U.S. Gymnasts Finish Last

China easily won its fourth consecutive men’s title Tuesday in the World Gymnastics Championships and defending women’s champion Romania beat Russia at Tianjin, China.

The United States finished last in both six-team competitions, complaining that judges underscored their routines.

“We should have done a better job, but there’s no way that we were the sixth team out there,” men’s Coach Kelly Hill said.

The American women had problems too. Jeanette Antolin had a long wait because the wrong music was initially played for her floor exercise and Kristen Maloney’s music stopped too soon. Coach Donna Strauss said it seemed as if competition organizers were trying to rattle the team.

When Vanessa Atler began wobbling on her beam routine, some spectators murmured, “Fall off! Fall off!” in Chinese. She did, twice.

Track and Field

Willie Banks, 43, a former world-record holder in the triple jump and a two-time NCAA runner-up at UCLA, will join three others to be inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame.

Banks, Bill Rodgers, four-time Boston and New York City marathon winner; Charles Moore, former NCAA and Olympic hurdles champion, and Larry Ellis, former Princeton track coach, will be inducted in Los Angeles on Dec. 2.

Tennis

Top-ranked Martina Hingis of Switzerland scored a surprisingly troublesome 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 victory over Russian qualifier Tatiana Panova in the second round of the European Indoor Championships at Zurich, Switzerland. Eighth-seeded Nathalie Tauziat won her second-round match, defeating French compatriot Sandrine Testud, 7-5, 6-3.

Playing his first match since the U.S. Open final, Todd Martin, seeded second, was eliminated from the $800,000 CA Trophy tournament at Vienna, losing to unseeded Czech Jiri Novak, 6-7 (7-3), 7-6 (7-5), 4-6.

In another three-setter, Sebastien Grosjean of France beat Switzerland’s Marc Rosset, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5). Seventh-seeded Nicolas Kiefer of Germany defeated unseeded Mariano Zabaleta of Argentina, 6-3, 6-4, and Croatia’s Goran Ivanisevic ousted third-seeded Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil, 6-1, 6-7 (7-2), 6-4.

Mark Philippoussis of Australia, playing for the first time since hurting his knee in August, defeated Bob Bryan, 6-4, 6-4, in the first round of the Heineken Open at Singapore. Sweden’s Jonas Bjorkman, seeded eighth, defeated Australia’s Richard Fromberg, 7-5, 6-2; No. 6 Andrew Ilie of Australia defeated Ramon Delgado of Paraguay, 6-2, 6-2; No. 7 Jan-Michael Gambill downed Justin Gimelstob, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4, and Mikael Tillstrom of Sweden topped Byron Black of Zimbabwe, 6-3, 6-4.

Pro Basketball

Kevin Johnson, one of the NBA’s most prolific point guards, retired, ending an 11-year career. Johnson, who sat out the lockout-shortened season last spring, announced his decision in a news release from the Phoenix Suns, the team he led for 10 1/2 seasons before leaving as a free agent in 1998.

Philadelphia 76er President Pat Croce underwent surgery and has an 85% chance of regaining use of his left leg, Dr. William DeLong said.

The bone in Croce’s leg was shattered in 10 places in a motorcycle accident June 17.

The Houston Rockets waived eight-year veteran Stacey Augmon, one of six players acquired from Portland on Oct. 2 in the trade for Scottie Pippen.

Michael Jordan popped in at a disaster recovery center for Hurricane Floyd flood victims in Burgaw, N.C., dispensing cases of underwear and hugs. Jordan spent 15 minutes listening to the victims’ stories, said Salvation Army spokeswoman Amy Carpenter.

Miscellany

USC will play at unbeaten UCLA in women’s volleyball tonight at 7. The Trojans trail the Bruins by two games early in the Pacific 10 season. . . . In women’s soccer, Westmont will play at Azusa Pacific tonight at 7 for first place in the Golden State Athletic Conference.

Todd Ramasar, a reserve guard on the UCLA basketball team, is scheduled to undergo shoulder surgery Monday that probably will keep him out for at least three months and may end his junior season.

Sunil Gulati, fired eight months ago as Major League Soccer’s deputy commissioner, returned to the league as managing director of Kraft Soccer Properties, which runs the New England Revolution and San Jose Clash. . . . Portugal was awarded the 2004 European soccer championships, beating out Spain and a joint bid from Austria and Hungary.