Old Swing for Kuehne Works at U.S. Amateur

Trip Kuehne, 31, is almost a senior citizen compared with the college and high school golfers who chase most of amateur golf’s major titles.

But Kuehne tied for second among the 64 match-play qualifiers by following up his first-round 69 at the Pittsburgh Field Club a day earlier with a solid par 70 at Oakmont Country Club on Tuesday in Oakmont, Pa. The only better qualifying score was by the University of Kentucky’s John Holmes, who finished at two-under 138, which included a two-under 68.

Fourteen golfers tied at the cut line of seven-over 147 for 12 available spots, so two will be eliminated in a playoff this morning before the first of the 32 matches begins.

Among those missing the cut were Rowland Heights’ Henry Liaw (152), who shot 10-over 80 at Oakmont.

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Tennis

Top-seeded Lindsay Davenport needed only 40 minutes to advance to the quarterfinals of the Pilot Pen, beating Jelena Dokic, 6-2, 6-1, at New Haven, Conn. Magdalena Maleeva beat Tamarine Tanasugarn, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4, and Elena Dementieva beat Silvia Farina Elia, 6-2, 6-4.

James Blake eliminated Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden, 6-1, 7-6 (4), in the first round of the TD Waterhouse Cup at Commack, N.Y. In other first-round matches, Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil rallied for a 6-4, 7-6 (3) victory over Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia.

Top doubles player Leander Paes is being treated for a brain lesion and will miss the U.S. Open. Paes, 30, has won three Grand Slam men’s doubles titles. He won two mixed doubles titles with Martina Navratilova this year.

Jimmy Connors and Chris Evert will be inducted into the U.S. Open’s Court of Champions, honoring the top players in tournament history. Bill Tilden, Helen Wills, Rod Laver and Billie Jean King will also be honored.

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Women’s Basketball

Sheryl Swoopes scored 15 of her 17 points in the second half to help the Houston Comets clinch their seventh straight WNBA playoff berth with a 52-47 victory over the Seattle Storm on Tuesday night in front of 8,306 at Houston.... Penny Taylor scored 20 points to lead the Cleveland Rockers to a 69-52 win over the Connecticut Sun at Cleveland in front of 6,128.

USC forward Ebony Hoffman is the only Southland player among the 35 preseason candidates for the Wade Trophy. It is the first time in 27 years the award committee has released a preseason list. Other nominees include last year’s winner, Diana Taurasi of Connecticut, and Nicole Powell of Stanford.

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Jurisprudence

Former Dallas Cowboy defensive back Dwayne Goodrich was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison and fined $20,000 for a hit-and-run accident that killed two men in January.

A jury last week convicted Goodrich of criminally negligent homicide, and prosecutors had asked jurors to sentence him to 10 years in prison for each of the two criminally negligent homicide charges.

Washington Wizard forward Kwame Brown, 21, faces a charge of driving under the influence after being stopped while weaving along a highway near his hometown, according to a police report at Brunswick, Ga. Brown’s blood-alcohol content was almost twice the legal limit, at 0.15.

Nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis pleaded not guilty to a charge of drunken driving at Los Angeles. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for Sept. 16. The charge stemmed from an early morning crash on April 21 involving Lewis’ 2004 Maserati.

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Motor Racing

Jimmy Spencer filed an appeal with NASCAR, hoping to overturn the suspension and fine levied against him for a post-race altercation with Kurt Busch at Michigan International Speedway.

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T.J. Simers is on vacation.