Agassi Takes First Step at Italian Open

For all of his success, Andre Agassi has never won the Italian Open. He did make the final once, in 1989, when Andy Roddick was 6.

Roddick followed Agassi onto center court in the Foro Italico at Rome on Monday, and both picked up straight-set victories in the first round of the Tennis Masters Series clay-court event.

The 32-year-old Agassi beat Nicolas Kiefer, 6-3, 6-2, before Roddick eliminated Alex Calatrava, 6-2, 6-3, in the French Open tuneup.

No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt also dropped just five games en route to the next round, eliminating Jonas Bjorkman, 6-2, 6-3.

Defending champion Juan Carlos Ferrero, Pete Sampras and three-time French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten play today.

Other winners Monday included 2000 U.S. Open champion Marat Safin, who beat Alberto Martin, 6-2, 6-2. Carlos Moya, Mark Philippoussis, Sebastian Grosjean and Ivan Ljubicic also advanced. Greg Rusedski, 15th-seeded Guillermo Canas and 16th-seeded Alex Corretja lost.

*

Elena Likhovtseva knocked the first seeded player out of the German Open, defeating No. 17 Tatiana Panova, 7-5, 3-5, 7-6 (3), at Berlin. Martina Hingis withdrew from the tournament with an injured left foot.

Hockey

Peter Bondra had two goals and an assist to help Slovakia hold off Russia’s comeback for a 6-4 victory in the World Hockey Championships at Goteborg, Sweden.

In today’s quarterfinals, Slovakia will play Canada, Russia will play the Czech Republic, Finland will play the United States, and Sweden will play Germany.

Miscellany

Offensive specialist Chris Jackson suffered a broken bone in his right wrist during the Avengers’ 52-51 victory over Dallas on Saturday. The team put Jackson on its injured reserve list meaning Jackson will miss at least two games. Jackson, from Washington State and Santa Ana Mater Dei High, leads the league in receptions (31), receiving yards (514) and scoring (78 points on 13 touchdowns).

*

Judith Soltesz-Benetton, the daughter-in-law of fashion designer Luciano Benetton, sued Penthouse magazine, saying topless pictures supposedly of tennis player Anna Kournikova actually were photographs of her. In New York, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin ordered the magazine to temporarily stop distributing the June issue to newsstands. The judge said it was obvious the pictures were not of Kournikova.

*

John Daly had an allergic reaction after taking diet pills, his wife said at Dardanelle, Ark., but didn’t suffer any lasting effects. Daly was not available for comment. He was on his way to The Belfry in England for this week’s European PGA Tour event.

Passings

Washington safety Curtis Williams, who was paralyzed from the neck down during a football game against Stanford in Oct. 2000, died in his sleep of complications associated with his paralysis. He was 24. (Story, B11).

*

Grand Valley State basketball player Derek Smith collapsed and died after playing in a pickup game, school officials said at Allendale, Mich. Smith, 19, collapsed shortly after 9 p.m. Sunday at the school’s gymnasium.

A woman who is an emergency room nurse was in the gym at the time and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation. An ambulance transported Smith to Spectrum Health Butterworth Campus in Grand Rapids, where he was pronounced dead.

*

Jack Tennant, 73, a former play-by-play announcer for Louisville’s football and basketball teams, died at home in Louisville, Ky.... Vince Cappelli, 79, a longtime baseball coach at New Mexico, died in Laguna Hills after a long bout with Parkinson’s disease.