A Hingis-Williams Showdown

Martina Hingis of Switzerland had little trouble Wednesday in defeating Barbara Schett of Austria, 6-1, 6-1, in the quarterfinals of the Lipton Championships at Key Biscayne, Fla.

The world’s top-ranked player has looked first-rate at Key Biscayne, losing only 11 games in four matches. Hingis’ latest victory took only 43 minutes, meaning her workday was over before 2 p.m.

“I love it,” she said. “You can go do something else if you know you played a great match. I’m going to have a massage.”

Hingis’ opponent in the semifinals will be Serena Williams, who wore down Amanda Coetzer of South Africa, 6-4, 6-0. Williams has won 15 consecutive matches and is bidding for her third tournament title in a row.

In the men’s quarterfinals, Francisco Clavet of Spain eliminated Nicolas Kiefer of Germany, 7-5, 6-3, and Sebastien Grosjean of France won a battle of unseeded players by beating Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia, 6-3, 5-7, 6-1. For the first time in the tournament’s 15-year history, there will be no Americans in the men’s semifinals.

Soccer

With NATO air strikes under way against Yugoslavia, the governing body of European soccer postponed two qualifying games for the European championships. UEFA said the Yugoslavia-Croatia game scheduled for Saturday in Belgrade will be played Aug. 18. A game scheduled for next Wednesday was moved to Sept. 4.

Goalkeeper Tony Meola of the Kansas City Wizards will have arthroscopic surgery on his left knee next week and probably will sit out half the Major League Soccer season.

Miscellany

Michelle Kwan easily won her qualifying round at the figure skating world championships with a solid and graceful program at Helsinki.

In the pairs final, Russians Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikhuralidze lost their grace for a moment when she fell, but went on to retain their title. Kyoka Ina and John Zimmerman were the top Americans, finishing ninth.

The two-year probation that Wisconsin received for unauthorized spending of booster club money mostly embarrasses the school, a top NCAA investigator said. “The penalties are quite light for a major violation,” said David Swank, chairman of the NCAA’s Division I Committee on Infractions. “The university did not properly oversee what its booster clubs were doing.” The school’s teams were spared penalties concerning postseason tournaments, television appearances and scholarship allotments.

CBS led all networks with 30 Sports Emmy nominations, including 17 from the 1998 Winter Olympics. NBC was second with 19 nominations, followed by HBO (14), Fox (13) and ESPN (12). ABC was last among the networks with nine nominations. The winners will be announced April 21.

Responding to complaints from players, the PGA Tour is banning cellular telephones and cameras from all events beginning with this weekend’s Players Championship at Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

Lisa Love, USC’s women’s volleyball coach and an associate athletic director, announced that she is giving up coaching to concentrate on her administrative duties at the school.

Nevada quarterback David Neill has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of possessing a stolen prepaid phone card.

Alex Shaffer completed a sweep of the women’s technical events with a national title in slalom on the final day of the U.S. National Alpine Championships at Park City, Utah, and Sacha Gros won his second consecutive men’s slalom and third national crown overall. The skiers raced on Deer Valley’s Olympic slalom course.

Al Unser Jr. was released from an Indianapolis hospital, two days after surgeons inserted a metal plate into his broken right ankle. Unser suffered the injury during a crash on the first lap of the Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami on Sunday.

The Green Bay Packers re-signed starting left guard Marco Rivera to a three-year contract. . . . The Detroit Lions re-signed unrestricted free-agent tight end David Sloan to an undisclosed contract. . . . The Jacksonville Jaguars released defensive tackle Don Davey, who sat out last season after undergoing reconstructive surgery on his right knee.

Two travel companies and a ticket broker who received thousands of dollars from customers for 1997 Super Bowl tickets the customers never received will pay $72,500 in restitution and penalties.

The reimbursements will go to consumers who bought 1997 Super Bowl travel packages and game tickets that were never delivered, Atty. Gen. Tom Reilly said in Boston.

The settlement requires National Travel Vacations, a Norwood, Mass., tour operator, Sports World Tours Inc. of Portland, Ore., and Harvey Zuckerberg, a ticket broker operating out of Maine and California, to make restitution.