Bruised Knee Forces Davenport to Skip Final at Munich

Lindsay Davenport’s joy at ending the year ranked No. 1 in women’s tennis was short-lived.

A day after clinching the top ranking, Davenport pulled out of the final in the $3-million Sanex Championships at Munich, Germany, on Sunday because of a bruised right knee, giving the title to Serena Williams.

Davenport tried to practice hours before the final, but stopped because of the pain. It ended a 15-match winning streak in which Davenport won titles in three consecutive weeks.

It was Williams’ third title this year and 10th of her career. She will finish ranked No. 7.

Sixth-seeded Sebastien Grosjean of France defeated Yevgeny Kafelnikov, 7-6 (3), 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-4, in the final of the Paris Masters.

The victory guaranteed Grosjean a spot in the season-ending Masters Cup on Nov. 12-18 at Sydney, Australia.

Gymnastics

Sean Townsend won the parallel bars title in the world championships at Ghent, Belgium, giving the United States its only gold medal.

It was the first individual gold at the championships for an American man since 1979, when Bart Connor won the parallel bars and Kurt Thomas won the floor and high bar.

Romania’s Andreea Raducan won gold medals in the balance beam and floor exercise.

Raducan and all-around champion Svetlana Khorkina of Russia were the leading women at the championships, each with three gold.

Romania won eight medals, including six gold. Russia relied on its women to win seven medals, including three gold. The Russian men failed to win a medal for the first time since the early 1950s.

The U.S. won four medals.

Olympics

Former Olympic and world hurdles champion Ludmila Engquist of Sweden said she is certain she failed a drug test and will not compete as a bobsledder in the Winter Olympics.

Engquist, 37, said the test took place after practice on the Olympic bobsled track in Lillehammer, Norway, site of the 1994 Winter Games. The results are not known yet. If positive, Engquist will be banned at least two years.

In a letter faxed to the Swedish news agency TT from a hotel in Copenhagen, Engquist said she felt so bad that she tried to commit suicide.

After winning the Olympic 100-meter hurdles in Atlanta in 1996, Engquist said she wanted to become the first woman to win gold medals in the Summer and Winter Games.

Miscellany

Noah Bor led a 1-2-3 Kenyan sweep in heavy rain at the Athens Marathon.

Bor won in 2 hours 19 minutes 26 seconds after fending off late moves by Frederick Cheruiyot and Elias Chebet.

Germany’s Sonja Krolik-Oberem won the women’s competition in 2:36:15.

Turkey’s Halil Mutlu lifted a world-record 305 pounds in the snatch on his way to 661 pounds and the gold medal in the 123-pound classification on the opening day of the weightlifting world championships at Antalya, Turkey.

Wei Gao of China won the women’s 106-pound division, lifting 187 pounds in the snatch and 231 in the clean-and-jerk.