Sampras, Davenport, Agassi Win Easily in Face of Upsets

On a day when five seeded players fell, second-seeded Pete Sampras and Lindsay Davenport avoided the upset bug, cruising through their second-round matches Saturday in the Ericsson Open at Key Biscayne, Fla.

Top-seeded Andre Agassi also looked sharp, beating 17-year-old Floridian Andy Roddick, 6-2, 6-3.

Neither Sampras nor Davenport spent an hour on court before sending their opponents packing.

Sampras needed 53 minutes to score an easy 6-1, 6-4 victory over unseeded Carlos Moya of Spain, who came to this tournament last year as the No. 1 player in the world.

“The game that I played today was about as good as it gets,” Sampras said. “Today I didn’t really give a chance for Carlos to get in any sort of rhythm. I did what I wanted to.”

Davenport actually spent one minute more on court than Sampras in her 6-1, 6-2 victory over Anne Kremer of Luxembourg.

Failing to reach the third round were fourth-seeded Nicolas Kiefer of Germany, 12th-seeded Alex Corretja of Spain, 13th-seeded Albert Costa of Spain and women’s third-seeded Mary Pierce and eighth-seeded Julie Halard-Decugis of France.

Auto Racing

Sterling Marlin, winless in Busch Grand National competition for nearly 10 years, avoided a rash of crashes at Bristol, Tenn., to get back in the winner’s circle at the Cheez-It 250.

Marlin, starting 16th, pushed his way to the front and pretty much stayed there, leading 98 of the last 116 laps. It was his second career Busch victory. The other came in October 1990.

The hardest thing for Marlin, a Winston Cup regular who hasn’t won on the big circuit in nearly four years, was to stay free of the wreckage that always seems to pile up at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Marlin’s Chevrolet almost was taken out when Michael Waltrip tried to return to the track after spinning out on the backstretch on lap 207.

Then, 21 laps later, Marlin slipped by an accident between Busch points leader Matt Kenseth and defending champion Jason Keller.

But after each restart, Marlin surged to the front. He held on to defeat Jeff Green by .736 seconds.

Defending race and Formula One champion Mika Hakkinen of Finland won his second pole in as many tries this season, leading a McLaren sweep of the front row for the Brazilian Grand Prix at Sao Paulo.

Hakkinen, posting a speed of 129.746 mph, was joined on the front row by David Coulthard.

Qualifying for the first time as a member of the Penske team, Brazilian Gil de Feran earned the once-dominant team’s first pole in more than two years at Homestead, Fla.

The Brazilian driver earned the seventh pole of his CART career, turning a lap of 208.434 mph in qualifying for the season-opening Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami. Juan Montoya was .006 seconds behind.

Rookie Daniel Wheldon of England posted a qualifying speed of 124.870 mph and will start on the pole for today’s CART Toyota Atlantic Championship race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. . . . Mike Wallace won the pole for the Craftsman Truck Series Dodge California 250 in Bakersfield, driving his Ford F-150 94.394 mph at Mesa Marin Raceway. . . . A fire caused extensive damage at the rural North Carolina estate of retired NASCAR driver Ernie Irvan. No injuries were reported.

Jurisprudence

A lawyer for one of Baltimore linebacker Ray Lewis’ co-defendants, Joseph Sweeting, has moved to keep secret evidence that prosecutors turned over to attorneys for the three.

Prosecutors turned over boxes of evidence compiled against the three men on Friday. They wanted to file it with the court, which likely would make it public, the Baltimore Sun reported Saturday.

Lewis faces murder and assault charges in the deaths of Jacinth Baker, 21, and Richard Lollar, 24. Both men were fatally stabbed outside an Atlanta nightclub after the Super Bowl. Two of Lewis’ companions that night, Reginald Oakley, 31, and Sweeting, 34, also face murder and assault charges.

Bill Diehl, a high-profile domestic lawyer, has agreed to help defend former NFL player Rae Carruth in the custody and child support case filed against him.

David Rudolf, who is defending Carruth on a first-degree murder charge in connection with the shooting death of Cherica Adams, asked Diehl to help with the civil case.

Two Kentucky wide receivers, senior Garry Davis and freshman Brad Pyatt, were arrested Saturday morning after police broke up a late-night party in Lexington.

Miscellany

UCLA junior Rob Henkel struck out the first nine batters and finished with a school-record 18 strikeouts and catcher Forrest Johnson homered in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Bruins a 2-1 victory over Washington at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

Free agent punter Mark Royals re-signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, agreeing to a $3-million, three-year contract. Royals was third in the NFC last season with a club-record 43.1 yard average. . . . Free agent Glenn Parker, who helped the Kansas City Chiefs solve injury problems by playing both guard and tackle on each side of the line, has signed a seven-year contract with the New York Giants.

Oxford crew ended Cambridge’s seven-year winning streak by taking the 146th edition of The Boat Race on a windy, chilly day with choppy conditions on the s-shaped course on the Thames River at London.

Albany State has filed an official appeal with the NCAA to reduce the penalties the school’s athletic program was slapped with earlier this month. On March 9, the NCAA put Albany State on probation for five years, reduced its scholarships and banned the Division II school from postseason appearances in football and women’s basketball for two years for what the NCAA called major violations involving the number of scholarships offered from 1993-99.

About 300 German fans marched through downtown Berlin, protesting proposed laws to keep hooligans out of hosts Belgium and the Netherlands during the Euro 2000 soccer championships.

Atoning for a disappointing ninth-place finish in a downhill the day before, Daron Rahlves cruised to an easy victory in the men’s super-G at the U.S. Alpine Ski Championships at Jackson, Wyo.

Juan Zurita, who won the world lightweight boxing title in 1944 at Los Angeles, died Thursday at Mexico City after being in a coma for several days. He was 85.