Williams, Davenport to See Who’s Best in West Final

Venus Williams, seeded second, advanced to the final of the Bank of the West Classic by defeating ninth-seeded Anna Kournikova, 6-4, 7-5, in a semifinal match Saturday at Palo Alto.

Williams, who made her professional debut at this event when it was held at Oakland in 1994, was aggressive from the start against Kournikova, breaking serve twice in the first five games of the first set.

In today’s final, Williams will face top-seeded Lindsay Davenport, who defeated fourth-seeded Monica Seles, 7-5, 7-6 (2). Williams lost to Davenport in the final of this tournament the last two years.

“I became the victim the last two years,” said Williams, who beat Davenport to win the Wimbledon title in June. “Hopefully I won’t be this year. I’ve played this tournament six times. I’d love to win here.”

Said Davenport: “It’s kind of weird. That’s three in a row where I’m playing the same person in the same tournament. That’s never happened to me, but we’ve had some good finals and this is a good start for us on the hardcourt season.”

Williams said her serve, which reached 117 mph against Kournikova, is still getting better.

“I’m going forward and by the time the U.S. Open rolls around, I’m going to be pretty devastating,” she said. “I still have to clean up my act some.”

She had 11 double faults Saturday.

After Williams took a 5-1 lead in the first set, Kournikova came back to make the score 5-4 before Williams held serve to take the set.

“I just started to play a little late,” said Kournikova, who reached her fourth semifinal of the year but has yet to win a tournament singles title. “It took me time to get used to the points. It was a completely broken rhythm.”

The second set was far more competitive as the two players broke serve in the first three games, with Williams taking a 3-1 lead. Kournikova came back to take a 4-3 lead as Williams double-faulted three times in one game and couldn’t seem to handle Kournikova’s serve in another.

“It was just a lot of technical breakdowns,” Williams said. “A point here and a point there and suddenly you’re in a third set and you’re opponent has a lot of confidence. I made it a lot harder on myself than it should have been.”

A two-time champion at this event, Seles stormed out to a 4-1 lead in the opening set against Davenport. But Davenport won the next three games and went ahead for good, breaking Seles’ serve in the 11th game.

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Top-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia was eliminated from the Generali Open at Kitzbuehel, Austria, when he was beaten by Francisco Clavet of Spain, 6-3, 6-2, in a quarterfinal match that was interrupted by rain Friday.

Then Clavet was beaten in the semifinals by compatriot Emilio Alvarez, 6-3, 7-5. In today’s final, Alvarez will face second-seeded Alex Corretja, also of Spain. Corretja beat Agustin Calleri of Argentina, 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-2, in the other semifinal.

In another rain-interrupted quarterfinal completed earlier in the day, Alvarez beat Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (1).

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Sergi Bruguera defeated Diego Nargiso of Italy, 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-3, to set up an all-Spanish final in the San Marino Open.

Today’s final will pit Bruguera against countryman Alex Calatrava, who advanced when Andrei Medvedev of Ukraine withdrew because of an ankle injury. Bruguera won the French Open in 1993 and 1994 but has since fallen out of the top 100.

Auto Racing

Juan Montoya of Colombia, the hottest driver on the CART circuit, won his series-leading fifth pole of the season and set a Chicago Motor Speedway qualifying record with a lap of 167.567 mph to top qualifiers for today’s Target Grand Prix at Cicero, Ill.

Montoya, 24, whose victory last year in the inaugural Target Grand Prix was among his seven in 1999, is coming off a dramatic victory last Sunday in the Michigan 500.

Montoya, driving a Toyota-powered Lola, was among 17 drivers who surpassed the old track qualifying record of 162.559 mph, set by Max Papis last August.

Montoya also won a CART event on the one-mile oval in Milwaukee the week after taking the rival Indy Racing League’s Indianapolis 500 on May 28.

Said Montoya, who had some bad luck and mechanical problems in the first half of the season: “The year has been pretty up and down. Being on the pole here really pumps us up.”

David Coulthard of Great Britain earned the pole for today’s German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, Germany, his second pole of the Formula One season.

Coulthard, driving in a light rain, maneuvered his McLaren-Mercedes around the 4.240-mile circuit in 1 minute 45.697 seconds at an average speed of 144.472 mph.

Rival Michael Schumacher of Germany, driving a Ferrari, earned the No. 2 spot.

Rookie Kevin Harvick got the first victory of his NASCAR Busch Series career, taking the Carquest Auto Parts 250 at Madison, Ill. Jeff Purvis, in a Pontiac, was second, finishing 1.338 seconds behind Harvick’s Chevrolet.

Olympics

Swedish hurdler Ludmila Engquist, the 100-meter hurdles champion in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and a two-time world champion, has retired from track and field. Engquist, born in Tambov, Russia, moved to Sweden in 1993. Engquist, 36, came back from breast cancer last year to win a bronze medal in the 100-meter hurdles in the World Championships at Seville, Spain.

Engquist’s new goal is to win a bobsledding medal at the Winter Olympics in 2002.

“I don’t want to be No. 2 or 3,” she said.

The tenacious athlete said she has not yet actually tried the sport, but hopes to start serious training with Swedish long jumper Annika Sandstroem in about six weeks.

Boston Marathon winner Elijah Lagat of Kenya reportedly will join Kenya’s three-man Olympic marathon team, replacing Ondoro Osoro, who was shot in the neck by carjackers last Sunday.

Lagat, who won at Boston in 2:09:47, was among three marathoners dropped from the team by the Kenyan Amateur Athletics Assn. The other two marathoners dropped from the team were two-time Boston Marathon winner Moses Tanui, who finished three seconds behind Lagat this year, and Tokyo Marathon winner Japhet Kosgei. Tanui and Kosgei said they were removed because they criticized the Kenyan track group and urged the resignation of its directors.

Osoro was put on the team July 22. He was shot in the neck the next day in Nairobi when carjackers stole his vehicle with his pregnant wife and young daughter inside. They were later released unharmed, but Osoro remains hospitalized.

Jurisprudence

North Carolina defensive end and basketball reserve Julius Peppers will have his day in court in Hillsborough, N.C., on Friday instead of Aug. 28. Because of a magistrate’s error, the case had been assigned to Aug. 28.

Peppers was charged with misdemeanor assault and battery after an incident that allegedly occurred early July 21 outside a restaurant. An 18-year-old from Mebane, N.C., claims that Peppers hit him with a forearm and stomped on a friend.

Names in the News

Dee Brown, a guard who has played the last three seasons for the Toronto Raptors, told the Orlando Sentinel he will join the Orlando Magic for the league minimum for a 10-year veteran--$1 million a year.

Scott Pellerin, picked up by the Minnesota Wild from the St. Louis Blues in the June NHL expansion draft, has agreed to terms with the Wild. Last season with the Blues, Pellerin had eight goals and 15 assists.

Top U.S. snowboarder Chris Klug was doing well Saturday after a liver transplant 24 hours earlier in Denver.