Seles, Williams Vie for Championship

Monica Seles advanced to her fifth final of the year Friday, beating Nathalie Tauziat, 2-6, 6-2, 6-1, in the Pilot Pen at New Haven, Conn.

Waiting for Seles is top-seeded Venus Williams, who has won three tournaments in a row beginning with Wimbledon, and who advanced with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Amanda Coetzer.

Tauziat, seeded third, has not beaten Seles in 10 tries, but did win her first set against her after Seles got off to a slow start.

“I just didn’t feel good out there at all. I was giving away so many games during the first set,” Seles said.

Seles said she can’t afford another slow start against Williams.

“I’ll have to come in with a very high level of tennis or else the match will be over very fast,” Seles said.

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Thomas Enqvist overcame Fabrice Santoro, 7-6 (4), 6-4, and top-seeded Magnus Norman beat Younes El Aynaoui, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3, to reach the semifinals of the Hamlet Cup at Commack, N.Y.

Richard Krajicek will meet Norman after winning when Carlos Moya withdrew because of tendinitis in his right big toe. Enqvist will play Arnaud Clement, a 6-3, 6-2 winner over Michael Chang.

Olympics

Sprinter Linford Christie, a gold-medal winner in 1992 and fighting a positive test for steroids, withdrew his application for a coaching credential for the British team at the Sydney Olympics.

Auto Racing

The throttle on Rusty Wallace’s Ford broke while qualifying, but he still turned a 125.477-mph lap, good enough for the pole for tonight’s goracing.com 500 over the 0.533-mile Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.

Rookie Kevin Harvick survived a two-lap shootout to cap a dominating performance in the NASCAR Busch Series’ Food City 250. Harvick started on the pole and led 241 of the 250 laps at Bristol.

Miscellany

Embattled John Huard resigned as coach of the Canadian Football League’s Toronto Argonauts, hours after the club’s embarrassing 51-4 home loss to the B.C. Lions.

Jardel, a Brazilian import at striker, scored in the 103rd minute of extra time to make Galatasaray a 2-1 winner over Real Madrid in soccer’s Super Cup at Monte Carlo.

Suzie McConnell Serio of the Cleveland Rockers won the WNBA’s Kim Perrot Sportsmanship Award.

Luxury cars belonging to Shaquille O’Neal, Dwight Gooden and Warren Sapp were stolen from a Tampa, Fla., stereo shop. Two were smashed up and the third was ditched with a flat tire.

Jurisprudence

A year after an investigation found evidence of racism in the South Florida women’s basketball program, Dione Smith, a former player, filed a lawsuit in Tampa, claiming blacks were singled out and segregated on the team.

The lawyer for a Thomas Junta, 42, charged with beating Michael Costin, 40, to death in an argument over their sons’ June 5 hockey game, has asked a Massachusetts court for Costin’s medical records to see if he had a preexisting medical condition that could have contributed to his death.

Names in the News

Stanford signed men’s basketball Coach Mike Montgomery to a three-year contract extension through the 2005 season. . . . North Carolina State has named vice chancellor Charles G. Moreland as interim athletic director, replacing Les Robinson, who resigned to take a position at The Citadel. . . . The Washington Capitals signed right wing Stephane Richer to a one-year contract. . . . The Boston Bruins re-signed left wing Joe Hulbig to a one-year contract. . . . The New York Islanders signed defenseman Branislav Mezei, a 19-year-old Slovakian who has been playing junior hockey in Canada.