Williams Clears One Hurdle to Reach Hingis in Semifinals

Defending champion Martina Hingis and Venus Williams will keep their expected appointment at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

Hingis, of Switzerland, reached the semifinals of the Chase Championships of the WTA Tour by beating fifth-seeded Mary Pierce of France, 6-1, 6-2, Thursday night after Williams defeated No. 7 Barbara Schett of Austria, 6-4, 7-6 (7-2).

The winners will meet in the first semifinal of the season-ending, $2-million tournament Saturday.

The other semifinal pairing will be decided tonight when No. 2 Lindsay Davenport plays Germany’s Anke Huber and No. 6 Nathalie Tauziat takes on Dominique Van Roost of Belgium.

Besides her huge serve, which produced nine aces, and her powerful ground strokes, which kept Schett on the run and usually behind the baseline, Williams took the shortest route to the other side of the court, hurdling the net as the players changed ends during the tiebreaker.

“I saw it. Everybody did,” Schett said of Williams’ impromptu jump. “It’s great that she can do that. It’s entertaining for the people.”

Williams’ biggest serve was clocked at 116 mph. Her fastest ace was 114 mph.

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U.S. Davis Cup Captain John McEnroe said he expects Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras to play in his team’s first-round match against Zimbabwe in February.

“I know I can count on Agassi,” McEnroe said at a news conference. “I hope Pete is going to play.

“[Sampras] wants to see a little bit better about his back,” he said, referring to an injury that has hampered Sampras.

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American Jared Palmer and Paul Haarhuis of the Netherlands defeated David Adams and John-Laffnie de Jager of South Africa, 6-4, 7-5, in a round-robin match at the Phoenix ATP Tour World Doubles Championship at Hartford, Conn. Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes of India, the world’s top-ranked team, won their second match, defeating Ellis Ferreira of South Africa and American Rick Leach, 6-4, 6-4.

America’s Cup

The New York Yacht Club’s campaign to recover the America’s Cup appeared stalled as the syndicate lost another race in the challenger series off Auckland, New Zealand, and became embroiled in a dispute.

As the second round-robin of the four-month challenger series drew to a close, officials reopened an inquiry into Young America’s withdrawal from its race Thursday after team members gave differing reasons.

On the water today, Young America was soundly defeated by AmericaOne, ensuring the $40-million syndicate will finish the second round-robin in sixth place. Italy’s Prada won again and, with only one loss, continues to dominate the competition.

Jurisprudence

Jim Courier, a former No. 1-ranked tennis player, was charged with driving under the influence after being stopped for running a red light on the University of Georgia campus at Athens, Ga.

Courier was arrested about 2:30 a.m. by a campus police officer, booked into the Clarke County jail, then released on bond.

Prosecutors’ nearly eight-month quest to convict Carolina Panther defensive end Jason Peter of drunk driving got a boost when a judge at Charlotte ordered the charge reinstated.

Superior Court Judge Claude S. Sitton ordered the case sent back to the lower court for a new trial. No date was immediately set.

North Carolina assistant basketball coach Phil Ford was put on a year’s probation and lost his driving privileges for a year after pleading guilty to drunk driving at Durham, N.C.

Ford sat silently as he listened to the sentence resulting from a plea agreement. He also was ordered to pay $586 in fines and court costs.

Judge Claude Allen sentenced Ford to eight days in jail, then suspended it because Ford had completed an alcohol-abuse recovery program.

A group of male athletes sued Miami University, claiming reverse discrimination resulted from a federal law designed to equalize the money colleges spend on men’s and women’s sports. Plaintiffs are the Miami wrestling, soccer and tennis teams.

The former Miami athletes contend that by eliminating their teams to satisfy NCAA gender quotas, the university violated sex-discrimination provisions of Title IX, the federal program designed to increase the number of women in sports.

Miscellany

Americans Jenny Thompson, Lenny Krayzelburg and Neil Walker broke world records at the FINA World Cup swimming competition at College Park, Md.

Thompson broke her own world record in the 50-meter butterfly with a time of 26.00, beating her mark of 26.05 set at last year’s World Cup. Walker went 24.12 to nip one one-hundredth of a second off the 50-meter backstroke world mark shared by Germany’s Thomas Rupprath and Australia’s Matt Welsh. Krayzelburg, who has broken four world records since August, beat Martin Zubero’s 1991 200-meter backstroke world record of 1:52.51 with a 1:52.47.

Second-seeded Azusa Pacific routed National American, 6-0, in its first pool-play game at the NAIA women’s soccer national championships at Tulsa, Okla. The defending-champion Cougars play Lindenwood of St. Charles, Mo., on Saturday.

Star soccer forward Romario, released by Flamengo earlier in the week, signed with Vasco da Gama, the team that gave him his start. . . . The Arena Football League’s Portland Forest Dragons are moving to Oklahoma City for the 2000 season. . . . The U.S. upset Brazil in the opening matches at the 12-nation men’s volleyball World Cup round-robin tournament at Tokyo.

Golf

Tiger Woods shot a four-under 67 at the World Cup and Mark O’Meara had a 73, leaving the U.S. team in third place, five strokes behind first-place Japan at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Japan’s two-man team led the 32-team tournament by four strokes. Wales followed at 139. The United States was tied at 140 with Spain.