U.S. Open Seedings Place Agassi No. 1, Sampras No. 4

For the first time since 1991, Pete Sampras was not included among the top three men’s seedings for the U.S. Open tennis championships, announced Monday.

Based on ATP tour entry system rankings, Sampras was fourth behind No. 1-seeded Andre Agassi, No. 2 Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil and No. 3 Magnus Norman of Sweden. The reigning Wimbledon champion, Sampras is No. 3 in the ATP champions race and had been seeded No. 1 at the Open since 1996.

It’s only the second time Agassi, the defending champion, has been top-seeded at the Open. It marks the ninth consecutive year that an American has had the men’s top seeding at the Open.

In the women’s seedings, the top five were Martina Hingis, Lindsay Davenport, Venus Williams, Mary Pierce and Serena Williams. Jennifer Capriati is No. 15, her first U.S. Open seeding since 1993.

Following Agassi and Kuerten in the men’s seedings are: Norman, Sampras, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Marat Safin, Thomas Enqvist, Alex Corretja, Lleyton Hewitt, Cedric Pioline, Tim Henman, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Franco Squillari, Nicolas Kiefer, Mark Philippoussis and Nicolas Lapentti.

Monica Seles is seeded sixth in the women’s singles, followed by Conchita Martinez, Nathalie Tauziat, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, Anke Huber, Sandrine Testud, Anna Kournikova, Amanda Coetzer, Dominique Van Roost, Capriati and Julie Halard-Decugis.

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Unseeded Carlos Moya of Spain beat countryman Albert Portas, 6-4, 6-3, in the opening round of the Hamlet Cup at Cammack, N.Y. Moya next will face another Spaniard, fourth-seeded Alex Corretja, who beat Andre Agassi on Sunday in the championship match in Washington.

Also, Andrei Pavel of Romania routed Justin Gimelstob, 6-4, 6-1 and Thomas Johansson of Sweden, who reached the round of 16 at Wimbledon this year, beat Alberto Martin of Spain, 6-1, 4-6, 6-1.

Top-seeded Magnus Norman, the defending champion, received a bye into the second round and will play Wednesday.

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Venus Williams begins defense of her Pilot Pen title today in New Haven, Conn., taking on Elena Likhovtseva in a second-round match after Likhovtseva beat Tathiana Garbin, 6-1, 6-3, in the first round. Also advancing was fifth-seeded Amanda Coetzer, who beat Karina Habsudova, 7-6 (2), 6-4.

Sixth-seeded Dominique Van Roost advanced with a 7-6 (2), 6-4 victory over Magdalena Maleeva.

Also advancing was Kristina Brandi, who beat qualifier Anne Kremer, 7-6 (3), 6-1. Meghann Shaugnessy defeated Ruxandra Dragomir, 6-4, 6-1 and Silvija Talaja beat Anne-Gaelle Sidot, 6-2, 5-7, 6-2.

Jurisprudence

Richard Duran, 34, who lost in International Boxing Federation junior featherweight and World Boxing Councin super bantamweight title bouts in 1993 and 1994, is scheduled to be arraigned today in Sacramento after being accused of beating a man to death outside a bar.

Artemio Cabrera, 36, died Aug. 13 after he tried to stop a brawl in a parking lot, police said.

Duran turned himself in after friends told him police were looking for him.

Olympics

The IAAF, which governs track and field, banned Linford Christie, the 1992 Olympic 100-meter champion, for two years after he tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone while running for fun 18 months ago. Christie, now retired, has proclaimed his innocence. He was to have gone to the Sydney Games as a coach for Great Britain, which probably will refuse him a credential.

The BBC kicked him off its broadcast team in response to the IAAF ruling.

An IAAF arbitration panel also imposed two-year bans on two more British athletes, European 200-meter champion Doug Walker and retired 400-meter hurdler Gary Cadogan. They also tested positive for nandrolone.

Former major leaguer Tim Raines, bidding to play for the United States at Sydney, will not make the team, according to Bob Watson, selection committee chairman.

The team is to be announced Wednesday by Watson and Manager Tom Lasorda.

Australian customs agents have seized 1,125 packages of performance-enhancing drugs in the last year, an increase of 16% over the previous year.

Anabolic and androgenic steroids made up the bulk of the haul, an official said.

More than 80% of the drugs were contained in postal packages from the United States, where some of the drugs are legally available over the counter in pharmacies.

Little League

Ruben Mavarez pitched a two-hitter to lead Maracaibo, Venezuela, past Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, 3-0, in the Little League World Series at Williamsport, Pa.

In other games, 6-foot-2, 231-pounder Julian Vandervelde hit a two-run homer to lead Davenport, Iowa, to a 5-0 victory over Goffstown, N.H.; Tokyo used two homers by Kazuma Yamada in a 9-8 victory over Toronto and Jay Ponciano pitched a two-hitter, and Dustin Corl hit a two-run homer to lead Vancouver, Wash., over Bellaire, Texas, 5-0.

Now that an Arizona team with five boys has won a Little League Softball World Series title, expect changes to be made before the 2001 tournament.

The organization’s board of directors will meet this week in Williamsport, Pa., where a major topic of discussion will be how the organization can prevent a recurrence of the controversy that swirled around this year’s event.

Critics had said the boys held an unfair physical advantage over many of the girls against which they played, and even posed a danger. There was no organized baseball program for the 16-year-old boys in Eloy, Ariz., to join, so they hooked up with the softball team, which lacked enough female participants.

Little League created what was intended to be an all-girls softball division in 1974, the same year it lost a New Jersey lawsuit forcing it to allow girls to play baseball. The organization’s official stance is that it would prefer for the softball division to be limited to girls.

Swimming

Cathy Ferguson, who as a 16-year-old from Burbank, won two swimming gold medals in the 1964 Summer Olympics, will be inducted into the L.A. Athletic Club’s Hall of Fame tonight.

She will be presented by Peter Daland, who coached USC to nine NCAA swimming titles.

The LACC also will honor 19 previously inducted Hall of Famers.

Names in the News

Right-hander Pete Montrenes, who was 5-1 with two saves and a 5.87 earned-run average in two seasons at USC, has transferred to Mississippi. . . . Arizona’s Loren Woods, a 7-foot-1 center recovering from two back operations, has been cleared to play basketball this season.