Venus Pulls Out at Italian Open

Venus Williams pulled out of her second-round match against Anna Kournikova in the Italian Open at Rome on Tuesday night because of a wrist injury, with the stadium already half-full for the highly awaited encounter.

The world’s top-ranked player said she injured her right wrist picking up her bag at practice this week. Williams apologized to the crowd minutes before the match was to begin.

Williams said she told the WTA about her withdrawal half an hour before the match was scheduled to start.

“It happened this week,” Williams said at a news conference. “This morning in practice it hurt and then during the day it got worse with more swelling. I could have played with the pain, but it did not seem correct.”

The injury comes at a bad time for Williams, with the French Open less than two weeks away.

“It really makes me somewhat nervous about the French, that I won’t be able to play this week, that I’ll have two weeks that I can’t play a tournament,” she said.

Last year, Williams pulled out of a semifinal match against her sister Serena in similar fashion in a tournament at Indian Wells.

Tournament officials released a statement saying the injury had been certified by the WTA but that the tournament doctor and a WTA trainer would re-evaluate the injury today.

Kournikova, a former top 10 player seeking her first tournament title, defeated Williams’ replacement, Lilia Osterloh, 6-1, 4-6, 6-1.

“I found out five minutes before the match,” Kournikova said. “It’s a pity. It’s a little disappointing to find out just a few minutes before the match for the fans and everybody.”

Second-ranked Jennifer Capriati needed only 50 minutes to beat Slovenia’s Maja Matevzic, 6-2, 6-1.

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Andy Roddick swept past veteran Todd Martin, 7-6 (4), 6-2, in the first round of the Hamburg Masters Series, formerly the German Open.

Thomas Johansson defeated fellow Swede Jonas Bjorkman, 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-3, for his first victory in a month.

Basketball

Former USC power forward Sam Clancy, last season’s Pacific 10 Conference player of the year, is looking at possible surgery after dislocating his left kneecap and tearing a tendon during a workout with the Phoenix Suns on Monday.

“I went up to block a shot, came down and it popped out on me,” Clancy said. “I don’t even know how I landed. I had an MRI and I’m supposed to see the Lakers’ doctor [today], but they’re telling me I should be out three months total.”

Clancy, a projected mid-to-late-first-round pick in June’s NBA draft, said he suffered the same injury to the same knee as a high school sophomore.

Ohio University 6-foot-7 forward Brandon Hunter, a two-time All-Mid-American Conference first-team selection, confirmed he has made himself available for next month’s NBA draft. Hunter will not retain an agent, keeping open the option of returning to school for his senior season.

The NCAA said it will use basketballs made of synthetic materials next season because animal-rights activists complained about the use of leather. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has begun talks with the NBA about switching its basketballs to the synthetic ones, already in use by most major colleges and universities. The WNBA uses a ball made from pleather, a synthetic leather.

Pro Football

Trainer Ronnie Barnes estimates that 20 New York Giants used supplements containing ephedra after the stimulant was banned by the NFL in September.

Barnes told the New York Daily News that he believes 75% of the players on the Giants’ active roster--40 of 53--used the substance before it was banned.

Last week, the NFL announced it will conduct year-round random testing for ephedra starting July 1. It is the first U.S. pro sports league to ban ephedrine, a substance that also often is found in strength-building food supplements and can cause seizures, strokes and death.

Dwight Clark, who resigned Monday as director of football operations for the Cleveland Browns, said he wasn’t going to sit by and watch someone else run the team.

“I didn’t feel good about some of the things that were going on in the building,” Clark said.

Clark said he no longer could coexist with Coach Butch Davis.

College Sports

At least one of three Notre Dame football players accused of raping a female student learned that the appeal of his expulsion was denied. Attorney Bill Stanley said his client was told the Rev. Edward Malloy upheld the original decision expelling him.... Justin Gatlin, an NCAA and Southeastern Conference sprint champion who runs for Tennessee, has received a two-year conditional suspension after testing positive for amphetamine, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said.... Junior tight end R.J. Luke is transferring from Penn State two weeks after a jury acquitted him of assaulting another student at an off-campus party. He is planning to transfer to Western Illinois, a Division I-AA school.... Toledo running back William Bratton, who sat out last season because of a broken vertebrae, has been granted a sixth season of eligibility by the NCAA.

Golf

Scott Hoch withdrew from the Colonial at Fort Worth because of eye trouble after surgery.

Passings

Oliver Pellerin, 93, who watched 637 consecutive USC football games in person, died in Palm Springs on Sunday. His older brother, Giles, who died in 1998, attended 797 USC games in a row.