Capriati Wins to Reach Final

The German Open women’s tennis tournament was supposed to be a showdown between Martina Hingis, Venus Williams and Jennifer Capriati.

No one told Amelie Mauresmo of France or Justine Henin of Belgium.

Mauresmo took care of the top-ranked Hingis, 3-6, 6-0, 6-4, in Saturday’s semifinals at Berlin, while Henin came close to ousting the other two stars single-handedly.

Henin, who had already upset Williams, suffered a sprained ankle against Capriati and retired in a dramatic end to a close match against the No. 4-ranked American.

Capriati was in front, 6-2, 4-6, 2-1, with the 18-year-old Henin leading, 40-30, in the fourth game when she slipped while lunging for a deep shot at the clay-court event.

“I thought I could win this match, but it’s still good for my game--now I know I can beat anyone,” said Henin, who will rise to 16th in the rankings.

With his clay-court form peaking, defending French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten rolled into the Italian Open final at Rome with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Andreas Vinciguerra of Sweden.

The wiry Brazilian overpowered the big-swinging 20-year-old in only 70 minutes and showed why he’s the clear favorite to repeat at Roland Garros this month.

Kuerten will face rising clay-court star Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain, who has yet to lose a set in the tournament and eliminated Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador, 6-3, 6-3, in the other semifinal.

Jurisprudence

Derrick Chievous, a former Missouri basketball star and first-round draft pick of the Houston Rockets, has been charged in Columbia, Mo., with felony stealing for allegedly taking items from the United Parcel Service terminal where he had worked for nine months.

Police arrested Chievous on Friday after he allegedly fled from UPS managers. He was released a day later from the Boone County Jail on $5,000 bond. A court appearance was scheduled for May 23.

Former NFL player Dexter Manley appeared in court Friday to face a charge of tampering with evidence after he allegedly attempted to swallow less than a gram of cocaine during a January drug bust at a Houston motel.

Manley, 43, said he is innocent and remains free on $20,000 bail.

Miscellany

Jason Keller sped by Busch series points leader Kevin Harvick on the 185th lap to win the CVS Pharmacy 200 at Loudon, N.H.

Keller’s emotional victory came one year to the day after Adam Petty was killed while practicing at New Hampshire International Speedway. Then, less than two months later, Kenny Irwin was killed in a crash in the same third turn during practice for a Winston Cup race.

“I had tears rolling down my cheeks the last 10 laps,” Keller said. “I couldn’t help but think about Adam. This whole deal, I want to dedicate to Adam.”

Bobby Hamilton won the Darlington 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck race in South Carolina, beating fellow Winston Cup driver Ken Schrader in the event that ended under caution because of rain.

Michael Schumacher clinched the pole position for today’s Austrian Grand Prix on the only track where he has never won a Formula One race, edging Colombian rookie Juan Montoya at Spielberg.

Schumacher, the Ferrari ace and defending Formula One champion who is also this season’s leader, earned the fifth pole of the season and 37th of his career.

His fastest lap on the 2.68-mile A1-Ring circuit was 1 minute 09.562 seconds.

Schumacher has never won the Austrian Grand Prix and his 150th race today will be a chance to add to his total of 47 victories.

Georgia basketball Coach Jim Harrick hired his son as an assistant, three years after he almost turned down the Bulldog job because he was told that would violate a nepotism policy. Jim Harrick Jr. will replace Michael Hunt, who this month was named coach at Towson. . . . Kwame Brown of Brunswick, Ga., a 6-foot-11 high school forward projected as a top-five pick, released a statement saying he will not enroll at Florida and will instead make himself available for the NBA draft. Brown became the sixth high school player to declare for the draft. . . . Boston University extended the contract of men’s basketball Coach Dennis Wolff through 2006.

Sami Kapanen scored two goals within 1:41 of the third period, helping Finland to a 3-1 victory over the United States in the semifinals of the World Hockey Championships at Hanover, Germany.

The Finns, who avenged a 4-1 loss to Team USA in the qualifying round a week ago in Cologne, will play the Czech Republic in today’s final.

The two-time defending world and Olympic champions edged Sweden, 2-1, in a thrilling penalty shootout in the other semifinal.

Kapanen, who plays for the Carolina Hurricanes, broke a 1-1 tie at 10:16 in the third period, scoring from close range after goalie Rick DiPietro gave up a rebound on Petteri Nummelin’s shot.

Mike Powell, the world-record holder in the long jump, returned to competition by winning at the Modesto Relays with a wind-aided leap of 26 feet, 5 1/4 inches. . . . World and Olympic champion Maurice Greene was timed in 9.96 seconds, his fastest race this year, to win his second consecutive Japan Grand Prix men’s 100 meters at Osaka. His time was 0.17 shy of his world record of 9.79 seconds, set in 1999. . . . Marion Jones won her first 100-meter dash of the 2001 season at the Golden Spike Tour season opener at Princeton, N.J. Jones, the Olympic gold medalist in the 100, finished in 11.12 seconds, far slower than her time of 10.75 seconds in Sydney.

Todd Pearson upset triple Olympic gold medalist Ian Thorpe in the 100 meters in the Australian Grand Prix swim meet at Brisbane.

Pearson finished in 50.30 seconds, with Thorpe taking second in 50.79.

The United Arab Emirates fired its national soccer team’s French coach, Henri Michel, appointing local coach Abdullah Saqer in his place.

Ollie Cline, the former Ohio State football star who played on two NFL championship teams with the Detroit Lions, died Saturday in Springfield, Ohio. He was 75.