Rusedski Has That Winning Feeling and Defeats Agassi

Greg Rusedski knew after the first point that he was going to defeat Andre Agassi.

Using an overpowering serve that reached 139 mph, the British left-hander upset the Australian Open champion, 6-3, 6-4, Sunday in the final of the $400,000 Sybase Open at San Jose.

“The way I was thinking and serving out there, I was in command,” Rusedski said.

Rusedski, seeded eighth in the indoor tournament, earned his 10th career title. He had not won a final since October 1999 in Vienna.

The top-seeded Agassi, who had trouble with his first serves, lost for the first time this season, putting his record at 11-1. He was playing in his first tournament since winning the Australian Open.

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Lindsay Davenport defeated Meghann Shaughnessy, 6-2, 6-3, to win the State Farm Classic at Scottsdale, Ariz. . . . Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil beat Galo Blanco of Spain, 6-4, 6-2, to win the men’s title in Mexican Open at Acapulco. Amanda Coetzer of South Africa won the women’s title by defeating Elena Dementieva of Russia, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2.

Football

Marcellus Wiley, a free-agent defensive end and the top pass rusher on the market, agreed to a $40-million, six-year deal with the San Diego Chargers. The deal includes a signing bonus of $9 million.

Wiley led the Buffalo Bills with 10 1/2 sacks and also made 65 tackles last season.

Wiley, who grew up in Compton and attended Santa Monica High, is due in San Diego today to take a physical and sign the deal, his agent, Brad Blank, said.

The New Orleans Saints agreed to terms with free-agent wide receiver Albert Connell. . . The Cleveland Browns signed free-agent linebacker Dwayne Rudd to a five-year contract. . . . Carolina safety Mike Minter decided not to test the free-agent market, choosing to re-sign with the Panthers.

The XFL’s TV rating declined for the fourth consecutive week.

NBC got a 2.7 overnight rating and 5 share based on 49 major markets for Saturday night’s telecast of the game between the Xtreme and the New York/New Jersey Hitmen.

The league debuted last month with an overnight rating of 10.3, then dropped to 5.1, 3.8 and 2.9 in the succeeding weeks.

A plan to have the XFL sign some players directly out of high school was criticized by Grant Teaff, the head of the American Football Coaches Assn., who said that his organization would do everything it could to oppose it.

LeShon Johnson scored on a two-yard run with 19 seconds left as the Chicago Enforcers (1-4) defeated the Las Vegas Outlaws (3-2), 15-13, before 15,281 at Chicago. . . . Backup quarterback Brian Kuklick threw for 207 yards and a touchdown, and Jay Taylor kicked a go-ahead field goal in the fourth quarter to lead the Orlando Rage (5-0) to a 21-19 victory over the Memphis Maniax (2-3) before 16,176 at Memphis.

Winter Sports

Hermann Maier won a World Cup super-G title race in 1 minute, 28.58 seconds at Kvitjell, Norway, to clinch the World Cup title. Daron Rahlves of the U.S., the world super-G champion and winner of back-to-back downhills on the same course last year, was disqualified after hitting a gate about halfway down the run.

Martin Schmitt of Germany won his fifth World Cup ski jumping event of the season at Oberstdorf, Germany, edging Adam Malysz in one of the closest competitions in the event’s history. Schmitt jumped 200 meters to finish with 395.0 points, defeating Malysz, who had 394.6 points.

Anni Friesinger of Germany set a world record in the women’s World Cup 1,500-meter speedskating event at Calgary, Canada. Friesinger finished in 1 minute 54.38 seconds, well under the previous mark of 1:55.50 set in 1999 by Annamarie Thomas of the Netherlands.

Claudia Pechstein of Germany was second and Jennifer Rodriguez of the U.S. finished third.

Kristian Hammer of Norway won a World Cup Nordic Combined event at Sapporo, Japan in 38 minutes 8.2 seconds. Samppa Lajunen of Finland was second. . . Henrik Eriksson of Sweden won the 90-kilometer Vasaloppet cross-country ski race at Mora, Sweden. . . . Austria’s Alexander Maier benefited from a fall by Gilles Jaquet of Switzerland to win a World Cup parallel giant slalom snowboard race at Park City, Utah. Steffi Von Siebenthal of Switzerland won the women’s competition.

Miscellany

Australian Grand Prix chief Ron Walker said cables designed to secure tires to Jacques Villeneuve’s race car failed, allowing all four to fly off during an accident that killed a volunteer marshal during Saturday’s race.

Walker said the cables broke on impact and one of the tires struck and killed the marshal.

But Walker denied that Formula One safety regulations need to be upgraded as a result of the man’s death, and said all precautions were taken in the season-opening race won by Michael Schumacher.

“Safety in F1 happens to be of paramount importance,” Walker said. “We had a mechanical failure. In terms of track safety, we give an absolute assurance to you that everything was done in accordance with what we were told to do.”

Three-time Iditarod winner Jeff King was the first musher out of the chute at Willow, Alaska, at the official start of the 1,100-mile race that pits 68 dog teams against the elements and each other. . . . Hector “Macho” Camacho, a former World Boxing Council super-featherweight and lightweight champion, was arrested at a New York nightclub on charges of cocaine possession. . . . Ted Musgrave squeezed the last few ounces of fuel out of his Dodge to win the NASCAR truck series race at Homestead, Fla., averaging 118.176 mph for the 250.5-mile distance. . . . Ralph Barahona scored with less than two minutes remaining to give the Ice Dogs a 4-3 victory over Fresno in a West Coast Hockey League game before 4,670 at the Long Beach Arena.