Capriati Zooms Past Pierce at Italian Open

Jennifer Capriati finished off Mary Pierce at the Italian Open before some fans reached their seats Thursday night at Rome.

Capriati needed just 34 minutes to win, 6-0, 6-0, in the match between the last two French Open champions and join five other seeded players in the quarterfinals at this clay-court tournament.

The other seeded players advancing were No. 3 Kim Clijsters, No. 4 Serena Williams, No. 5 Justine Henin, No. 7 Amelie Mauresmo and No. 8 Sandrine Testud. But defending champion Jelena Dokic, seeded No. 6, was stunned by Anastasia Myskina, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.

Pierce has dropped from No. 3 in the rankings to No. 172 because of a series of injuries since she won the 2000 French Open.

She entered the draw in Rome via the WTA Tour’s protected ranking rule, which helps injured players enter tournaments when they return to action.

“She’s just coming back and it’s hard for her in these big matches,” said Capriati, seeded No. 2 in Rome. “She made it very easy for me.”

Williams used her strong serve and groundstrokes to overpower Denisa Chladkova, 6-1, 6-2, running down nearly all of her opponent’s shots in her gold sneakers.

*

Andy Roddick lost to a qualifier in the third round of the Hamburg Masters, while Lleyton Hewitt and Gustavo Kuerten advanced with straight-set victories at Hamburg, Germany.

The 13th-seeded Roddick had trouble with Julien Boutter’s overpowering serve and was beaten, 6-3, 7-5.

Boutter broke Roddick’s serve to take a 6-5 lead in the second set and fired an ace on his second match point to clinch the upset.

“He was serving huge; he hit some unreal shots from the baseline,” Roddick said. “He went for broke and they went in. He beat me fair and square.”

Top-seeded Hewitt, who has never won a red-clay tournament, reached the quarterfinals by surviving two close games to defeat Jiri Novak, 6-4, 6-3. Kuerten, the three-time French Open champion seeded No. 2 at this $2.8-million tournament, topped Guillermo Canas, 7-5, 6-2.

Hewitt’s next opponent is sixth-seeded Marat Safin, who beat Juan Ignacio Chela, 7-6 (6), 7-5. Kuerten faces No. 11 Roger Federer, who downed Adrian Voinea, 7-5, 6-4.

Miscellany

The integrity of Olympic sailing is threatened by “rampant” cheating, the international sailing federation’s president says.

In a statement posted on the ISAF Web site, Paul Henderson said sailing at Olympic level was “out of control” and urged the ISAF to act before it “totally loses the integrity of the sport.”

“What is happening is analogous to taking performance enhancing drugs in other sports,” he said. “They are both cheating.”

Henderson recently visited Olympic class regattas in Hyeres, France, and Miami and said “the cheating was rampant.”

He said sailors had a “complete disrespect” of the propulsion rule, particularly in the Star, Finn, Europe and Laser classes. The propulsion rule limits pumping of the sail and rocking the boat to gain extra speed.

*

Unbeaten junior bantamweight Jose Navarro (10-0, four knockouts) will meet Julio Cesar Oyuela (7-4-2, two KOs) of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, tonight in a scheduled eight-round bout at Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu.

Navarro, of South Central Los Angeles, fought in the 2000 Olympics and has more professional wins than any of his American teammates.

Navarro, 20, last fought on April 11, winning with a fourth-round knockout.

*

Running back Moe Williams signed with the Minnesota Vikings after a season with Baltimore.

Williams ran for a career-high 242 yards and had 191 yards receiving for the Ravens last season after five years with Minnesota.

*

Free-agent offensive lineman Max Lane signed a contract with the Houston Texans. Lane played seven seasons with the New England Patriots. He did not play in the NFL last season.

*

Purdue junior guard Willie Deane, the Big Ten’s leading scorer, has declared himself eligible for the NBA draft, the school said.

Deane does not plan to hire an agent and will remain eligible to return to Purdue for his senior season.

*

A judge at Saginaw, Mich., has ordered a man to stand trial on charges of hitting his sons’ high school baseball coach with a bat.

Robert D. Buxman is charged with assaulting Hemlock High Coach Ed LaJoice on April 30. A district court judge bound him over to circuit court for trial; no date for his circuit court arraignment has been scheduled, a clerk said.

Buxman was apparently angry that his twin sons were benched for the second game of the doubleheader, LaJoice testified in a preliminary hearing.