Henin-Hardenne Wins at Dubai

Top-seeded Justine Henin-Hardenne recovered after dropping the first set and beat Monica Seles, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 7-5, Saturday to win the Dubai Open at United Arab Emirates.

In the third set, both players held serve until it was 4-4. Henin-Hardenne then double-faulted at 30-40 and was broken in the ninth game. Seles was broken in the next game to even the score.

Henin-Hardenne held serve to go up 6-5 and won the match in the next game when Seles netted a return.

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Lisa Raymond successfully defended her title in the women’s Cellular Cup South, downing Amanda Coetzer, 6-3, 6-2, at Memphis, Tenn. It was the fourth title of her career and first since winning here last year.

Andy Roddick proved his wrist is fine, beating an ailing Brian Vahaly, 7-5, 6-1, to reach the men’s final of the Kroger St. Jude tournament. Roddick will play Taylor Dent today. Dent defeated Vince Spadea, 6-2, 6-4.

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Winter Sports

Austria’s Stephan Eberharter won his second straight World Cup downhill title, dominating the competition on the icy, sun-soaked Kandahar course at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Eberharter finished in 1 minute 55.68 seconds. Switzerland’s Didier Cuche was second in 1:56.75, and American Daron Rahlves, who had the fastest training runs for three days, was third in 1:56.98.

Jeffrey Anderson, 23, a snowboarder from Mammoth Lakes, fell to his death today after losing his balance while sliding down the rail of a spiral staircase of a hotel in Nagano, Japan.

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Motor Racing

Sebastien Bourdais of France retained the top spot in qualifying for the inaugural St. Petersburg (Fla.) Grand Prix, becoming the first CART driver since Nigel Mansell in 1993 to win a pole in his first race.... Steady rain and high winds wiped out racing at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham, as Winston Cup practices were canceled and the Busch Series race was rescheduled for Monday.... Two-time defending supercross champion Ricky Carmichael raced to his fifth 250cc World Supercross victory of the season at Atlanta.

Former World of Outlaws champion Danny Lasoski won the O’Reilly World of Outlaws series 30-lap main event in front of a capacity crowd of 4,565 at Perris Auto Raceway. In the other main event, David Cardey of Riverside won the 20-lap California Lightning Sprint race.

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Pro Football

St. Louis Ram Coach Mike Martz said quarterback Kurt Warner, who was injured most of last season, will start ahead of Marc Bulger in 2003.... Punter Matt Allen was waived by the New York Giants after a season in which he was the holder on a botched field goal at the end of a playoff loss to San Francisco.

In Arena football: Gunnard Twyner scored three touchdowns to lead the Buffalo Destroyers over the Georgia Force, 63-43, at Duluth, Ga.... Jay McDonagh ran for a seven-yard touchdown with 22.2 seconds left to lead the Las Vegas Gladiators to a 46-45 victory over the New York Dragons at Uniondale, N.Y. ... San Jose, the defending league champion, routed visiting Colorado, 80-40, to end a two-game losing streak.