Safin’s Upset in Many Ways by Quick Loss to Di Pasquale

Marat Safin, tossing his racket in his trademark display of anger, lost, 6-3, 6-1, to Arnaud Di Pasquale of France on Tuesday in the first round of the Masters Series Monte Carlo at Monaco.

The Russian, seeded No. 1, conceded five service games, three at love, and was eliminated in 52 minutes.

“It was a disaster,” Safin said. “I couldn’t do anything today.”

Second-seeded Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil also had a tough time but outlasted Younes El Aynaoui of Morocco, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, to advance to the second round.

Fourth-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia was upset by Austrian qualifier Markus Hipfl, 5-7, 6-2, 7-5.

Safin is No. 1 in the ATP’s rolling 52-week ranking system thanks to last year’s performance in which he won seven titles. But he is No. 20 in the 2001 Champions Race, with no titles this season.

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Top-seeded Martina Hingis survived the cold and a first-set challenge to defeat Blanka Lamade of Germany, 7-6 (4), 6-1, in the second round of the Family Circle Cup at Charleston, S.C. . . . Top-seeded Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria advanced to the second round of the Budapest Grand Prix in Hungry, defeating Giulia Casoni of Italy, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.

Olympics

Organizers of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens have only “marginal” time left to finish construction projects on schedule, a top planner warned.

Yiannis Pyrgiotis, a member of the 2004 executive board, said some coordination problems could have been eased if the government had created a special Olympics ministry.

Athens has come under criticism from the International Olympic Committee for delays in key projects. Another reprimand is possible during an IOC inspection visit May 2-4.

Bjarte Engen Vik of Norway retired, ending a stellar career in which he won gold medals in Nordic combined at the Olympics and world ski championships.

Soccer

Spain’s Valencia and England’s Leeds reached the semifinals of the European Champions Cup at London.

Valencia got a header from striker John Carew to win, 1-0, and advance. Leeds lost, 2-0, to Deportivo la Coruna but advanced, 3-2, on aggregate.

New York-New Jersey MetroStar defender Daniel Hernandez will be sidelined at least six weeks after suffering a broken right kneecap. . . . Goalkeeper Adin Brown of the Colorado Rapids will join the U.S. national team at its training camp for a World Cup qualifying game April 25. The U.S. will face Costa Rica at Kansas City, Mo.

Jurisprudence

A former Utah football player was sentenced to a year in a Salt Lake City jail for beating a teenager on the head with a baseball bat at a party last fall.

Sean Patrick O’Keefe apologized for the assault that left Nathan Pehrson, 17, with multiple skull fractures, bleeding within the skull and several broken teeth.

Judge Paul Maughan told O’Keefe an apology was insufficient and ordered the 19-year-old to spend a year in the county jail.

Kentucky basketball player Marvin Stone was arrested and charged with public alcohol intoxication at Lexington, Ky. According to a Lexington police report, Stone, 19, was arrested early Saturday morning and booked into the Lexington jail. He was released later.

A German goalkeeper was released from a Singapore jail after serving 3 1/2 months because of a game-fixing scandal, but he hopes to resume his career in Europe. Lutz Pfannenstiel had been sentenced to five months but his term was reduced for good behavior.

Miscellany

The USC men’s basketball team received a letter of intent from Oxnard High forward Nicholas Curtis. A three-year starter, the 6-foot-8, 220-pound Curtis averaged 19.9 points, 14.8 rebounds and 3.6 blocks his senior season in leading Oxnard to a 25-4 record.

Paul Westphal was introduced as the Pepperdine basketball coach and met with junior guard Brandon Armstrong, who has made himself available for the NBA draft.

“He told me about his NBA experiences,” Armstrong said. “If I come back [to Pepperdine], he will push me to the limit. I’ve got nothing to lose going to NBA workouts, so time will tell.”

Armstrong, who averaged 22.1 points, does not have an agent and can decide to return to Pepperdine until a week before the draft.

The NCAA put Prairie View A&M;’s football program on one year’s probation for violations in 1998, when the Panthers ended an 80-game losing streak. Former coach Greg Johnson spent school funds on tuition and housing for a player who arrived midyear when he couldn’t use scholarship money that was available after other players left the program.

Mike Tyson, who says he wants a title bid against Lennox Lewis, will settle for David Izon on June 2 in Washington. The 10-round bout in the MCI Center will be announced shortly, a source close to the negotiations said. . . . The Washington Mystics changed point guards, sending Andrea Nagy to the New York Liberty in one WNBA trade and acquiring Annie Burgess from the Minnesota Lynx in another. . . . Jackie Stiles, who averaged 30.3 points for Southwest Missouri State and set an NCAA season scoring record, was named the top woman in college basketball and will vie for the overall Honda Award in June. . . . The U.S. defeated Slovakia, 6-2, to advance to the quarterfinals of the Under-18 World Hockey Championships at Lahti, Finland.