Defeat Keeps Mauresmo From Moving Into No. 1

Alicia Molik defeated top-seeded Amelie Mauresmo, 7-6 (11), 6-1, Friday in the semifinals of the Qatar Open at Doha.

Mauresmo’s loss prevented her from regaining the No. 1 WTA Tour ranking on Monday from Lindsay Davenport.

It also ended her bid for consecutive titles after winning the Proximus Diamond Games in Antwerp last Sunday.

Molik, 17, will play second-seeded Maria Sharapova, who defeated Daniela Hantuchova, 6-2, 6-4, in the other semifinal.

The fourth-seeded Molik, who lost to Mauresmo in the Antwerp semifinals, reversed the outcome Friday despite a five-hour rain delay. She prevailed in the 24-point, first-set tiebreak when Mauresmo netted two consecutive returns after both fought off five set points.

Molik completed the victory with service breaks in the second and sixth games of the second set as a tiring Mauresmo committed a series of mistakes with long returns and poor volleys.

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Ivan Ljubicic beat third-seeded Tim Henman, 7-5, 6-4, in a rain-marred quarterfinal at the Dubai Open in the United Arab Emirates. In the only other match of the day, fifth-seeded Tommy Robredo beat Nicolas Kiefer, 6-4, 6-4.

The two remaining quarterfinals between two-time defending champion Roger Federer and seventh-seeded Mikhail Youzhny, and fourth-seeded Andre Agassi and sixth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko, were postponed to today because of persistent rain.

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Defending champion Vince Spadea returned to the Tennis Channel Open semifinals, eliminating James Blake, 7-6 (6), 6-1, at Scottsdale, Ariz.

The second-seeded Spadea also beat Blake in last year’s quarterfinals on the way to his only ATP title. He will play third-seeded Mario Ancic, who defeated Giovanni Lapentti, 6-1, 6-4.

Christophe Rochus and Wayne Arthurs also had straight-set victories. Rochus beat Davide Sanguinetti, 6-4, 6-3, and Arthurs beat Glenn Weiner, 6-3, 7-6 (3).

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Winter Sports

Anja Paerson of Sweden won a super-giant slalom to inaugurate the course at San Sicario, Italy, for next year’s Turin Olympics, her first victory in a speed event at the World Cup level.

Paerson boosted her lead in the overall standings and showed her win in the super-G at last month’s world championships was no fluke. She covered the Fraiteve Olympique course in 1 minute 31.85 seconds.

Isolde Kostner of Italy, an early starter, was second, 0.57 of a second behind, for her best result this season. Austria’s Michaela Dorfmeister and Slovenia’s Tina Maze tied for third, 0.65 behind.

World Cup ski jumping leader Janne Ahonen of Finland won the large-hill event at Oberstdorf, Germany, for the fifth gold medal of his career at the Nordic skiing world championships.

Ahonen, third in last week’s event on the normal hill, made two near-perfect jumps of more than 141 meters to win with 313.2 points. Norway’s Roar Ljoekelsoey won the silver (307.2) and the Czech Republic’s Jakub Janda won the bronze (304.2).

Apolo Ohno and Hyo Jung Kim won 1,500-meter races at the U.S. national short-track speedskating championships at West Allis, Wis.

Ohno, the top-ranked skater in the world, charged from fifth to first midway through his race, beating Rusty Smith of Long Beach. Ohno won in 2 minutes 22.949 seconds.

Kim, 16, of Fullerton, who last November won her first World Cup race in a meet in Madison, Wis., held off Allison Baver to win in 2:33.144.

Former U.S. pairs figure skating champions Tiffany Scott, 27, and Philip Dulebohn, 31, announced they are ending their eight-year partnership, and that he is retiring.

The pair, who finished 13th at the Salt Lake City Olympics, have been skating together since 1996. They were fourth at last month’s U.S. championships.

Scott and Dulebohn won their only U.S. title in 2003 after being second the previous three years. They went to four world championships, finishing as high as seventh in 2002.

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Soccer

Robert Hoyzer, the referee at the center of Germany’s game-fixing scandal was released from prison in Frankfurt. He was arrested two weeks ago because authorities feared he would flee the country. His passport was seized and he must report three times a week to police, said Michael Grunwald of the Berlin prosecutor’s office.

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Miscellany

Bruce Schwab became the first American to complete the around-the-world Vendee Globe regatta. The 44-year-old sailor from Oakland arrived at Les Sables d’Olonne on France’s Atlantic coast, finishing ninth.

Schwab skippered his 60-foot Ocean Planet over 23,680 miles of often choppy waters in 109 days 19 hours 58 minutes and 57 seconds at an average speed of 8.98 knots. He finished more than 22 days after France’s Vincent Riou crossed first on Feb. 2.

Stanford expanded on its big lead during the third day of competition at the Pacific 10 Conference women’s swimming and diving championships at Federal Way, Wash.

The defending champion Cardinal has scored 1,060 points through 14 of 21 events over the first three days of the four-day meet and has a 235-point lead over second-place Arizona.

UC Santa Barbara’s Pat Cary broke the meet record in the men’s 100-yard butterfly during preliminaries and then did it again in the finals, touching in 47.69 at the Big West Conference swimming and diving championships at Belmont Plaza.

UC Irvine diver Anton Slobounov won his fifth conference title, this one in one-meter diving, to become the winningest male diver in Big West history.

Pacific leads the men’s competition after three of four days with 615 points, followed by UC Santa Barbara (589) and UC Irvine (443.5). The Anteaters top the women’s standings with 565 points. Pacific is second with 510.