Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA, soccer’s international body, wants the World Cup played every two years, instead of every four, starting in 2008, with a special tournament in 2004 to commemorate the federation’s 100th birthday.

That event would clash with the European Championships, which UEFA President Lennart Johansson said was “totally unacceptable.”

Five African nations were among eight countries that applied to host the 2006 World Cup finals. Nigeria and South Africa were the last to sign up before a New Year’s Eve deadline imposed by FIFA, soccer’s world body. Others are Egypt, Ghana, Morocco, Brazil, England and Germany. FIFA will decide on a host in March 2000.

Soccer is prepared to be tossed out of the Olympics in a drug-testing dispute, the medical chief of the sport’s international body said at Brussels, Belgium.

Michel D’Hooghe, chairman of FIFA’s medical committee, said the federation never would bow to the International Olympic Committee’s demand for minimum two-year suspensions for doping. The IOC wants all Olympic sports federations to apply common rules and penalties, including a minimum two-year suspension for athletes using performance-enhancing drugs. If federations refuse to apply the rule, they risk being dropped from the Olympic program.

Olympics

Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt called for change at Salt Lake’s Olympic headquarters to ensure ongoing probes into a bribery scandal do not bog down preparations for the 2002 Winter Games.

In a letter to Salt Lake Organizing Committee Chairman Robert Garff, the governor asked that committee members and staff who were involved in Utah’s Olympic bid be put on administrative leave so they can focus on answering accusations of buying International Olympic Committee votes.

Miscellany

Derrick Hall, Dodger publicity director, is leaving the organization to pursue a radio broadcasting career with the ballclub’s flagship station.

Hall has signed with KXTA 1150 to co-host “The Big Show,” weekday mornings on the all-sports station.

Baseballs that Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa swatted into the record books in last year’s race for the home-run crown will go up for auction in cyberspace this week in bidding that could reach $1 million for McGwire’s record-setting 70th home run of the season.

The auction, on the eBay Internet trading site (https://www.ebay.com), will offer four record-setting balls--the 63rd, 67th, 68th and 70th home runs--hit by McGwire, as well the 61st, 64th and 66th hit by Sosa.

The bidding will run on eBay from today through Jan. 11, and then move to New York’s Madison Square Garden, where the sale will be concluded Jan. 12 by by Guernsey’s auction house.

Free-agent outfielder Wil Cordero, who played for the Chicago White Sox last season, was charged with disturbing the peace after an altercation with his wife’s former husband in a hotel on New Year’s Day at Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. He was released without bail.

Jean-Philipp Roy of Canada took advantage of problems by the top skiers to win a Super Series slalom at Lake Placid, N.Y.