Cardiologist Says Brodie Is Progressing From Stroke

The primary physician treating John Brodie said Thursday that the former San Francisco 49er quarterback is making slow but steady progress from a major stroke.

“He is in very serious but stable condition,” said Khoi Le, a cardiologist at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage. “He is fully alert and very interactive with his family. Mr. Brodie has very supportive family and friends.”

Brodie, 65, was hospitalized early Tuesday. Le said Brodie’s symptoms first appeared Monday night while he was watching the Miami Dolphin-New York Jet game.

An emergency procedure was performed by Brian Herman, an interventional neuroradiologist at Eisenhower, to open two blocked vessels, Le said, calling the procedure successful.

Tennis

U.S. Open champion Marat Safin of Russia, seeded No. 1, got a scare from Gianlucca Pozzi of Italy before winning, 6-1, 7-5, in the second round of the Kremlin Cup at Moscow. On the women’s side, top-ranked Martina Hingis of Switzerland defeated Olympic silver medalist Elena Dementieva of Russia, 6-0, 6-7 (5), 7-5, to reach the semifinals.

Second-seeded Thomas Enqvist of Sweden defeated Jerome Golmard of France, 6-4, 6-2, and third-seeded Lleyton Hewitt of Australia eliminated Andreas Vinciguerra of Sweden, 6-3, 7-5, to advance to the quarterfinals of the Swiss Indoors tournament at Basel, Switzerland.

Monica Seles will join Lindsay Davenport as part of the U.S. Fed Cup team that will play next month in Las Vegas, captain Billie Jean King announced. Whether Venus and Serena Williams form the other half of the team is still uncertain because the two sisters are going to fashion school in Florida, King said. . . . Pete Sampras, recently married to actress Brigette Wilson, has withdrawn from the next two Tennis Masters Series events, at Stuttgart and Paris, but plans to play in the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup at Lisbon, beginning Nov. 27.

Miscellany

The Los Angeles entry in the new XFL football league, the Xtreme, drew the No. 1 pick by lot and will make its choice in the first of three days of drafting Saturday in Chicago. The Xtreme, a member of a projected eight-team league that will begin play in February, has territorial draft rights to all former USC, UCLA and San Diego State players and is expected to make former Bruin quarterback and NFL player Tommy Maddox one of its early picks. The Xtreme will play home games in the Coliseum.

Oregon State’s Emonte Jernigan will be sidelined for about six weeks of the basketball season because of a broken toe in his left foot.

The NCAA’s Division I Management Council gave initial approval this week to proposals that would shorten the college basketball schedule and permit student-athletes to accept compensation for athletic participation. They were two of more than 100 proposals acted on during the council’s meetings in Indianapolis. . . . Gambling regulators meeting in Carson City outlined wide-ranging proposals to increase oversight of Nevada’s legal bookies and ward off federal legislation to stop betting on college sports.

A public memorial service for former USC men’s track coach Vern Wolfe will be held Nov. 9 at 3:30 p.m. in the United University Church on campus.

As organizers unveiled details of next year’s Tour de France, more revelations about doping in the sport were being aired in a French courthouse where cycling ace Richard Virenque and nine former officials from the Festina team are standing trial on doping charges. Testifying in Lille, a former rider for the Banesto team told a court that there was medically supervised doping of team cyclists that included the banned drug EPO. . . . Germany, the Olympic gold medalist, held off a strong challenge from Britain to win the 4,000-meter team pursuit in the World track cycling championship at Manchester, England. . . . Duke University lawyers asked a judge to set aside a jury award of $2 million to Heather Sue Mercer, who complained of discrimination after being cut from the football team.