Hard-Serving Safin Masters Upstart Levy

Harel Levy’s attempt to become the first qualifier to win an ATP tournament in four years was stopped Sunday when Marat Safin defeated him, 6-2, 6-3, in the finals of the Tennis Masters Series-Canada tournament at Toronto.

Some of Safin’s serves reached 120 mph, and he needed only 54 minutes--not including two brief rain delays--to pick up his first Masters Series tournament victory and the $400,000 winner’s check.

Safin, seeded eighth, had upset Pete Sampras in the quarterfinals.

Levy more than doubled his lifetime earnings with the $211,000 runner-up prize.

The last qualifier to win an ATP tournament was Spain’s Roberto Carretero, four years ago at Hamburg, Germany.

Football

An MRI revealed that Minnesota receiver Randy Moss suffered only a bruised left shoulder and bruised ribs after hurdling a defender and landing out of bounds in a scary tumble that came at the end of a 55-yard pass play in Saturday night’s exhibition against New Orleans.

Moss is listed as day-to-day, and Coach Dennis Green said he won’t play again until he’s 100%.

Saints’ middle linebacker Charlie Clemons could miss the season opener against Detroit because of right leg injuries that will sideline him up to a month.

Rookie Joey Jamison, a wide receiver and kick returner who was drafted in the fifth round in April, was put on waivers by the Green Bay.

Olympics

Olympic-bound Jonathan and Charlie McKee of the U.S. won the last European Grand Prix regatta in the Olympic 49er class at Helsinki, but three-time world champions Chris Nicholson and David Phillips of Australia took the overall four-regatta victory. The McKees were second overall.

Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have written the International Olympic Committee, demanding that its athletes be invited to the Sydney Games. The IOC last fall suspended Afghanistan’s Olympic Committee on grounds that it can no longer function under the Taliban regime. Among other things, the IOC said the Taliban-run Olympic committee bans women from sports.

Miscellany

Ante Razov scored two goals for the Chicago Fire in a 3-1 win over the New York/New Jersey MetroStars in Major League Soccer at Chicago.

Razov headed in a goal in the 41st minute, then scored again in the 56th minute from near the edge of the box.

John Force earned his seventh victory of the season and moved back into the funny car points lead at the Fram Autolite Nationals in Sonoma. Force earned his 88th career victory when teammate Tony Pedregon fouled at the start in the all-Team Castrol Ford Mustang final round at Sears Point Raceway.

Doug Kalitta won for the third consecutive year at the event in top fuel, defeating Larry Dixon as he covered the quarter-mile in 5.247 seconds at a top speed of 274.33 mph. Kurt Johnson earned his second pro stock win of the season, defeating Allen Johnson in the final with a time of 6.974 seconds at 198.61 mph.

Dave Villwock, driving Miss Budweiser, won the Budweiser Unlimited Hydroplane Series race at Seattle, clinching the team’s 20th world championship. Villwock also won his fourth drivers’ title.

U.S. crews won two gold medals and two silver medals at the FISA world rowing championship for non-Olympic boat classes in Zagreb, Croatia. The medalists were in men’s lightweight eight (gold), men’s pair with coxswain (gold), women’s lightweight pair (silver) and men’s four with coxswain (silver).

A 15-year-old hockey player charged with giving a rival player a paralyzing injury in a game Nov. 3, 1999, reportedly was expected to plead guilty to a lesser charge today in Waukegan, Ill.

The Glenbrook North High student was charged with aggravated battery for knocking Neal Goss of New Trier High into the boards at the end of a junior varsity game in Gurnee.

Names in the News

Greg Buckner has re-signed with the Dallas Mavericks, getting a two-year, $2.3-million deal. . . . Rick Weaver, a former Miami Dolphin radio announcer and Florida’s sportscaster of the year 10 times, has died at 74 of colon cancer.