Agassi’s Win Lifts Roddick

Andre Agassi righted himself quickly enough to defeat Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain and give Andy Roddick the year-end No. 1 men’s tennis ranking.

After a miserable 1 1/2 sets, Agassi began finding his strokes and rallied to stun Ferrero, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, Wednesday night in the Tennis Masters Cup at Houston.

“It was like two different matches out there,” Agassi said. “If you’re second-guessing anything against Ferrero, he makes you pay the price for it. I never quite got settled until late in the second set.”

Ferrero fell to 0-2 in the round-robin portion of the $3.65-million tournament and won’t qualify for the semifinals, which means he won’t accumulate enough points in the last event of 2003 to pass Roddick.

Agassi (1-1) can reach the semifinals by defeating No. 8 David Nalbandian of Argentina tonight.

Roddick didn’t have to set foot on the court Wednesday. He replaced Ferrero -- the man he beat in the U.S. Open final -- at No. 1 in the ATP Tour computer rankings last week and, at 21, will be the third-youngest player to close a season there.

“I’m incredibly honored to finish the year as No. 1, but I’m probably more proud to be the sixth American ever,” said Roddick, who plays No. 6 Rainer Schuettler of Germany today. “It’s hard to reflect on what a year this has been, but I’m incredibly fortunate to be playing at home in the United States. To be able to share all of this with my friends and family is better than I could have ever imagined.”

Roddick finished last year at No. 10, but has been dominant since hiring Brad Gilbert -- Agassi’s former coach -- in June. With Gilbert, Roddick is 46-6, including a season-high 19-match winning streak.

Track and Field

Four United States track and field athletes have tested positive for the steroid THG after backup B samples confirmed positive A tests.

The International Assn. of Athletics Federations, the sport’s world governing body, confirmed the results but said it did not know the identity of the four.

The samples were taken in June in the U.S. national championships at Stanford, Calif.

The four are entitled to a hearing before the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and face a possible two-year ban.

A fifth athlete, British sprinter Dwain Chambers, has recorded positive A and B results for THG, or tetrahydrogestrinone, after an out-of-competition test in August in Germany. Chambers was suspended earlier this month by UK Athletics.

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Michael Johnson said he won’t give up a medal he earned on the U.S. men’s 1,600-meter relay team in the 2000 Sydney Games that officials are threatening to take away because Jerome Young, a member of the relay team, tested positive for a steroid a year before the Olympics.

Johnson, who won 14 Olympic and world championship gold medals, is a harsh critic of athletes who use banned drugs. But he said officials are “making up the rules as they go along.”

Miscellany

Tasha Schwikert of Las Vegas, a 2000 Olympian and 2003 world championship gold medalist, has signed a national letter of intent to attend UCLA and compete with the school’s women’s gymnastics team.

Former junior national champion Lindsey Vanden Eykel of Plano, Texas, also signed with the Bruins.

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Boston Red Sox reliever Byung-hyun Kim was questioned by police in Seoul about allegations he assaulted a South Korean sports newspaper photographer.

Kim, 24, acknowledged on his Web site that he broke the photographer’s camera but denied hitting the man, who kept taking pictures of the pitcher after repeatedly being asked to stop.

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Former major leaguer Ozzie Canseco, twin brother of former All-Star slugger Jose, intends to plead guilty next week in Charlotte County, Fla., to possessing an illegal anabolic steroid and driving with a revoked license, his attorney said.

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Canadian female Olympic star Hayley Wickenheiser quit the Salamat team in Finland’s all-male hockey league, saying she wasn’t given a chance to show her skills.

Last month, Wickenheiser made her debut in the country’s second-highest league. Last season, the center became the first woman to score a goal in a men’s pro hockey game.

Passings

Lloyd Pettit, longtime announcer for the Chicago Blackhawks and a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, has died. He was 76.

Pettit, former co-owner of the Milwaukee Admirals of the American Hockey League, died Tuesday, the Admirals announced.

Pettit was an analyst on Blackhawk games in 1961 and was play-by-play announcer from 1963 through 1974-75.