Hawks Match Jazz Offer to Terry

The Atlanta Hawks matched a three-year, $22.5-million offer sheet that guard Jason Terry signed with the Utah Jazz, the club’s first significant move under new ownership.

The Hawks, who last week were sold along with Atlanta’s NHL Thrashers to a group of eight investors for about $250 million, had until today to match Utah’s offer.

Terry, 26, has spent the first four years of his NBA career with the Hawks, averaging 16.1 points and 5.6 assists in 322 games. His .887 free-throw percentage last season ranked sixth in the league.

Terry averaged 17.2 points and a career-best 7.4 assists last season.

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Tennis

U.S. Open champion Justine Henin-Hardenne and runner-up Kim Clijsters easily won their first matches since the Grand Slam event to advance to the quarterfinals of the Sparkassen Cup in Leipzig, Germany.

The second-seeded Clijsters defeated Jelena Dokic, 6-3, 6-4. The top-seeded Henin-Hardenne won 11 consecutive games during her 6-1, 6-2 victory over Denisa Chladkova.

Top-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero struggled past unseeded Alex Bogomolov Jr., 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-1, at the Thailand Open in Nonthaburi in a match delayed 15 minutes by a power outage.

Ferrero’s quarterfinal opponent will be Gregory Carraz, who defeated Alexander Popp, 7-5, 6-2. Third-seeded Carlos Moya beat Brian Vahaly, 7-5, 6-4, and fifth-seeded Jarkko Nieminen defeated Bohdan Ulihrach, 6-4, 6-2.

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Miscellany

The U.S. will be able to send a rhythmic gymnast to next year’s Athens Olympics thanks to two-time national champion Mary Sanders, who finished ninth in the all-around preliminaries at the Rhythmic World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

It is the highest finish ever by an American, and it guarantees the U.S. a spot in the Olympics.

Anna Bessonova of Ukraine was in first place after the preliminaries. Neither of the other two U.S. gymnasts qualified for the final. Olga Karmansky finished 47th, Lisa Wang 70th.

As expected, the Michigan basketball team won its appeal and will be eligible to play in the 2004 NCAA tournament.

The decision to overturn the ban handed down in May was made by the NCAA’s infractions appeals committee, the organization announced.

Michigan’s successful appeal concludes all NCAA procedures regarding the Ed Martin scandal. Martin, who died earlier this year, had been accused of making illicit cash payments totaling $616,000 to former players Chris Webber, Maurice Taylor, Louis Bullock and Robert Traylor.

Ben Olsen scored early and Ronald Cerritos added a goal late to lead D.C. United to a 2-0 victory over the MetroStars in front of 8,077 at East Rutherford, N.J. United (10-9-6, 36 points) moved within a point of the MetroStars (10-8-7) in Major League Soccer’s Eastern Conference.

The Buffalo Destroyers of the Arena Football League are moving to Columbus, Ohio, after failing to negotiate a lease with the new owners of the HSBC Arena in Buffalo.

Goossen Tutor Boxing announced that former WBC middleweight champion Keith Holmes of Washington will meet Jason Papillion of Broussard, La., in an eight-round bout on the Evander Holyfield-James Toney card Oct. 4 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.