Miami Gives Interim Coach Coker the Job

Larry Coker, 52, was hired as the coach of the Miami Hurricanes on Saturday, five days after Butch Davis resigned to become coach of the Cleveland Browns.

Coker, the Hurricanes’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach since 1995, will have a $650,000 annual salary, a university source said.

“Even if there had been 500 people, I knew I was going to get this job,” said Coker, who emerged as the leading candidate for the job when Wisconsin’s Barry Alvarez pulled out of contention Friday.

Coker was named the Hurricanes’ interim coach Monday and received strong endorsements from Davis, Miami players and several others, including Miami Dolphin Coach Dave Wannstedt.

Tennis

Second-seeded Lindsay Davenport defeated defending champion Martina Hingis of Switzerland, 6-7, (4), 6-4, 6-2, to win the Toray Pan Pacific Open title at Tokyo. Davenport leads their series, 13-10.

Seventh-seeded Roger Federer of Switzerland upset No. 2 Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia, 6-2, 6-7 (4), 6-3, in a semifinal of the Milan Indoor tournament. In today’s final, Federer will face Julien Boutter of France, a 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3) winner over Greg Rusedski of Britain.

Boxing

World Boxing Council champion Kostya Tszyu added a second piece of the 140-pound title to his collection, beating World Boxing Assn. champion Sharmba Mitchell at Las Vegas.

Mitchell quit on his stool at the end of the seventh round after apparently aggravating an injury in his left knee during one of many clinches with Tszyu (26-1-1 with 22 knockouts). Mitchell (47-3) had won 16 in a row.

Undefeated Hector Camacho Jr. completed a father-son sweep, outpointing Rocky Martinez in a 12-round super lightweight bout at Miami Beach, Fla. Hector “Macho” Camacho, the 38-year-old former world champion,

Baseball

Derek Jeter’s agent, Casey Close, and the New York Yankees made more progress on what will likely be a $189-million, 10-year contract, then recessed negotiations until next week. . . . Jose Valentin’s home run sparked Puerto Rico over Mexico, 7-4, and Venezuela defeated the Dominican Republic, 11-1, in the second day of competition of the 31st Caribbean Baseball Series at Culiacan, Mexico.

Miscellany

A Ferrari 333SP prototype overcame a series of mistakes to move back into contention halfway through the Rolex 24-Hours sports car endurance race at Daytona Beach, Fla. The pole-winning Ford Riley & Scott Mark III prototype of Englishmen James Weaver and Andy Wallace and American Butch Leitzinger saw its six-lap edge over the Ferrari shrink to three after 12 hours. . . . Kyrgyzstan upset Singapore, 1-0, and Kuwait beat Bahrain, 2-1, at Singapore on the opening day of Asian Group Four qualifiers for the 2002 Soccer World Cup. . . . Trey Holland was elected to a second one-year term as president of the U.S. Golf Assn. . . . Dimitri Kirilenko and David Kudelka scored shootout goals for the Long Beach Ice Dogs in a 5-4 victory over Bakersfield in a West Coast Hockey League game before 6,820 at Centennial Garden in Bakersfield.

Passings

Eddie Parker, the pool shark whose life was said to have inspired the movie “The Hustler,” died Friday of an apparent heart attack. (See Story, B7).