Sampras, Chang Enhance Davis Cup Bid

The United States will field the top two tennis players in the world in the Davis Cup semifinals against Australia next month. Pete Sampras and Michael Chang were named to the team Monday.

Tom Gullikson, captain of the U.S. team, also selected Jim Courier and Alex O’Brien for the matches, to be played on hard courts Sept. 19-21 in Washington, D.C.

“I think we’ve got possibly one of the strongest teams that America has ever fielded,” Gullikson said.

Sampras will be making his first Davis Cup appearance since leading the United States past Russia in the 1995 final.

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Boris Becker withdrew from the MFS Pro Championships at the Longwood Cricket Club at Brookline, Mass., because of the death of his manager, Axel Meyer-Woelden.

Meyer-Woelden, Becker’s manager since 1993, died in Munich of an unspecified illness. The tournament was to have been Becker’s final warmup for the U.S. Open, which starts next week. He has not played recently because of a knee injury.

Olympics

A Swedish hate group that says it objects to spending tax money on visiting foreign athletes claimed it would unleash a killing spree if the 2004 Olympics games are awarded to Stockholm.

“If Stockholm gets it, we will make the 1972 Olympic tragedy in Munich look like a kindergarten tiff,” said a letter sent to Associated Press in London and signed, V.S.B.S., the initials in Swedish of a group whose name translates as “We Who Built Sweden.”

The letter also included racial slurs and threats against blacks, Italians, Spaniards, Jews and others. Last week, the same Swedish group said it had planted the bomb Aug. 8 that wrecked a portion of Stockholm’s old Olympic stadium, where the games were held in 1912.

The World Track and Field Championships in Athens gave critics of the Greek capital’s Olympic bid a chance to snipe, and now Rome’s competing effort for the 2004 Games could feel the heat from sizzling Sicily--host of the World University Games.

The 19th edition of the event that gathers top collegiate athletes holds its opening ceremony today and runs through Aug. 31--five days before the International Olympic Committee selects a site for the 2004 Summer Games.

Rome is one of five finalists, along with Athens, Cape Town, Stockholm and Buenos Aires--and the University Games are seen as a final test of Italy’s ability to organize large events.

Hockey

Goaltender Mike Vernon, who led the Detroit Red Wings to their first Stanley Cup in 42 years, was traded to the San Jose Sharks for a second-round draft pick in 1999 and a conditional selection next season.

Vernon signed a three-year deal with San Jose worth a reported $2.75 million annually. He said there was some bitterness about the move from Detroit, but understood that the Red Wings were going with Chris Osgood as their No. 1 goalie and Kevin Hodson as his backup.

Mighty Duck defenseman David Karpa has signed a two-year contract, General Manager Jack Ferreira said.

Karpa, 26, one of the Ducks’ top defensive players since being acquired from the Quebec Nordiques in March 1995, will receive $800,000 this season and $900,000 in 1997-98 after winning an arbitration hearing Friday. The Ducks had offered $650,000.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman will rule today on the dispute surrounding the Chicago Blackhawks’ attempt to trade for forward Chris Gratton.

Soccer

Welton, who leads the Galaxy with nine goals, will be sidelined for at least two weeks after spraining his right ankle in Sunday’s 3-2 loss to the San Jose Clash.

The Galaxy also said that defender Greg Vanney is expected to return to the lineup Friday night after breaking a toe on his left foot in a home accident before Sunday’s game.

Ben Olsen and Johnny Torres each scored twice and the U.S. men’s soccer team opened play at the World University Games at Palermo, Sicily with a 4-0 victory over Nigeria in a preliminary match.

Miscellany

A federal appeals court in Cincinnati rejected an appeal by a basketball coach fired after being accused of making derogatory comments about a student of Polish descent.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s ruling against Horace Ludwig, who sued after Ferris State, in Big Rapids, Mich., decided in 1995 first to suspend him, then to fire him in May 1996.

Center Nate Huffman, an undrafted free agent who averaged 17.2 points and 11.0 rebounds for Central Michigan last season, has signed a contract with the Clippers.

Dr. Harry Silver, who helped found the Southern California Striders track team in 1955, has died of congestive heart failure. Services will be Wednesday at 11 a.m. at Malinow and Silverman Mortuary in Los Angeles.

Erick Strickland played only 28 NBA games, but he impressed the Dallas Mavericks enough during the second half of last season that they signed him to a six-year deal worth a reported $14.4 million.