Norman Lives Up to Ranking

A day after taking over the No. 1 spot in the ATP Tour point standings, Magnus Norman proved he belonged there.

Norman continued his steady play when he defeated Gustavo Kuerten, a Brazilian with solid clay-court credentials, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, Sunday to win the $2.4-million Italian Open at Rome.

Norman, who overtook Andre Agassi atop the ATP Champions Race with his victory over Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt in the semifinals, showed he was ready to contend for the big tournaments with the victory.

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Count Conchita Martinez among the contenders again. The Spanish veteran won her 32nd career title with an a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Amanda Coetzer of South Africa in the German Open at Berlin.

Martinez, the 1994 Wimbledon champion, was overjoyed with the victory that lifted her to No. 3 in the Sanex WTA Tour rankings to be released today.

College Tennis

The USC men’s team advanced to the NCAA round of 16 by defeating No. 13 Fresno State, 4-1, in the second round of the tournament at Fresno. The No. 17 Trojans (18-8) rebounded from losing the doubles point to win all four singles matches. The key victory was at No. 6 singles, where Parker Collins, who had a 5-19 dual match record, defeated Nick Fustar, 6-2, 6-3, giving USC a 3-1 lead. The loss snapped the Bulldogs’ 28-match home winning streak.

Valentino Pest upset Sebastien Graeff, 6-1, 6-7 (3), 6-4, at No. 3 singles to propel No. 31 San Diego State to a 4-2 victory over eighth-ranked Pepperdine in their second-round match at Malibu.

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The No. 12 USC women’s team defeated Pacific 10 rival Arizona, 5-2, at USC to advance to the quarterfinal round of the NCAA tournament. The Trojans (17-8), who defeated Arizona (10-12) three times this season, will play No. 32 Louisiana State on Thursday at Pepperdine.

College Softball

UCLA’s softball team will begin its first step toward defending its national championship when it plays host to Canisius in the first round of the NCAA regionals Thursday at Easton Stadium.

The Bruins (39-11-1) are top-seeded in the six-team regional even though they finished third in the Pacific 10 behind Washington and Arizona, the top two teams in the nation. Canisius (33-22) won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament last week.

Long Beach State (39-21) was sent to UCLA as the third-seed team. The 49ers, who finished second in the Big West, will face fourth-seeded Florida State (48-25). Second-seeded Iowa (44-13) will play fifth-seeded Bethune Cookman (39-25) in the other game Thursday.

Cal State Fullerton and Cal State Northridge will travel for first-round games. The Titans (44-13), winners of the Big West, were seeded second and will face Texas (29-25-1) at Fresno. Northridge (26-24) was sent to Norman, Okla., and will play Arkansas (41-28).

Top-ranked Washington (56-7), which lost to UCLA in last year’s title game, and No. 2-ranked Arizona (53-7) will host regionals. Double elimination play will continue through Sunday, with the winners of each regional advancing to the College World Series.

Swimming and Diving

Ian Thorpe recorded his second world record within 24 hours--and his ninth overall--in a semifinal of the 200-meter freestyle at the Australian Olympic selection trials in Sydney.

The 17-year-old Thorpe, who set a new mark for the 400-meter freestyle Saturday night, returned to clock 1 minute 45.69 seconds to better his own mark by 0.31. Thorpe swam the 400 in 3:41.33, taking a half-second off his record.

Geoff Huegill opened the second day of the trials with a world record in the final of the 50-meter butterfly, a non-Olympic event. The 21-year-old clocked 23.6 seconds to take 0.08 off the record set by Russia’s Denis Pankratov in 1996.

Dimitry Sautin successfully defended his three-meter title at the FINA/USA Diving Grand Prix at Miami. Sautin, the 1996 Olympic gold medalist in the platform event, finished with 659.52 points to edge Wang Tianling of China, who had 648.96.

In the 10-meter women’s platform final, China’s Li Na edged Canada’s Emilie Heymans, 517.47-517.11, to win the gold medal.

Miscellany

The murder trial of linebacker Ray Lewis of the Baltimore Ravens is scheduled to begin today in Atlanta with jury selection.

He and co-defendants Reginald Oakley and Joseph Sweeting are charged with murder in the deaths of Jacinth “Shorty” Baker, 21, and Richard Lollar, 24.

Prosecutors contend Lollar and Baker argued with Lewis and his friends after they left a nightclub in Atlanta’s trendy Buckhead district following the Super Bowl. Lollar and Baker ran away after seeing their foes had knives, documents said, and Lewis, Sweeting and Oakley chased them down.

“Witnesses observed Lewis grab and punch Lollar in the chest area,” the documents read. “Sweeting, who was observed with a knife seconds earlier, also punched Lollar in the stomach. During the beating, Lollar was stabbed approximately four times.

After being vilified in Australia for the Olympic flame controversy, Kevan Gosper probably would like nothing more than to escape the spotlight. No such luck.

On Friday, the IOC vice president was forced to apologize for allowing his 11-year-old daughter to replace another girl as the first Australian torchbearer for the Sydney Games, prompting an uproar over perceived Olympic cronyism.

And now Australian newspapers have reported that Sydney organizers have dropped Gosper from all duties related to the torch relay. The reports came as Gosper awaited the results of an inquiry into allegations of misconduct stemming from the Salt Lake City scandal.

The IOC’s ethics commission was investigating whether Gosper violated rules on excessive travel and hospitality during Salt Lake’s winning campaign for the 2002 Winter Games.

Barbra Fontana and Lisa Arce came back through the losers’ bracket and won the first tournament of the new Beach Volleyball America Tour at Oceanside. They rallied from a 5-0 deficit to defeat Holly McPeak and beach newcomer Misty May, 15-13.

The top-seeded team of Annett Davis and Jenny Johnson Jordan won the third-place match, 15-0, over Nancy Reno and Linda Hanley.

South Korea’s Cho In-joo won a unanimous decision over Mexico’s Julio Cesar Avila in Seoul to retain the World Boxing Council super-flyweight title. It was Cho’s fifth defense of the title he won from Gerry Penalosa of the Philippines on Aug. 29, 1998. . . . Panama stopped Jamaica’s five-year home unbeaten streak in soccer, winning, 1-0, at Montego Bay on Roberto Brown’s goal in the 33rd minute. Jamaica’s previous loss was 2-1 to Cuba, also at Montego Bay, in the 1995 Caribbean Cup. . . . Defending world champion Alex Criville of France overtook Norick Abe of Japan on the final lap to win the French Motorcycle Grand Prix at Le Mans. American Kenny Roberts, who finished sixth, leads in points, 90-80, over Spain’s Carlos Checa in the 500cc division.