An Early Exit for Sampras

Pete Sampras’ recent troubles continued Wednesday night when he was upset in the second round of the Tennis Masters Series-Cincinnati by Alberto Martin, a 22-year-old Spaniard who has more career losses than wins.

“I didn’t serve well. I didn’t really do much of anything,” Sampras said. “It really was a disappointing performance.”

Sampras has gone 16 tournaments without a title, his longest drought since he won his first ATP title in 1990.

Martin broke Sampras’ serve in the fifth game of both sets in winning, 6-4, 6-4. “My first two serves, I didn’t serve too consistent,” Martin said. “After the break I could relax a little bit.”

Four seeded players, including No. 9 Sampras, were eliminated, leaving just six of the initial 16.

Hicham Arazi beat fourth-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero, 6-7 (1), 6-4, 6-4; James Blake beat No. 10 Arnaud Clement, 7-5, 6-4; and Ivan Ljubicic beat No. 13 Carlos Moya, 7-6 (5), 7-5.

Basketball

Caron Butler of Connecticut scored 21 points and keyed a third-quarter run to help the United States defeat Israel, 98-74, to earn a berth in the quarterfinals in the World Basketball Championship for Young Men at Saitama, Japan.

Carlos Boozer of Duke had 16 points for the U.S., which improved to 5-0 in the 12-nation tournament for players aged 21 and under.

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Former Denver Nugget star Kiki Vandeweghe will become the team’s general manager. . . . Shawn Bradley, fifth in the NBA in blocks last season, signed a seven-year contract with the Mavericks. Earlier this week, Bradley was granted German citizenship. He was born in Germany and will join Dallas teammate Dirk Nowitzki on the national team .... Seattle SuperSonic forward Vin Baker underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee.

Hockey

Four Kings--center Bryan Smolinski, left wing Adam Deadmarsh and defensemen Mathieu Schneider and Aaron Miller--are among 37 players invited to the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team orientation camp, Sept. 4-7, in Colorado Springs, Colo.

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Boston forward Bill Guerin was awarded the second-largest amount in NHL arbitration history, a one-year, $5.1-million contract.

Guerin had asked for about $6 million for one year, while the Bruins offered half that. The biggest arbitration award, $7 million, went to Philadelphia forward John LeClair last year.

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Miroslav Satan, a forward with the Buffalo Sabres, was awarded a two-year, $6.8 million contract by an NHL arbitrator

Sweden added three NHL play ers to its Olympic team: Calle Johansson of Washington, Niklas Sundstrom of San Jose and Per-Johan Axelsson of Boston.

Miscellany

Sean Townsend cruised to a big lead in the all-around preliminaries, winning three of the six events at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships at Philadelphia. His score of 54.175 is 1.050 points ahead of Brett McClure, a huge lead going into the finals.

Townsend won the floor exercise, still rings and parallel bars, and was second in vault.

McClure was second with 53.125 points, and Jason Furr was third with 52.550. Daniel Diaz-Luong and Sanjuan Jones were tied for fourth with 51.825.

The women’s competition begins today.

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Landon Donovan had two goals as the San Jose Earthquakes beat the New England Revolution, 5-1, in an MLS game before 11,822 at Foxboro, Mass.

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Texas wide receiver Kyle Shanahan slipped while trying to hop over a backyard fence at his home in Austin and was speared in the leg by an iron post.

Shanahan underwent two hours of surgery to clean and repair his quadriceps muscle after Saturday’s accident, the university said in a statement released Wednesday.

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An arrest warrant for misdemeanor battery was issued at Athens, Ga., for Georgia defensive end Bruce Adrine over a barroom fight last month that left a female student with a black eye and stitches.

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Commissioner Steve Ryan announced the launch of the Major Indoor Soccer League. The MISL replaces the National Professional Soccer League, which disbanded for financial reasons this week.

The original MISL was the first professional indoor soccer league in North America, operating from 1978-1992 in 26 cities.

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Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, owner of the Seattle Seahawks and the Portland Trail Blazers, is giving $10 million to telecommunications billionaire Craig McCaw’s yachting syndicate, OneWorld Challenge, which will compete to represent the U.S. in the next America’s Cup.

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The University of Oregon will not limit TV stations’ rights to show football highlights, the school said. It was considering restricting stations to only 20 seconds of highlights from Duck games, but that proposed policy drew almost entirely negative reaction from national media groups when it was announced in June.

Passings

Gary W. Burke, chairman of the Thoroughbred Owners of California, died Tuesday of an apparent heart attack at his hotel in Del Mar.