Agassi Misses Golden Chance

Andre Agassi lost a chance to reclaim the No. 1 ranking in men’s tennis when he was upset by Hicham Arazi, 7-6 (4), 7-5, Wednesday in the second round of the Masters Series at Stuttgart, Germany.

Pete Sampras, trying to win his first title in 15 months, had an easier time, beating Austria’s Stefan Koubek, 6-3, 7-6 (5).

It was Sampras’ first match since losing to Lleyton Hewitt in the U.S. Open final five weeks ago. His last title came at Wimbledon in 2000, a stretch of 18 tournaments.

Agassi, seeded second, was ousted a day after top-ranked Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil was eliminated. Agassi could have regained the No. 1 ranking by winning the event.

Agassi was ranked No. 2 in the Champions Race. Hewitt, who did not play Wednesday, can advance from No. 3 to No. 1 by winning the tournament.

In other matches, fifth-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov defeated Andrei Pavel, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3, and No. 14 Andy Roddick survived 23 aces from French qualifier Julien Boutter to win, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5).

Sampras is tied with Sebastien Grosjean at No. 7 in the Champions Race, which determines the year-end No. 1 ranking.

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Jennifer Capriati made an unconvincing start to her reign as the No. 1 women’s player, needing three sets to beat wild card Nadia Petrova of Russia in the second round of the Swisscom Challenge at Zurich, Switzerland.

Capriati showed little intensity against Petrova, winning, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

Lindsay Davenport defeated South Africa’s Amanda Coetzer, 6-3, 6-4, improving her record at Zurich to 12-1. The loss came against Martina Hingis in last year’s final.

Eighth-seeded Silvia Farina Elia of Italy defeated Lisa Raymond, 6-2, 6-4.

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Kimberly Po of Rolling Hills asked to be listed as Swiss at the Swisscom Challenge because she feels vulnerable after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Po, who is playing doubles with France’s Nathalie Tauziat, is married to a Swiss. She said the change is temporary.

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Meilen Tu became the first seeded player to lose in the second round of the Eurotel Slovak Indoor tournament at Bratislava, Slovakia.

Tu was eliminated by Slovakia’s Ludmila Cervanova, 6-4, 6-3.

In first-round matches, third-seeded Francesca Schiavone of Italy beat Hungary’s Petra Mandula, 7-5, 6-2; fourth-seeded Rita Grande of Italy defeated Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain, 6-1, 6-0, and seventh-seeded Nathalie Dechy of France ousted Adriana Gersi of the Czech Republic, 6-2, 6-3.

Miscellany

Tiger Woods usually plays his practice rounds at dawn and sometimes finishes before the gallery can find him.

That wasn’t hard to do Wednesday, because there was no gallery .

The National Car Rental Classic at Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., closed practice rounds to spectators this week as part of new security measures.

Eric Lucas will make the first defense of his World Boxing Council super-middleweight title against Dingaan Thobela of South Africa on Nov. 30 at Montreal.

Six athletes tested positive among 880 doping control tests performed by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in the third quarter of the year.

Three athletes tested positive for prohibited stimulants and three for steroids, agency officials said without identifying the athletes. Two others refused testing and were referred to the adjudication process.

Passings

Art Skipper, a former NCAA champion javelin thrower at Oregon, was killed Tuesday in a small plane crash southeast of Portland, Ore. He was 31.

Skipper was flying a single-engine Piper Cub with his cousin as a passenger when the plane went down in a field amid heavy fog just before 4 p.m.

Ted Skipper, 37, was in serious condition at a Portland hospital.

Micheline Ostermeyer, who won gold medals in the shot put and discus throw at the 1948 Olympics, has died. She was 78. (See story, B15).