Haas Can’t Handle Pain, Pavel

Romania’s Andrei Pavel advanced to the final of the Tennis Masters Series-Canada when Germany’s Tommy Haas retired because of back spasms Saturday at Montreal.

Haas quit moments after Pavel broke him for the third consecutive time to take a 6-4, 5-0 lead.

“After I broke him in the first set, I thought his serve started to be a little bit slower and not as deep as at the beginning of the first set,” Pavel said.

He will face ninth-seeded Patrick Rafter in today’s final. Rafter defeated France’s Fabrice Santoro, 6-2, 6-2.

Costa Rica’s Juan Antonio Marin beat Hugo Armando, 6-3, 7-6 (3), to advance to the final of the San Marino clay-court tournament.

Marin will face seventh-seeded Markus Hipfl of Austria, a 7-6 (9), 3-6, 6-1 winner over Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko.

Adriana Gersi of the Czech Republic defeated sixth-seeded Cristina Torrens-Valero of Spain, 4-6, 7-6 (0), 7-5, to advance to the final of the $140,000 PreCon Ladies Open at Basel, Switzerland.

Gersi will meet 17-year-old Swiss wild card Marie-Gaiane Mikaelian.

Mikaelian continued her strong run by defeating Israel’s Anna Smashnova, 6-2, 6-2.

Soccer

Midfielder Mark Chung scored in the 78th minute to lead the New York/New Jersey MetroStars to a 2-1 victory over the Miami Fusion in an MLS game before 41,794 at East Rutherford, N.J.

The heated game between the two top teams in the Eastern Division included 40 combined fouls, six yellow cards and two red cards. The MetroStars improved to 10-7-3. Miami (12-4-5) holds an eight-point lead over New York/New Jersey.

In other MLS action, Josh Keller and Danny Pena scored first-half goals as the Tampa Bay Mutiny ended a six-game losing streak with a 2-0 victory over the San Jose Earthquakes before 11,064 at Tampa, Fla. . . . Ted Chronopoulos scored two goals to lead the New England Revolution to a 5-1 victory over the Dallas Burn before 10,326 at Foxboro, Mass. . . . John Wilmar Perez, Jeff Cunningham and Brian Maisonneuve scored as the Columbus Crew beat the Kansas City Wizards, 3-1, before 9,292 at Kansas City, Mo. . . . Jamar Beasley scored in the 40th minute as the Chicago Fire rallied to tie the Colorado Rapids, 1-1, before 10,122 at Denver.

In the WUSA, Charmaine Hooper scored twice in the final 10 minutes during a driving rain to lead the Atlanta Beat to a playoff-clinching 2-1 victory over the Washington Freedom before 8,854 at Washington.

Miscellany

Texans welcomed home three-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong with music and tributes in a celebration dubbed “Vive Lance! Austin’s Hometown Hero.”

Six days after Armstrong won the tour, the city remained in a festive mood as thousands of yellow-clad Armstrong fans gathered along a stretch of the city’s Town Lake that was converted into a concert venue.

Mihaela Melinte, the world-record holder in the hammer throw, was banned by Romania from competing in the Olympics for failing a drug test.

Soccer players Adrian Neaga and Cristian Buturuga also were barred from the 2004 Summer Games by the Romanian Olympic Committee. The Romanian bans apply only to the Olympics.

Adriana Behar and Shelda Bede beat fellow Brazilians Sandra Pires and Tatiana Minello, 21-16, 21-18, to retain their title at the World Beach Volleyball Championships at Klagenfurt, Austria.

In the men’s quarterfinals, Olympic champions Dain Blanton and Eric Fonoimoana lost to Christian McCaw and Rob Heidiger in straight sets.

The other American duo, Todd Rogers and Dax Holdren, lost to Mariano Baracetti and Martin Conde of Argentina.

Reggie Evans of Iowa scored 20 points to lead the United States to a 128-73 rout of South Korea at the under-21 World Basketball Championships at Saitama, Japan.

American Lou Del Valle and Bruno Girard of France fought to a 12-round draw Saturday in their World Boxing Assn. light-heavyweight title bout at Marseille, France.

Germany’s Wladimir Klitschko successfully defended his World Boxing Organization heavyweight title, stopping Charles Shufford in the sixth round at Las Vegas.