Davenport Again Takes the Prize at Amelia Island

Maybe Lindsay Davenport’s clay-court success at Amelia Island, Fla., will finally carry over to the French Open.

Davenport’s powerful serve helped her offset 36 unforced errors and beat Silvia Farina Elia, 7-5, 7-5, Sunday to win the Bausch & Lomb Championships for the second consecutive year.

“This is a huge win for me,” Davenport said. “Whenever I can win on clay and in a really tough tournament, it gives me a lot of excitement.”

It also could give her more confidence heading into the French Open next month. Davenport hasn’t reached the quarterfinals at Roland Garros since 1999. The French also is the only Grand Slam title that eludes Davenport, who won the U.S. Open in 1998, Wimbledon in 1999 and the Australian Open in 2000.

The cushy, green clay at the Amelia Island Plantation has been much more kind.

Davenport won here in 1997 and then again last year. She joined Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Steffi Graf and Gabriela Sabatini as the event’s only three-time winners.

Davenport trailed 5-4 in the second set but broke Farina Elia twice to win her 47th career singles title.

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Mariano Puerta of Argentina beat countryman Juan Monaco, 6-4, 6-1, to win the Casablanca Grand Prix Hassan II in Morocco.

The sixth-seeded Puerta dominated Monaco at the clay-court event to win his third career title and first since a victory at Bogota, Colombia, in 2000.

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Seventh-seeded Igor Andreev won the Valencia Open in Spain with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 victory over fifth-seeded David Ferrer for his first ATP title.

Andreev broke Ferrer four times in the deciding set to win the clay-court event in 2 hours 9 minutes.

Soccer

Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo and Raul Gonzalez scored first-half goals to help Real Madrid to a 4-2 victory over Spanish league leader FC Barcelona in the 150th league meeting between the country’s biggest teams.

League-leading scorer Samuel Eto’o scored his 21st goal of the season for Barcelona, but the Cameroon striker was carried off with a right knee injury in the second half. The club said he may be sidelined for more than a month.

Monterrey beat previously undefeated Morelia, 2-1, in the Mexican league.

Luis Perez converted a penalty kick in the 66th minute for Monterrey, then Luis Gabriel Rey tied in the 75th.

Sergio Perez secured Monterrey’s victory deflecting in Pablo Rotchen’s pass nine minutes from the end.

Fans at a Scottish Cup game jeered during a minute’s silence for Pope John Paul II, forcing the tribute to be cut short.

The booing by Hearts fans came before the semifinal against Celtic, which has mostly Catholic fans. Referee Stuart Dougal ended the memorial less than halfway through because of the noise.

Hearts Chief Executive Phil Anderton criticized the fans’ conduct and apologized to Celtic and the Scottish Football Assn.

Miscellany

The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin newspaper apologized to Bo Jackson and retracted part of an article saying the former football and baseball star used steroids.

“Jackson has stated publicly he has never used steroids,” the paper said on its website. “We retract the quote and the further statement that the speaker personally witnessed this damage to his life. We apologize to Mr. Jackson, without reservation.”

Jackson’s attorney, Dan Biederman, said a defamation suit would continue, adding that he had no comment on the newspaper’s retraction.

The International Assn of Athletic Federations executive council proposed that athletes who switch nationalities must wait three years before they can compete for their new country.

Previously, athletes could compete almost immediately, as long as they had gone three years without representing their old country in IAAF competition.

Greg Cuyler, once the eighth-ranked amateur flyweight in the country, was shot to death in Hartford, Conn. Cuyler, 23, was shot in the chest and leg.