Rafter to End Retirement and Play in Doubles Event

Two-time U.S. Open tennis champion Patrick Rafter will end his yearlong retirement next month by playing in a doubles match.

He will compete at the AAPT Championships in Adelaide, Australia, but the promoter says the former No. 1 player has ruled out a full-scale comeback.

Rafter will play with fellow Australian Josh Eagle at the season-opening event Jan. 5.

Rafter, 30, contacted tournament director Colin Stubs last weekend to request a wild-card entry, saying he needed match practice for a Feb. 2 exhibition with Mats Wilander.

Rafter retired from the ATP Tour in January after a 12-month break to consider his future. His last official match was Australia’s 3-2 loss to France in the Davis Cup final in December 2001.

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Lleyton Hewitt proposed to Kim Clijsters during a cruise on Sydney Harbor.

Hewitt’s management company, Octagon, confirmed the tennis stars are engaged but said no wedding date had been announced.

Hewitt, once ranked No. 1 on the ATP Tour, finished this year at No. 16. Clijsters was No. 2 in the WTA.

Miscellany

Tony Azevedo, a junior who led Stanford to the NCAA Division I water polo championship game for the third consecutive year, was chosen national player of the year by the American Water Polo Coaches Assn.

Azevedo, who attended Long Beach Wilson High, has won the award three consecutive years.

Joining Azevedo on the first team were Predrag Damjanov, Juraj Zatovic and Bozidar Damjanovic of USC, Brett Ormsby of UCLA, Jesse Smith of Pepperdine and Attila Banhidy of California.

Second-team players included Nathan Allard of Long Beach State, Mike Hausmann of Pepperdine, Dan Noon of UC Irvine and Endre Rex-Kiss of Loyola Marymount. Jovan Vavic, who led USC to the national championship, was named coach of the year.

In Division III, Adam Foley of Redlands was named player of the year.

The U.S. Olympic Committee has jeopardized the United States’ chances of earning medals in taekwondo at the 2004 Athens Games by ignoring deadlines to secure an Olympic qualifying tournament, according to a U.S. Taekwondo Union letter obtained by Associated Press.

The letter to USOC general counsel Jeff Benz, sent last week by USTU attorneys, accused the USOC of failing to meet deadlines set by the World Taekwondo Federation to hold a qualifier next month in Miami.

The USOC is in the process of decertifying the USTU after an investigation found financial and management irregularities.

Catherine Raney won at 5,000 meters and Chad Hedrick won at 10,000 at the U.S. Speedskating Long Track Championship in West Allis, Wis.

Raney finished in 7 minutes 19.30 seconds, defeating Kristine Holzer, who skated 7:40.95. Hedrick was timed in 13:53.12. Shani Davis was second in 14:02.52.

The United States lost to Finland, 4-1, at Hameenlinna, Finland, in a tuneup for the junior world ice hockey championship, which begins Friday.