Australia, France Lead in Cup

A 28-year-old rookie sparked Australia, and veteran Cedric Pioline powered France to leads in their Davis Cup semifinals.

Australia has a 2-1 lead over Russia at Brisbane, Australia, and France went up, 2-0, on Belgium at Pau, France, in their best-of-five series.

Lleyton Hewitt and Davis Cup rookie Wayne Arthurs gave Australia a 2-0 lead in singles. Arthurs, playing because of injuries to Pat Rafter and Mark Philippoussis, upset Yevgeny Kafelnikov, 6-2, 6-7 (4-7), 6-2, 6-0, after Hewitt had opened the series by defeating Marat Safin, 7-6 (7-0), 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.

In today’s doubles, Kafelnikov and Andrei Olhovskiy defeated Mark Woodforde and Sandon Stolle, 6-1, 6-4, 4-6, 4-6, 8-6, to cut Australia’s lead to 2-1.

At Pau, Sebastien Grosjean defeated Belgian teenager Xavier Malisse, 7-5, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3), and Pioline defeated Filip Dewulf, 6-3, 5-7, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

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Top-seeded Lindsay Davenport crushed fifth-seeded Amelie Mauresmo of France, 6-1, 6-1, to reach the semifinals of the Toyota Princess Cup at Tokyo.

Her opponent today will be seventh-seeded Amy Frazier, a 6-0, 6-4 winner over fourth-seeded Amanda Coetzer of South Africa.

Motor Sports

Rusty Wallace, having a great time qualifying, will occupy another front-row seat Sunday in the MBNA Gold 400 Winston Cup race at Dover, Del. After winning his second consecutive pole--with a track-record run at 159.964 mph--he wants his second victory of the season.

In winning his fourth pole of the season and 26th of his career, Wallace broke Bobby Labonte’s track record of 159.320, set in June for the MBNA Platinum 400.

CNN-SI reported that crew chief Ray Evernham is quitting after helping Jeff Gordon win three Winston Cup championships in the last four seasons.

Juan Montoya of Colombia, coming off his poorest qualifying effort of the season--16th at Laguna Seca--took the provisional pole in the opening round of qualifying for the Texaco Grand Prix of Houston. Montoya had a fast lap of 91.797 mph over the 1.527-mile, 10-turn course in downtown Houston.

Miscellany

William Joppy, completing his return from a broken neck suffered in an automobile accident, regained his World Boxing Assn. middleweight title when he stopped interim champion Julio Cesar Green in the seventh round at Washington.

In the evening’s other middleweight title fight at the MCI Center, Keith Holmes floored Andrew Council with a right to the head near the end of the ninth round before finishing off a unanimous decision to retain the World Boxing Council crown.

A senior International Olympic Committee executive delivered a blunt message to the White House drug advisor: Crack down on drugs in pro sports in the United States instead of criticizing the IOC.

IOC Vice President Dick Pound said in a letter to Barry McCaffrey, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, that he was troubled by McCaffrey’s attacks on the IOC’s plans for an anti-drug agency. McCaffrey called the project unacceptable because it lacks accountability and independence. He called the IOC untrustworthy and “byzantine.”

Oscar Pareja scored in the 70th minute to give the Dallas Burn a 1-0 victory over the New England Revolution in a Major League Soccer game before 9,273 at Foxboro, Mass. . . . USC defeated Duke, 2-0, after top-ranked Santa Clara defeated No. 2 North Carolina on an own goal, 1-0, in the Duke Adidas Women’s Soccer Classic at Durham, N.C.

Bob Hoffman, men’s basketball coach at Oklahoma Baptist for nine seasons, was hired as coach of Texas Pan American, replacing the dismissed Delray Brooks. . . . A minor league basketball team has announced its intention of playing at the Arrowhead Pond next year. The proposed ABA 2000 has awarded an Anaheim franchise to a group of Phoenix investors.