Sampras Loses to Arthurs; Title Slump Hits 32 Events

Pete Sampras’ title drought stretched to 32 tournaments Wednesday with a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4) loss to Australian Wayne Arthurs in the Cincinnati Masters Series at Mason, Ohio.

“Maybe he wasn’t at his peak, but it’s always great to get a win over one of the best players ever,” Arthurs said. “Yes, he’s maybe a little bit more vulnerable than he used to be.”

Sampras, who has not won a tournament since winning Wimbledon in 2000 for his 13th Grand Slam title, could not overcome Arthurs’ strong serve in the second-round match.

“He’s got a huge serve, one of the best serves on the tour, and he backs it up with a big second serve,” Sampras said. “He’s dangerous.”

Top-seeded Lleyton Hewitt, the U.S. Open and Wimbledon champion, advanced to the third round when Davide Sanguinetti withdrew because of a right toe injury. Hewitt led, 5-0, when Sanguinetti withdrew.

Fourth-seeded Tim Henman tumbled out along with Sampras, falling, 7-6 (3), 6-2, to Fernando Gonzalez. Andy Roddick, seeded 12th, defeated Nicolas Kiefer, 6-4, 6-3, and 16th-seeded Carlos Moya defeated Sjeng Schalken, 6-2, 6-4.

Jurisprudence

Former middleweight boxing champion Michael Nunn was charged in Iowa City, Iowa, with possession of cocaine with intent to deliver, federal prosecutors said.

Nunn, 39, was arrested Tuesday night in a hotel at Davenport, Iowa, after allegedly buying $24,000 worth of cocaine from an undercover FBI agent, said Al Overbaugh, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office. The charge carries a minimum sentence of five years in prison.

Nunn is being held by at the Muscatine County Jail without bail. He is scheduled to appear at a detention hearing Friday.

Nunn won his first title in 1988 when he beat Frank Tate to win the International Boxing Federation middleweight title.

Former Texas men’s basketball coach Tom Penders denied any involvement in ordering the release of a former player’s grades to the media in 1998, a controversy that led to his leaving the university.

Penders testified in his own defense in a defamation lawsuit filed against him by Eddie Oran, his former assistant, who alleges Penders defamed his character in the aftermath of the release of Luke Axtell’s grades to a local radio station.

Basketball

The Cleveland Cavaliers signed second-round draft pick Carlos Boozer, a 6-foot-9 forward who finished his career at Duke with the highest field-goal percentage (63%) in school history.

Boozer averaged 18.2 points and 8.7 rebounds last season for the Blue Devils and was selected most valuable player of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament.

Vlade Divac of the Sacramento Kings has changed his mind and will play for Yugoslavia in the World Championships Aug. 29-Sept. 8 at Indianapolis.

Among Divac’s teammates will be point guard Marko Jaric, who is expected to join the Clippers for the upcoming season.

Motor Sports

Christian Fittipaldi is leaving CART to join Petty Enterprises in a combined Busch and Winston Cup program next season.

The nephew of two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Emerson Fittipaldi has been a regular in CART for eight years, all but the first with Newman-Haas Racing.

Kyle Petty, chief executive of Petty Enterprises, said Fittipaldi will compete next year in the Busch Series, and in a handful of Winston Cup and ARCA events.

Plans are for the 31-year-old Brazilian to move to NASCAR’s top stock car series in 2004.

Hockey

ESPN is reducing the number of NHL games on its schedule by 30%.

Regular-season games on ESPN and ESPN2 will drop from 102 to 71 next season. The network televised 128 games in 2000-01. Also, ESPN is shifting NHL games from Wednesday to Thursday to make room for NBA games.

ESPN is scheduled to show 21 games and ESPN2 50. About 60% of ESPN’s games will come after the All-Star break. Hockey ratings slipped 17% on ESPN and 8% on ESPN2 last season.

Center Radek Bonk of the Ottawa Senators was awarded a two-year, $6.7-million contract in arbitration, nearly doubling his salary from last season, when he earned $1.8 million. He had been seeking $3.5 million per year.

Miscellany

Paul Hamm won the preliminaries and took a comfortable lead entering Friday’s all-around finals at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships in Cleveland.

Hamm finished with 56.575 points, 0.900 ahead of Blaine Wilson, who is trying to become the first man to win six U.S. titles. Sean Townsend was third with 54.650.

Mark Jurich hit a three-run homer and drove in four runs, and the United States defeated South Korea, 16-2, in a first-round game of the World University Baseball Championship at Messina, Sicily.

Passings

Former Indy 500 driver Jim Crawford of Scotland died Tuesday in Florida, Indianapolis Motor Speedway officials said. He was 54.

The cause of death was not immediately available.

Crawford retired from racing after the 1993 Indy 500. He made eight starts in the race and his best finish was sixth place in 1988.

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T.J. Simers is on vacation.