Mauresmo Defeats Hingis

Amelie Mauresmo defeated Martina Hingis for the second consecutive week, advancing to the Italian Open final and bolstering her standing as the top player on the women’s tour this season.

The Frenchwoman defeated the world’s No. 1 player, 6-4, 7-6 (5), Saturday at Rome after beating her last week on the way to the German Open title.

Mauresmo trails the Swiss star 7-4 in career meetings, but she is a more self-assured player these days.

“It’s frustrating to lose twice against the same player,” Hingis said. “I think I didn’t play my best today. Mentally, I didn’t have the edge.”

Mauresmo, seeded fourth, will face Jelena Dokic in today’s title match of the French Open tuneup.

Dokic downed doubles partner Conchita Martinez, 6-3, 6-2 in the other semifinal, stopping one of the game’s best clay-court players.

Mauresmo recorded her ninth consecutive victory in running her record this season to a tour-best 31-2. She will be going for her fifth title of the year today.

Looking more untouchable on clay with each week, Juan Carlos Ferrero won his 16th consecutive match and will face Spanish compatriot Albert Portas in the German Open final today at Hamburg.

Ferrero, seeking consecutive Masters Series crowns, defeated countryman Albert Costa, 6-1, 6-2, in the semifinals.

“I don’t know if he’s going to continue like that,” Costa said. “But if he plays like this, you cannot do anything.”

In the other semifinal, Portas rallied for a 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 victory over seventh-seeded Lleyton Hewitt of Australia.

Today’s match will be the third all-Spanish final this year, all involving Ferrero.

Ferraro, who won the Italian Open last week, has the tour’s longest winning streak this year.

Barbara Rittner of Germany defeated Klara Koukalova of the Czech Republic, 6-3, 6-2, to win the Benelux Open at Antwerp, Belgium.

College Football

A scheduling conflict has forced the annual Army-Navy game out of Philadelphia in 2002, the two service academies said in a statement.

The game, originally scheduled for Dec. 7, 2002, at Veterans Stadium, was moved because a medical convention in Philadelphia the same weekend will cause a shortage of hotel space.

The schools said recent trends indicate that 5,000 hotel rooms are needed for the game. The convention will require about 8,000 of the city’s 10,000 available hotel rooms. The schools rejected proposals to put fans up in outlying hotels and shuttle them to the game, as the city did during the 2000 Republican Convention.

Syracuse quarterback Madei Williams, a one-time heir apparent to Donovan McNabb, will take his final year of eligibility to Southern Illinois at Carbondale.

Miscellany

Teresa Weatherspoon scored six of her game-high 21 points in overtime to lead the New York Liberty to a 101-95 victory over the Sparks in a WNBA exhibition at New York. Tameka Dixon had 19 points and nine assists for the Sparks.

Jacksonville Jaguar receiver Jimmy Smith, out of the hospital after abdominal surgery, plans to play this season.

Smithl, 32, had two operations in early April to repair scar tissue and remove an obstruction to his small intestine.

Former Ohio University basketball coach Larry Hunter will become an assistant coach at North Carolina State after 25 years as a head coach. Hunter, 51, was fired in March from Ohio.

Rik Verbrugghe of Belgium, pedaling at a wind-aided record average speed of 36.501 mph, led the time test prologue of the Giro d’Italia at Pescara, Italy, to claim the pink jersey as overall leader in the cycling race.

Olympic super-heavyweight champion Audley Harrison of Britain won his first pro fight, stopping American Mike Middleton at 2:45 of the first round at London.