Federer Nears No. 2 Ranking

Wimbledon champion Roger Federer defeated French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero, 6-3, 6-1, Friday at the Tennis Masters Cup in Houston to give himself a chance of finishing the season ranked No. 2.

The victory, which took only 54 minutes, made No. 3 Federer 3-0 in the round-robin portion of the tournament. No. 2 Ferrero was 0-3.

In today’s semifinals, Federer will play No. 1 Andy Roddick, who defeated No. 4 Guillermo Coria, 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-3. In the other semifinal, No. 5 Andre Agassi plays No. 6 Rainer Schuettler (2-1), who lost his final round-robin match, 7-5, 6-4, to No. 7 Carlos Moya (1-2).

*

Some drug tests from the U.S. Open and Davis Cup will be rechecked for the newly discovered steroid THG. Following the lead of other sports such as track and field and swimming, the International Tennis Federation said that it will retest urine samples to look for THG, or tetrahydrogestrinone.

Golf

Trevor Immelman and Rory Sabbatini of South Africa combined to shoot a three-under-par 69 to take a two-stroke lead after the second round of the World Cup at Kiawah Island, S.C.

Immelman and Sabbatini were at five-under 139 after the alternate shot round. They are two strokes ahead of Americans Jim Furyk and Justin Leonard, who shot a 70, and France’s Thomas Levet and Raphael Jacquelin, who shot a par 72.... Hee-Won Han and Dorothy Delasin shot one-under-par 71s to share the lead after the second round of the LPGA Tournament of Champions at Mobile, Ala. Han and Delasin have 36-hole totals of 143, a stroke better than Lorie Kane and Mi Hyun Kim. Kane shot a 74 after an opening round of 70. Kim shot a 68.

Miscellany

The Pepperdine women’s soccer team defeated USC, 1-0, in the first round of the NCAA Division I tournament at UCLA’s Drake Stadium. Lacey Ubaldi scored at the 14:42 mark of the first half. In the second match, UCLA, behind first-half goals by Lindsay Greco and Bristyn Davis, defeated San Diego, 2-0. The Bruins will play Pepperdine on Sunday at 1 p.m.

The U.S. women’s volleyball team clinched a berth in the Athens Olympics by defeating Cuba, 25-23, 25-18, 25-17, at the World Cup in Osaka, Japan. The victory gave the Americans an 8-3 record. The top three teams in the 12-nation tournament advance. Brazil (9-1) earned a berth with a victory over the U.S. on Friday. China (10-0) qualified Thursday.

Olympic champion Galabin Boevski and former world champions Georgi Markov and Zlatan Vanev of Bulgaria were banned from the world championships in Vancouver, Canada, because of tampering with their urine samples, Tamas Ajan, the International Weightlifting Federation president, said. An International Olympic Committee laboratory detected the tampering. The tests were conducted in Bulgaria by the World Anti-Doping Agency on Oct. 18.... Sasha Cohen skated an error-free short program to move into first place at the Lalique Trophy in Paris. She received a score of 69.38 and is the favorite to win the gold medal after today’s long program. Shizuka Arakawa of Japan was second with a score of 62.34.... The UCLA softball team and the USC women’s golf team will be honored at the White House by President George W. Bush and members of the White House staff on Monday. The ceremony is part of the White House’s 2003 Spring Sports Championship Day. Other teams invited were Rice (baseball), Illinois (men’s tennis), Stanford (women’s tennis), Virginia (men’s lacrosse), Princeton (women’s lacrosse) and Clemson (men’s golf).