Hingis Is Skipping Australia

Martina Hingis has withdrawn from the Australian Open, the season-opening Grand Slam tournament that she has won three times.

Hingis told organizers she needed to continue rehabilitation from ankle surgery and wouldn’t be ready for the Jan. 13-26 tournament.

“We were surprised, but naturally very pleased, when Martina submitted an entry for Australian Open 2003 given her injury problems,” said Paul McNamee, Australian Open chief executive. “However, it sent out a strong message that she desperately wanted to come down to Australia to play.”

Hingis’ victory in the 1999 Open was the last of her five career Grand Slam titles.

Auto Racing

Sterling Marlin got back in a race car for the first time in nearly three months when he tested the No. 40 Dodge at Talladega Superspeedway.

Marlin, who led the Winston Cup points for 25 weeks this season, was sidelined in late September when he broke a vertebra in his neck in a wreck at Kansas.

The Busch Series car owned by Hendrick Motorsports will have a new look next season, with Ricky Hendrick calling the shots as owner and 19-year-old Brian Vickers behind the wheel.

Vickers will drive the No. 5 Chevrolet 22-year-old Hendrick drove last season until retiring from racing in October because of a lingering shoulder injury.

Vickers started 21 of 34 events as a rookie last season.

Jurisprudence

Former Dallas Cowboy offensive lineman Nate Newton, already serving time in another drug case, was sentenced to five years in prison for possession of 213 pounds of marijuana in Louisiana.

Miscellany

The Champions Tour became the first golf circuit with five major championships when it designated the Senior British Open as a major and added it to the 2003 schedule.

The Champions Tour, formerly called the Senior PGA Tour, will have 31 official tournaments worth more than $52 million in prize money.

The other Champions Tour majors are the U.S. Senior Open, the Senior PGA Championship, the Players Championship and the Tradition.

San Juan, Puerto Rico, was selected to hold next year’s Olympic men’s basketball qualifying tournament, which will include a U.S. team.

The top three teams at the Aug. 20-31 qualifier will advance to the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

A 14-year-old boy died after running wind sprints during the first day of basketball tryouts at his middle school.

Harley Collins was an eighth-grader at McMillan Magnet School in Omaha, Neb., said Luanne Nelson, a city schools spokeswoman.

ESPN has selected the Reno-Lake Tahoe area as the site of the 2003 Great Outdoor Games, which will be held July 10-13.

The Great Outdoor Games, which involve international athletes competing in timber, target fishing and sporting dog events, are in their fourth year and will be televised by ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC. The previous three were held at Lake Placid, N.Y.

Passings

Bobby Joe Hill, the leading scorer for the Texas Western team that won the 1966 men’s national championship and changed the landscape of college basketball, has died. He was 59.

Hill died of a heart attack Sunday night, his daughter Michelle Shetfield told the online edition of the El Paso Times. Report in Section B.