Horna Beats Srichaphan and Faces Hewitt Next

Paradorn Srichaphan’s bid to become only the second man to win the $380,000 TD Waterhouse Cup in three successive years ended when he lost, 1-6, 6-4, 7-6, to Luis Horna of Peru in a semifinal Saturday night in Commack, N.Y.

The defending champion from Thailand, who was trying to duplicate the feat of Ivan Lendl, raced through the opening set in 25 minutes and led, 2-0, in the second before Horna stormed back to advance to his first ATP Tour final, where he will meet former world No. 1 and second-seeded Lleyton Hewitt of Australia.

Hewitt advanced to the final when Russia’s Dimitry Tursanov quit because of a back injury after Hewitt won the opening game of the second set. Hewitt had taken the first set, 6-3.

Tursanov, who is 21 and has been living in California since he was 12, has a history of back trouble.

“I was surprised that he stopped playing,” Hewitt said. “My first set was solid, and winning on break point put extra pressure on him.”

Hewitt will be playing in his third consecutive final. He won in Washington last week and was runner-up in Cincinnati before that. He has won 14 of 15 matches and is 52-13 for the year, including 32-5 on hard courts.

*

Elena Bovina of Russia withstood on-court heat of 100 degrees and beat friend and practice partner Nathalie Dechy of France, 6-2, 2-6, 7-5, to win the Pilot Pen tournament in New Haven, Conn.

Martina Navratilova failed to win her 175th career doubles title as she and Lisa Raymond lost, 6-1, 1-6, 7-6 (4), to Meghann Shaughnessy and Russian Nadia Petrova.

The seventh-seeded Bovina won her third WTA title in a U.S. Open tuneup in which there was a 10-minute break before the third set because of the sweltering conditions.

The 47-year-old Navratilova and Raymond are scheduled to play doubles at the U.S. Open. Navratilova said she and Raymond should have won.

“We lost because we couldn’t break serve in the third set. They were holding better than we were,” Navratilova said.

*

Top-seeded Elena Likhovtseva of Russia won the Forest Hills Classic in New York, defeating fourth-seeded Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic, 6-2, 6-2. Likhovtseva won her third title in her 12 years on the WTA Tour.

Soccer

Manchester United has made a second bid for Wayne Rooney, the 18-year-old striker’s Everton club reported.

The bid was higher than the unsuccessful $42.2 million transfer offer Newcastle made earlier this week, Everton said in a statement on its website.

Arsenal extended its record league unbeaten streak to 44 games with a 4-1 victory at Norwich, and 18-year-old American defender Jonathan Spector made his Premier League debut in Manchester United’s 1-1 tie at Blackburn.

Jose Antonio Reyes, Thierry Henry and Robert Pires scored in the first half and Dennis Bergkamp added another goal for Arsenal, helping the defending champion maintain first place. Darren Huckerby scored for Norwich.

Joe Cannon made several clutch saves to shut out his former team in the Colorado Rapids’ 0-0 tie with the San Jose Earthquakes in an MLS game at San Jose. The Rapids (8-7-9) remained in third place in the Western Conference. San Jose (8-7-7) dropped to the conference cellar.

In other MLS games:

Matt Reis had seven saves for the New England Revolution (5-9-9), who played to a 0-0 tie with D.C. United (6-8-9) at Foxboro, Mass. Reis denied United’s best scoring chance in the 32nd minute when Josh Gros delivered a close-range shot. United remains in third place in the Eastern Conference, three points ahead of New England.

Eddie Johnson scored two goals and Ronnie O’Brien had a goal and two assists to lead the Dallas Burn to a 4-1 victory over the Chicago Fire at Dallas. With the four goals, Dallas (9-9-5) eclipsed its goal total for its last six games. Nate Jacqua scored for Chicago (5-10-8), which is a point behind New England for the final Eastern Conference playoff spot.

High Schools

Nick Krempasky caught a 10-yard touchdown pass from Bradley Donnelly and ran for a four-yard touchdown for San Clemente, which opened the Southern California football season late Friday night with a 31-7 victory over host Lihue, Hawaii. Mike Cook also scored for the Tritons on an 80-yard run.

The Southern Section will play its Division I, II and VI championship football games on Dec. 10-11 at Angel Stadium.

The Southern Section announced it will not hold a Division I semifinal doubleheader on Dec. 4 because it would conflict with the USC-UCLA football game that day.

Jordan Wilkes, a 6-foot-10 senior center at Los Angeles Loyola, has committed to California, where he’ll join his brother, Omar, who recently transferred from Kansas.

T.J. Simers has the day off.