Davenport Finally Manages to Stop Venus Williams

Lindsay Davenport ended Venus Williams’ winning streak at 35 matches, stopping a run that lasted more than four months, going back to the French Open.

“One loss after 35 wins is not that bad,” Williams said Sunday after the 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 defeat in the final of the Generali Ladies Open at Linz, Austria. “I have only lost four matches this year.”

It was Davenport’s first victory against Williams in almost a year, yet she said she had not thought much about the streak.

“She’s had a great run,” Davenport said.

Williams often outran her opponent, but did not outplay her. She said her first serve often let her down.

“I played good tennis, but she had all the answers,” Williams said.

Williams, who won the Olympic gold medal in Sydney, lost for the first time since June 6 at the quarterfinals of the French Open. Entering this match, Williams had beaten Davenport five of the last six times, including the Wimbledon and U.S. Open finals.

Meghann Shaughnessy waited out a rain delay and won the Heineken Open by defeating Iroda Tulyaganova of Uzbekistan, 7-6 (2), 7-5, in the women’s final at Shanghai. The rain returned to halt the men’s final between defending champion Magnus Norman of Sweden and Sjeng Schalken of the Netherlands. Norman won the first set, 6-4, and Schalken took the second by the same score.

Alex Corretja won his fifth title of the year by defeating Spanish countryman Carlos Moya, 6-3, 6-2, in the final of the Toulouse Open at France.

Boxing

Andrew Golota remained hospitalized at Resurrection Medical Center on Chicago’s northwest side after suffering a concussion and a neck injury in his fight Friday against Mike Tyson.

“He got hurt, he got injured and it’s probably the smartest thing he did,” Mariola Golota said of her husband’s refusal to go out for the third round Friday night of the fight at the Palace of Auburn Hills in Michigan.

Dr. Wesley Yapor, a neurosurgeon treating Golota, said the fighter sustained a concussion, a fractured left cheekbone and a herniated disk between the fourth and fifth cervical vertebrae.

Services for Erik Goossen, the San Fernando Valley fighter killed in a car accident last Wednesday, will be held Tuesday at St. Francis De Sales Church, 13370 Valleyheart Drive, Sherman Oaks, beginning at 11 a.m. Burial will follow between 12:30 and 1 p.m. at Forest Lawn Cemetery.

Goossen, 32, died when the car in which he was a passenger struck a tree in a one-car crash in Sherman Oaks.

Erik Goossen fought in several weight divisions in the late 1980s, finishing with a 7-1 record. He is a member of the boxing Goossen family, which includes Erik’s father Pat, a trainer; his uncle Dan, a promoter; his uncle Joe, a trainer; and brothers P.J. and Chuck, both fellow boxers.

A featherweight boxer who collapsed after a 10-round fight was in a coma and in critical condition after brain surgery in a Boston hospital.

Robert Benson, 26, of Saugus, Mass., who competes under the ring name Bobby Tomasello, had just fought Steve Potse of Ghana to a 10-round draw Friday night in Boston when he collapsed in his dressing room.

Benson underwent surgery Saturday morning to remove a blood clot, relieve swelling and stop bleeding in his brain.

Miscellany

Jury selection begins today in the trial of former Carolina Panther wide receiver Rae Carruth, who is charged, along with three other men, in the murder of his girlfriend, Cherica Adams.

Adams, 24, was seven months pregnant when she was hit by four bullets as she sat in her BMW on a dimly lit Charlotte street. She gave birth by emergency Caesarean section that same night to a baby boy, named Chancellor, fathered by Carruth. She died of her injuries a month after the Nov. 16 shooting.

Front-row seats for events at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City may soon be unavailable. Tuesday midnight is the deadline for early ticket purchases, which will be given preferential treatment for seat assignments.

Tickets are going fast, according to the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, which said more than $40 million worth have been sold to U.S. buyers since applications opened Oct. 10.

Khalid Khannouchi, still disappointed at not being able to represent the United States in the Sydney Olympics, set the U.S. men’s marathon record by winning the Chicago Marathon in 2 hours 7 minutes 1 second. The time easily beat both the U.S. unofficial and official records: Bob Kempainen ran a 2:08:47 at Boston in 1994, but it wasn’t recognized because it was done on a point-to-point course; David Morris ran a 2:09:32 at Chicago last year. . . . Tefay Eticha won the Lausanne Marathon in Switzerland. Irina Kazakova of France won the women’s race.

The Philadelphia 76ers lost rookie point guard Craig “Speedy” Claxton for the season after he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during Sunday’s exhibition game against the Utah Jazz. Claxton was the 76ers’ top draft pick out of Hofstra.