Pierce Impressive in Defeat of Seles

Top-seeded Mary Pierce played near-flawless tennis on Saturday to overwhelm third-seeded Monica Seles and earn a berth against Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in today’s final of the Family Circle Cup at Hilton Head Island, S.C.

The Frenchwoman defeated Seles, 6-1, 6-1, in 44 minutes and Sanchez Vicario, the 1996 champion, defeated second-seeded and fellow Spaniard Conchita Martinez, 7-5, 7-5, at Sea Pines Racquet Club.

Pierce, ranked fourth in the world, has dropped only 11 games in four matches.

Pierce slugged 25 winners and committed only two unforced errors. She also delivered six aces with no double faults, and ended the match with a 114-mph ace, her fastest serve ever.

“I just felt really flat out there and Mary didn’t give me any breaks to really kind of get myself together,” Seles said.

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Cedric Pioline of France overwhelmed Moroccan Karim Alami, 6-3, 6-1, and will play Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia today for the championship of the Monte Carlo Open in Monaco. Hrbaty, who had upset top-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov earlier in the tournament, defeated Gaston Gaudio of Argentina, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2, in the other semifinal.

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The UCLA men’s team upset top-ranked Stanford, 5-2, in a nonconference matchup at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.

Soccer

Kenyan fans rioted at Nairobi, causing a World Cup qualifier to be abandoned with several minutes remaining.

Fans in the crowd of 20,000 threw bottles and stones on the field and ripped out seats in Moi International Stadium. Kenya, which lost the opener of the home-and-home, total-goals series, 2-0, on April 8, was scoreless in injury time against Malawi.

Players came off the field only after tear gas was fired into the crowd, and small fires were started around the 60,000-seat stadium.

Azmy Hisham, the match official from FIFA, the world governing body of the sport, stopped the game for the “protection of players and officials.” FIFA will decide how to determine the series’ outcome at a later date.

Manchester United clinched its sixth English Premier League title in eight years, winning 3-2 at Southampton.

Miscellany

The Oahu Bowl and Aloha Bowl college football games, played on Christmas Day the last two seasons, will be played on separate days this year at Honolulu. The Oahu Bowl will be played on Christmas Eve, and the Aloha Bowl on Christmas Day. . . . Jim Kubiak threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Jason Shelley with 1 minute, 47 seconds left in overtime to give the Amsterdam Admirals a 23-20 home victory over Rhein Fire in NFL Europe.

Mark Ruiz warmed up for the Olympic trials by winning his second and third titles of the U.S. National Indoor Diving Championships at Minneapolis. Ruiz edged David Pichler in the 10-meter platform. The two then teamed up to win the platform synchronized title. On the women’s side, Kathy Pesek beat Jenny Keim in the 10-meter platform.

UCLA’s Tracy O’Hara set an NCAA record with a pole vault of 14-7 1/4 as the Bruin women finished second to Texas in the USTCA national team championships at Austin, Texas. USC finished eighth. Texas also won the men’s competition, with USC placing fifth and UCLA seventh.

Heavyweight boxer Andrew Golota stopped Marcus Rhode in the third round at Guangzhou, China.

Outgoing New Jersey Devil owner John McMullen has confirmed that he has joined with John Elway, Denver Bronco owner Pat Bowlen and others in an effort to buy the Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets.

Ohio State basketball center Ken Johnson, the nation’s leading shot blocker last season at 5.37 a game, was granted another season of eligibility by the NCAA. Johnson didn’t meet Proposition 48 academic requirements his freshman year. But the the NCAA can grant a fourth season of eligibility if a player has a learning disability and has completed 75% of a degree program after four academic years.

Justin Su’a hit a two-run home run in the sixth inning and Nelson Caraballo pitched a three-hitter and struck out nine as West Torrance defeated Lakewood, 3-1, in the championship game of the Redondo Beach high school baseball tournament at Redondo Union.