Serena Williams Wins It Quickly

Serena Williams took advantage of Denisa Chladkova’s weak second serve and easily defeated her, 6-1, 6-1, to win the $535,000 Faber Grand Prix Sunday at Hanover, Germany.

The top-seeded Williams needed 46 minutes to win the sixth title of her career. Chladkova, a Czech ranked 56th in the world, was playing in her first final of a significant tournament.

Williams, 18, ranked No. 4 in the world, had a harder time Saturday during her semifinal against 14th-ranked Amelie Mauresmo of France, needing three sets to win.

“I was really pushed to the limit yesterday against Amelie, and today that left me really sharp,” Williams said. “I think Denisa was a little nervous and tired out there today, but I have to give her credit for getting to the final.”

Williams broke Chladkova five times and won most of her own service games at love. At times, the crowd began clapping loudly for Chladkova, hoping the 21-year-old could make the match competitive.

Williams became the eighth different winner in eight women’s tournaments this season. She earned $87,000 for the victory after breaking $3 million in career earnings last week.

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Magnus Larsson of Sweden used a big serve to overcome mistakes and win his first title since 1994--and first in the United States--defeating Byron Black of Zimbabwe, 6-2, 1-6, 6-3, at the St. Jude tournament in Memphis, Tenn.

The 16th-seeded Larsson, 29, had 26 unforced errors to 16 for Black. But Larsson, who had a tournament-high 35 aces going into the final, had 16 more. Larsson played with tendinitis in his left knee.

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Cedric Pioline of France rallied for a 6-7 (3), 6-4, 7-6 (4) victory over Tim Henman of Britain to win the ABN AMRO World Tournament at Rotterdam, Netherlands. The fourth tournament victory of Pioline’s career took more than 2 1/2 hours.

Winter Sports

Spela Pretnar of Slovenia won her third consecutive World Cup slalom, defeating Kristina Koznick of the United States by .24 seconds at Are, Sweden.

Pretnar came from third in the first run to win the final slalom before the World Cup finals at Bormio, Italy, next month. Her fourth win in eight races gave her a 55-point lead in the slalom standings.

Pretnar had a two-run time of 1 minute 32.02 seconds. Koznick made the podium for the first time this season. Sweden’s Anja Paerson was third, .47 seconds behind.

Christer Saioni of France led Koznick by .03 seconds after the first run, but dropped to fourth overall, .51 seconds behind Pretnar. Saioni trails Pretnar, 556 points to 501, in the standings.

Matjaz Vrhovnik of Slovenia, one of the most consistent alpine skiers in the world, finally recorded his first World Cup event, winning a slalom race at Adelboden, Switzerland.

Vrhovnik, who had finished among the top 10 in every slalom this season and in the top five the previous four events, took the lead after the opening run.

He then registered a solid second effort to win with a two-run combined time of 1 minute, 42.10 seconds. That made him the fifth skier in five slalom races to earn his first career win.

World Cup slalom leader Kjetil Andre Aamodt of Norway, second after the first run, finished second at 1:42.31. Aamodt, the only skier who can still catch Hermann Maier in the chase for the overall World Cup points title, reduced the Austrian’s advantage to 346 points. Maier leads with 1,570 and Aamodt has 1,224.

World Cup leader Johann Muehlegg of Spain and Stefania Belmondo of Italy won the circuit’s newest and longest cross-country ski event, the Transjurassienne, at La Mothe, France.

Muehlegg dominated a field of 3,000 for his third World Cup victory of the season. He completed the 45-mile course in 3 hours 32 minutes 15.7 seconds, breaking away for good 15.5 miles from the finish.

Per Elofsson of Sweden finished second, 4:07.1 behind. Muehlegg increased his lead in the overall World Cup standings to 211 points with a total of 672. Tomas Alsgaard of Norway is second with 461.

Belmondo broke away about a half-mile from the finish for the 21st World Cup win of her career. She completed the 27-mile course in 2:27:11.1, finishing two seconds ahead of Kristina Smigun of Estonia.

Pontus Stahlkloo of Sweden defeated Guillaume Nantermod of Switzerland in a snowboard World Cup cross race at Sapporo, Japan, for his first victory this season. With the winner’s 1,000 points, Stahlkloo has 3,750 to lead the World Cup cross standings. Nantermod is second with 3,550. Karine Ruby of France won the women’s race. Carmen Ranigler of Italy was second.

Frank Luck of Germany scored a narrow victory and Magdalena Forsberg of Sweden won by more than a half-minute in individual pursuit events at the World Biathlon championships at Oslo, Norway.

Luck took the men’s 12.5-kilometer race by 3.3 seconds ahead of Russia’s Pavel Rostovtsev, who also won the silver medal in Saturday’s opening 10-kilometer sprint. Luck’s time was 33 minutes 21.9 seconds. Both he and Rostovtsev had two misses on the shooting range.

Third was World Cup leader Raphael Poiree of France. He was 15.1 seconds behind after three misses.

Forsberg won her fourth gold medal and her second at Holmenkollen in 31:53.8. She missed only two of 20 shots.

Pro Football

Former Minnesota Viking coach Les Steckel, an assistant with the Tennessee Titans the past five seasons, was the surprise choice as the new offensive coordinator of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Indianapolis Colt quarterback coach Bruce Arians, who has played a major role in the development of Peyton Manning, was believed to be the favorite to replace Mike Shula, who was fired after the Buccaneers failed to score a touchdown in an 11-6 loss to the St. Louis Rams in the NFC championship game.

The Arizona Cardinals outbid the Super Bowl champion Rams for starting center Mike Gruttadauria, who reportedly agreed to a four-year, $8.6-million deal. The contract includes a $1.7-million signing bonus and an annual salary of about $1.73 million.

The Pittsburgh Steelers have come to terms with New England Patriot backup defensive end Chris Sullivan on a three-year, $4.63-million contract.

The Steelers gave Sullivan a $1.29-million signing bonus, but only after tight end Mark Bruener reduced his $2-million salary and took a bonus to give the Steelers enough salary cap room to sign Sullivan.

The Denver Broncos agreed to terms on a contract extension with tackle Tony Jones, retaining the 12-year NFL veteran on their offensive line.

Miscellany

Wilson Kipketer broke the world indoor record for 1,000 meters for the second time in two weeks, and world record holder Maurice Greene survived a series of false starts to win the 60 meters in an invitational meet at Birmingham, England.

Running his final indoor race of the season, the Kenyan-born Kipketer, who competes for Denmark, was timed in 2 minutes 14.95 seconds, improving by .29 seconds the record he set at Stuttgart, Germany, on Feb. 6.

Greene had to get into the blocks eight times during his heat and 60 final. He was guilty of one of the false starts in the heats. The final was started five times, before Greene pulled away at the 30-meter mark and won in 6.47.

The UCLA women’s gymnastics team won its ninth consecutive UCLA Invitational, scoring a meet-record 196.925 points. Cal State Fullerton was second with 194.025.

Fifth-ranked UCLA (13-5) was led by senior Lena Degtova, who keyed a Bruin sweep of the four events and the all-around, repeating as beam, floor, and all-around champion. She set a UCLA Invitational record with her all-around score of 39.55.

Freshman Onni Willis recorded the first 10 in her career in the vault. Willis also tied for first in floor exercise with a UCLA Invitational record-tying 9.95.

China led all the way in winning the Beijing International Ekiden women’s road race in a preview of the Chinese lineup for the Sydney Olympics.

The six-member Chinese team covered the marathon course--which started and finished at Tiananmen Square--in 2 hours 15 minutes 49 seconds. Mexico was second at 2:18:31 and Ethiopia third at 2:18:57.

Paul Manasseh, who spent more than 40 years in professional and college athletics, including 12 as the sports information director at Louisiana State and four as the first public relations director of the Denver Broncos, died in Baton Rouge, La. He was 79.