Philippoussis Clinches Cup for Australia

Mark Philippoussis gave Australia its 28th Davis Cup title today, fighting off a shoulder injury that nearly forced him to retire after the fourth set to beat Spain’s Juan Carlos Ferrero, 7-5, 6-3, 1-6, 2-6, 6-0, at Melbourne.

Philippoussis gave Australia a 3-1 lead in the best-of-five competition on the temporary grass court at Rod Laver Arena. A scheduled second reverse singles match between Lleyton Hewitt and Carlos Moya was not played.

After receiving treatment on his right shoulder, Philippoussis held serve in the first game of the fifth set and broke Ferrero to go up, 2-0. Philippoussis hit a hard overhand smash to finish the match, then dropped to the court while his teammates raced out to congratulate him.

“This is incredible,” Philippoussis said. “At the end I was just completely numb. It felt like I wasn’t playing, I was sort of watching from the side.

“I didn’t know what was going on. Thank God those shots were going in.”

Baseball

Dennis Eckersley and Paul Molitor head the list of 15 newcomers on the 2004 Hall of Fame ballot.

Eckersley won the American League most valuable player and Cy Young awards in 1992 for the Oakland A’s. Molitor had 3,319 career hits, the eighth most in history. He batted .306 with 1,782 runs and 1,307 RBIs in 21 seasons.

Former MVPs Kevin Mitchell and Terry Pendleton and Cy Young winner Doug Drabek also are on the ballot. Bruce Sutter, Jim Rice, Andre Dawson, Ryne Sandberg and Lee Smith are the leading returning candidates.

Winter Sports

Anja Paerson of Sweden completed a weekend sweep at Park City, Utah, by winning the World Cup slalom for her third podium finish in as many races this season.

Paerson, who won Friday’s giant slalom by 1.42 seconds, had another huge victory margin with a combined time of 1:33.74 -- 1.14 seconds faster than Sonja Nef of Switzerland. Marlies Schild of Austria was third (1:35.15).

World champion Michael Walchhofer of Austria won the season-opening World Cup downhill at Lake Louise, Canada. He finished in 1:51.16. Erik Guay of Canada was second in 1:51.85, and Antoine Deneriaz of France third in 1:51.90.

Swimming

Leisel Jones of Australia broke her second world record in as many nights, upstaging two wins by American Michael Phelps with a victory in the 200-meter breaststroke at the short course World Cup in Melbourne, Australia.

Jones was timed in 2:17.75, topping the mark of 2:18.86 set by China’s Qi Hui in Shanghai last December. She defeated compatriot Brooke Hanson (2:22.03) and American Amanda Beard (2:22.33).

Phelps won the 200-meter individual medley in 1:54.85 and the 200 backstroke in 1:51.40.

Miscellany

Sergio Garcia shot a two-under-par 70 to take a one-stroke lead over Retief Goosen after three rounds of the Nedbank Golf Challenge in Sun City, South Africa.

The U.S. men’s volleyball team’s hopes of qualifying for the 2004 Athens Olympics ended with a 25-20, 25-21, 25-23 loss to Brazil at the World Cup in Tokyo.

Brazil is unbeaten (10-0) in the tournament and earned a place in the Olympics. The loss by the Americans (7-3) assured Italy (8-1) and Serbia-Montenegro (8-1) of the other two qualifying spots.

Top-seeded USC powered its way past fourth-seeded California, 11-8, in the second round of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation water polo championships at Long Beach. Second-seeded Stanford scored three consecutive goals to surge past third-seeded UCLA, 9-7.

Passings

Tony Canadeo, a star halfback with the Green Bay Packers in the 1940s and 1950s and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, died Saturday at 84 in Green Bay, Wis.

Bob Wolf, who covered a variety of sports for The Times after retiring from the Milwaukee Journal in 1985, died Friday in Encinitas of complications related to a stroke he suffered in January. He was 81.