Sports: Sports briefs

Sports briefs

Compiled from Times wires

Shaky Sampras ends unusual losing streak

Pete Sampras, ending a three-match losing streak that was his longest in four years, served and volleyed his way over David Prinosil 6-4, 6-4 in Monday's first round of the men's Masters Series tournament at Indian Wells, Calif.

Sampras, though ragged at times, served 19 aces to nine by Prinosil and dominated net points 30-17.

"When you don't play a lot of matches, there's kind of a tendency to be a little spotty with your game," Sampras said. "You force it. When you win, you get into a certain rhythm."

Defending champion and No. 8 seed Alex Corretja defeated Gaston Gaudio 3-6, 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-4) and Andre Agassi beat Hicham Arazi 6-3, 6-2.

Martina Hingis, Venus Williams and Lindsay Davenport won in straight sets to go to the women's quarterfinals. Hingis beat Barbara Schett 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), defending champion and No. 2 Davenport beat Lisa Raymond 6-4, 6-2 and No. 3 Williams beat Rachel McQuillan 6-4, 6-2.

HORSES: For the second straight year, Delay of Game won the Tampa Bay Breeders' Cup Stakes. Favored Johnny Dollar was second by half a length in the 1-1/16 mile turf race. ... Punkin Head won the 1 1/8-mile $84,425 Robsphere Stakes for 3-year olds at Gulfstream over Act Of Reform.

OLYMPICS: A proposed 75,000-seat stadium in east London would be the centerpiece of a possible bid for the 2012 Games under preliminary proposals drawn up by the British Olympic Association.

SOCCER: The Mutiny waived two players picked in this year's draft, defender Mersim Beskovic and goalkeeper Adam Throop. The Mutiny's scheduled Aug. 8 game against Los Angeles moved to May9. ... Lee Bowyer, among four players from English club Leeds charged in an attack on an Asian student, took the stand for the first time and denied being at the scene. Sarfraz Najeib, 20, was beaten unconscious and sustained multiple facial and leg injuries in the incident in January 2000.

TRACK AND FIELD: The sport's governing body reversed its stance and ended the suspension of eight Germans who ran in a race with former Olympic champion Dieter Baumann, who had been banned two years for a positive for nandrolone. IAAF rules prohibit athletes from facing banned competitors.

COLLEGES: Florida State's scheduled baseball game against Northern Iowa was canceled because of the possibility of severe weather. It will not be rescheduled. FSU right-hander Blair Varnes was named ACC Pitcher of the Week. ... In men's tennis, host Wake Forest defeated FSU 6-1. Xavier Luscan won for FSU at No. 1 singles. Host South Florida won five of six singles matches and beat Memphis 5-2. ... In women's tennis, host Florida swept Wake Forest 7-0. Visiting FSU beat Loyola Marymount 4-3, making coach Lise Gregory second in wins at FSU with 69.

RATINGS: In the overnight numbers, based on 49 major markets, NASCAR was the highest-rated sports event on television for the fourth straight weekend. Sunday's Cracker Barrel 500 got a 5.7 rating (percentage of TVs) and 13 share (percent of TVs in use at the time) on Fox. CBS's NCAA basketball tournament show was second-highest overnight, 5.5/10.

FIELD HOCKEY: The United States beat Venezuela 10-0 in the Americas Cup women's tournament at Kingston, Jamaica.

CYCLING: Richard Virenque's ban for taking performance-enhancing drugs during the 1998 Tour de France was upheld but was reduced from nine months to seven. He will miss July's Tour de France and be eligible to return in August. ... Axel Merckx injured his knee in a crash and dropped out of the Paris-Nice race.

IDITAROD: Doug Swingley built on his lead in the sled dog race in Unalakleet, Alaska, to close in on a possible third straight victory. Swingley left the Shaktoolik checkpoint at 7:58 a.m. for the 58-mile run across ice-covered Norton Bay to Koyuk. Nearly seven hours behind Swingley, Linwood Fiedler passed three-time champion Jeff King for second.

OBITUARY: Phil Berger, a sports writer, screenwriter and author who specialized in boxing, died of cancer at 59. He collaborated with former heavyweight champs Joe Frazier and Larry Holmes on their autobiographies and wrote Forever Showtime -- The Checkered Life of Pistol Pete Maravich and Miracle on 33rd Street, about the Knicks' 1969-70 championship season.