It’s No Upset on Paper, as Enqvist Defeats Agassi

Old nemesis Thomas Enqvist of Sweden defeated Andre Agassi again Saturday, upsetting the world’s top-ranked player, 6-3, 4-6, 6-0, in the semifinals of the Eurocard Open at Stuttgart, Germany.

Enqvist will play defending champion Richard Krajicek of the Netherlands, who defeated Greg Rusedski of Britain, 6-4, 6-4.

Enqvist is 4-2 in his career against Agassi.

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In all-French semifinals, top-seeded Mary Pierce defeated Amelie Mauresmo, 7-5, 6-3, and Sandrine Testud cruised to a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Sarah Pitkowski in the Generali Ladies tournament at Linz, Austria.

Winter Sports

Timothy Goebel, 19, of Rolling Meadows, Ill., became the first figure skater to hit three quadruple jumps in one program, but he still finished second to two-time world champion Alexei Yagudin of Russia at Skate America in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Goebel, the first American to complete a quadruple in competition last year, nailed a quad salchow-triple toe loop combination, a quad toe loop and a solo quad salchow.

“It’s like hitting three grand slams in one game,” Goebel said. “One is awesome. Two is rare, and three has never been done.”

Michelle Kwan had a pretty good skate too, getting a 6.0 for artistry despite a fall. She easily captured her fourth title at this first major international competition of the season.

In the pairs, Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier pulled off a stunning upset, defeating two-time world champions Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze in pairs.

All three American couples struggled. U.S. champs Danielle and Steve Hartsell messed up a death spiral when she lost an edge and her brother fell on top of her. They wound up last out of eight. Kyoko Ina and John Zimmerman were fifth, a spot ahead of Tiffany Scott and Philip Dulebohn.

There was an upset of lesser proportions in ice dancing, where veterans Barbara Fusar-Poli and Maurizio Margaglio defeated Russians Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh. American champions Naomi Lang and Peter Tchernyshev were third.

Jennifer Rodriguez, a converted roller-blade skater from Miami, won her second consecutive 500-meter race at the U.S. speedskating team’s fall World Cup qualifier at West Allis, Wis. For the second consecutive day, Kip Carpenter of Brookfield, Wis., defeated his brother, Cory, in the men’s 500-meter race.

China’s Yang Yang sprinted past Canada’s Annie Perrault on the second lap and went on to win the women’s 500-meter race at the short- track speed skating World Cup at Provo, Utah.

Switzerland’s Sonja Nef won the season’s opening World Cup giant slalom at Tignes, France, for her first career triumph in the discipline.

Auto Racing

Jeff Green won his fourth Busch Series pole of the year at the inaugural Sam’s Town 250 at Memphis (Tenn.) Motorsport Park.

Green, currently third in the points standings, went around the three-quarter-mile circuit in 22.630 seconds at 119.311 mph.

American Kenny Roberts cut more than two seconds from his best provisional time in winning the 500cc pole position with a fast lap of 1 minute 44.354 seconds for the season-ending Argentine Grand Prix motorcycle race at Buenos Aires.

Two-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher won his 23rd career pole in the season-ending Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka with a lap in 1:37.470. Schumacher could be a valuable blocker for point leader and Ferrari teammate Eddie Irvine, who leads the No. 2 qualifier, Mika Hakkinen, by four points entering the race.

Miscellany

Robert De La Cruz of Cathedral High set a state record for career touchdown passes in the Phantoms’ 56-20 Camino Real League victory over Santa Monica St. Monica Saturday. De La Cruz completed 29 of 44 passes for 411 yards and six touchdowns, giving him 112 touchdowns for his career to break the mark of 107 set last year by Chris Lewis of Long Beach Poly. De La Cruz set a state record last season with 61 touchdown passes in 13 games for Cathedral, a Southern Section Division XI school. He has 43 in eight games this season.

A teenage soccer fan was killed when he was struck by a flare fired by a supporter of a rival team during a match between Yugoslavia’s top two clubs at Belgrade, the Tanjug news agency reported. Red Star fans, angry at the flare believed to have been fired by someone on the Partizan side, smashed hundreds of seats in the stands before police restored order. At least 146 people were arrested. But the match continued before about 30,000 fans. Partizan won 2-0.