Roddick Aces Out Agassi With Some Speedy Service

Andy Roddick equaled the world record with a 149-mph serve and beat Andre Agassi for the first time, winning, 6-1, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (6), Saturday to reach the Queen’s Club tennis final at London.

His victory came a day after the second-seeded Agassi took over the No. 1 ranking on the ATP Tour.

Roddick, seeded third, faces Sebastien Grosjean in today’s final of this Wimbledon tuneup. The sixth-seeded Frenchman defeated Tim Henman of England, 6-3, 6-4 in the other semifinal.

Roddick’s record serve came early in the second set, matching Greg Rusedski’s mark of five years ago. Earlier in the tournament, Roddick cranked a serve of 147 mph.

“I guess Greg has some company now,” he said. “It would have been nice to get that one more mile an hour, but I didn’t even notice it so it’s a pleasant surprise.”

Roddick had 27 aces against Agassi, who beat him the previous four times they played.

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Top-seeded Roger Federer rallied from a set down to reach his first grass-court final, beating Russian Mikhail Youzhny, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2, at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany. Federer won his tour-leading 42nd match of the year and next faces German Nicolas Kiefer, who needed 2 hours 48 minutes to defeat France’s Arnaud Clement, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4.... Paola Suarez of Argentina won a $170,000 Grand Prix tournament at Vienna, defeating Karolina Sprem of Croatia, 7-6 (0), 2-6, 6-4.... Japan’s Shinobu Asagoe and Bulgaria’s Magdalena Maleeva won semifinal matches and will play for the title in the DFS Classic at Birmingham, England. Asagoe defeated Russia’s Maria Sharapova, 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (3), and Maleeva, seeded third, beat second-seeded Eleni Daniilidou of Greece, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.

Motor Racing

Brett Bodine broke his collarbone during a crash in practice and will miss today’s NASCAR race at Brooklyn, Mich.

He will be replaced by brother Geoffrey Bodine for the Sirius Satellite 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

Both Bentley Speed 8 prototype cars were dominating early today while archrival Audi lagged behind after losing one car to fuel problems in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France.

Bentley has not won the world-famous race since 1930.

But, just after midnight, Bentley No. 7, driven by Guy Smith, led the field on the grueling 8.46-mile circuit.

Williams-BMW teammates Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya took the top two spots in qualifying at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for today’s Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.

Schumacher posted a time of 1 minute 15.529 seconds on the 2.709-mile, 15-turn track. Montoya, who started from the pole here last year, was second with a lap of 1:15.923.

Patrick Carpentier was vaulted into his first pole of the CART season after Michel Jourdain’s fastest lap was disallowed because his car was underweight.

Jourdain will start in 13th place on the grid today at Laguna Seca in Monterey, based on his Friday qualifying speed of 113.524 mph. His lap Saturday was run at 115.875.

Bobby Hamilton Jr. passed Jason Keller with three laps to go to win the Meijer 300, the NASCAR Busch series race at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Ky.

Torrential rain washed out qualifying, giving Indy Racing League points leader Tony Kanaan the pole for today’s Honda Indy 225 at Fountain, Colo.

Greg Pursley of Canyon Country earned his second consecutive win and third of the season by going wire-to-wire in the 75-lap Jani-King Super Late Model series feature in front of 5,150 fans at Irwindale Speedway.

Pursley held off a late charge from fellow Canyon Country resident Rod Johnson at the checkered flag for the win, with Brandon Loverock finishing third.

In the 50-lap Mechanix Wear Speed Truck series feature, Lee Hatch of Covina regained the points lead but was unable to hold off Andrew Lewis, who won his first race in the series and at 16 became the youngest driver to win on the half-mile track.

Miscellany

Rick Neuheisel maintains he did not break NCAA rules when he gambled on college basketball tournaments and believes he should keep his job as Washington’s football coach.

Neuheisel addressed reporters at his home in Medina, Wash., two days after Athletic Director Barbara Hedges announced her decision to fire him.

“I remain confident that there will be no finding of any major infraction at the NCAA level,” Neuheisel said. “And if the university could see their way to allow me to retain my job, I would guarantee them that if in fact there were a finding of a major infraction, I would resign immediately and ask not for one more penny from the university.”

Jonas Lewis rushed for a World Bowl-record 126 yards and had a touchdown to lead the Frankfurt Galaxy to a 35-16 victory over the Rhein Fire in NFL Europe’s championship game in front of 28,138 at Glasgow, Scotland.

Germany’s Sven Ottke (31-0, 6 knockouts) easily outpointed Britain’s David Starie (31-3, 24 KOs) to defend his International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Assn. super middleweight titles at Magdeburg, Germany. The judges ruled it 115-113, 116-112 and 116-113 in favor of Ottke.