After a Loss, Agassi Says He Is Done Playing Davis Cup

Andre Agassi’s season-long slump continued Saturday at Key Biscayne, Fla., losing to Slovakian Dominik Hrbaty, 1-6, 6-3, 6-2, in the first round of the Lipton Championships.

But what noise he failed to make on the court Agassi more than made up for off it after the match, announcing he’s done with the Davis Cup.

Agassi, who is ranked ninth but has yet to reach a final or beat a top-20 player in 1999, last year tied Bill Tilden’s U.S. record of 16 consecutive Davis Cup singles victories. But the recent firing of the U.S. team physician, a personal friend, has Agassi vowing to skip the Davis Cup for at least this year.

“That’s the last straw for me,” he said. “I’m done with it. I never say never, but I’m never playing again.”

The physician, George Fareed, lost his position because the USTA changed the qualifications required for the job, USTA executive director Rick Ferman said.

Agassi’s declaration is a big blow to the Americans, because Pete Sampras earlier said he won’t play Davis Cup this year.

“I would like to think Andre would want to reconsider and play in the future,” U.S. captain Tom Gullikson said. “Maybe ‘never’ is a strong word. It might be an emotional reaction to the loss.”

In other men’s results, Sampras won in his 20th meeting against Jim Courier, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3); Carlos Moya of Spain won his first match as the world’s No. 1 player, defeating Davide Sanguinetti of Italy, 6-3, 4-6, 6-1; and Boris Becker of Germany, playing perhaps his final singles match in the United States, lost to Marat Safin of Russia, 7-5, 6-0.

On the women’s side, defending champion Venus Williams won her opening match against Tara Snyder, 6-3, 6-4, and No. 2-seeded Lindsay Davenport defeated Sabine Appelmans of Belgium, 6-0, 6-3.

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Still recovering from a shoulder injury suffered in last year’s Davis Cup final against Switzerland, Italy’s Andrea Gaudenzi will miss the first round series with Switzerland April 2-4.

Auto Racing

Tom Kristensen of Denmark held off a furious charge by James Weaver to win the Superflo 12 Hours at Sebring (Fla.) in the closest finish in the history of the nation’s oldest road race.

The margin of victory was 9.207 seconds, shattering the mark of 23.8 seconds set by Mario Andretti over Peter Revson in 1970.

Kristensen drove the anchor leg for pole winner J.J. Lehto of Finland and Jorg Muller of Germany and stayed in the car for a double shift at the end.

Matt Kenseth, who chased Dale Earnhardt Jr. all last season in the NASCAR Busch series championship race, routed him and the rest of the field in the Diamond Hill 200 at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina.

Any chance Earnhardt, Mark Martin and other contenders had ended when the fourth caution of the race came out just after each lost a lap by stopping under green.

Greg Moore won the pole for the season-opening CART Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami with a lap of 217.279 mph at Miami-Homestead Speedway. The Canadian, who set a track qualifying record of 217.541 last year, overcame problems in his first pit stop to finish second in 1998. He also has a fourth- and seventh-place finishes in the Grand Prix. Adrian Fernandez is on the outside of the front row with his lap of 216.861 in a year-old Reynard.

It took three extra laps to get it done, but Mike Wallace got his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck victory in the Florida Dodge Dealers 400 at Miami-Homestead Speedway. After a crash near the end of the race, the drivers had to drive three extra laps after the caution was lifted to abide by the rules, which require races must end with three green-flag laps.

Wallace pulled steadily away over those final three laps, winning by 0.461 seconds--about six car-lengths--over rookie Mike Stefanik in a 1-2 Ford finish. Stacy Compton was third in a Dodge.

Larry Dixon and Whit Bazemore paced the quickest fields in NHRA history in their respective categories at the Mac Tools Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla.

Dixon’s 4.532 seconds at 321.65 mph led a field anchored by Paul Romines 4.697 seconds. The previous quickest top fuel field mark was 4.728 seconds. Bazemore claimed the No. 1 spot in funny car with a 4.856 at 307.58 and Del Worsham, who ran 5.095, anchors the field. The previous quickest funny car field was 5.126 seconds.

Miscellany

Host Georgia cruised to victory at the NCAA women’s swimming and diving championships at Athens with 504.5 points--63.5 ahead of Stanford. The Cardinal, which had won the title five of the last six years, extended its remarkable run of finishing no lower than second since 1988. USC finished sixth and UCLA was 16th.

Marion County (Indiana) Prosecutor Scott Newman plans to contact Maryland correctional authorities Monday to discuss reports that Mike Tyson might be eligible for release from a Maryland jail as early as Friday. On March 5, Tyson entered into an agreement with Newman and other Marion County authorities to serve an additional 60 days in Maryland for violating his parole in Indiana. Under “good” time provisions, if Tyson behaves in custody and accomplishes education and work credits, that time can be reduced to 30 days. If released Friday, Tyson would be placed on work release or home detention to serve out the remainder of his sentence, according to one of his attorneys.

International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch acknowledged in his native Barcelona, Spain, that he should have stepped down after the 1992 Summer Games were held there. . . . Synchronized diving will make its debut as a medal sport at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney after being approved by the International Olympic Committee’s executive board.

Jiajun Li and Yang Yang A gave China two more victories in the men’s and women’s 500-meter finals on the second day of the World Short Track Speedskating Championships at Sofia, Bulgaria.