Knee Injury Sidelines Davenport

Lindsay Davenport will sit out the Australian Open for the first time in her professional tennis career because of a chronically injured right knee. The No. 1-ranked Davenport may require surgery because of cartilage damage.

“She realizes it’s not a nagging injury and it is something to address,” her agent, Tony Godsick, said Monday. “We will know more in the next day or two.”

The Australian Open begins Monday at Melbourne, and Davenport would have been the top-seeded player. She won the event in 2000 and has reached the semifinals three other times.

The knee kept Davenport out of action twice for long periods in 2001, most recently after the season-ending tour championships in November at Munich, Germany.

She reclaimed the No. 1 ranking in the semifinals against Kim Clijsters but suffered the injury late in the match and was unable to play the final against Serena Williams.

Davenport rested the knee after the championships, resumed hitting in December but reinjured the knee early last week.

Lisa Dillman

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Anna Kournikova won her first-round match in straight sets, advancing to a showdown with Serena Williams in the Adidas International at Sydney, Australia.

Kournikova beat Angeles Montolio of Spain, 6-4, 6-2.

Williams, ranked No. 6, will be playing her first match this season.

Amanda Coetzer of South Africa beat wild card Jaslyn Hewitt of Australia, 6-0, 6-1. Hewitt is the sister of men’s world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt.

In the men’s competition, Wayne Ferreira of South Africa ousted fifth-seeded Arnaud Clement of France, 6-2, 6-4; Lee Hyung-taik of South Korea defeated seventh-seeded Carlos Moya of Spain, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4); Max Mirnyi of Belarus defeated Australian Davis Cup finalist Wayne Arthurs, 7-5, 7-6 (4); and Andy Roddick defeated Australia’s Andrew Ilie, 6-4, 6-4.

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Petra Mandula of Hungary beat Francesca Schiavone of Italy, 6-1, 7-6 (4), in the first round of the Canberra Women’s Classic at Canberra, Australia.

Rachel McQuillan defeated former French Open champion and eighth-seeded Iva Majoli of Croatia, 6-4, 6-2. Australian Amanda Grahame advanced when Barbara Rittner of Germany retired while trailing, 7-5, 2-0.

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Wild card Mark Nielsen beat seventh-seeded Andreas Vinciguerra, 7-6 (5), 6-4, in the first round of the Heineken Open at Auckland, New Zealand.

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Rain forced the postponement of the first day of competition in the Tasmanian International tournament at Hobart, Australia.

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Australia will not commit to a Davis Cup match against Argentina at Buenos Aires on Feb. 8-10 until it receives a satisfactory security report from the International Tennis Federation.

Political and social upheaval has followed Argentina’s slide toward bankruptcy, with recent rioting and looting in the national capital forcing the ITF to send a delegation to Argentina to investigate security arrangements.

College Football

Arkansas sophomore quarterback Zak Clark was granted his release by the school, clearing the way for him to transfer.

Clark would have to sit out a year if he went to another Division I-A school, but he could play immediately at a lower level.

Kentucky tight end Derek Smith will skip his senior season and make himself eligible for April’s NFL draft.

Smith has been Kentucky’s starting tight end the last two seasons. He caught 30 passes for 396 yards and four touchdowns last season, finishing 10th in school history with 89 catches for 1,224 yards.

Junior college running back Jermaine Green signed with Washington State and will enroll next week. Green, 6 feet 2 and 228 pounds, rushed for 1,010 yards last season at Butler County Community College in Kansas.

Jacksonville Jaguar assistant Bobby Petrino was hired as Auburn’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.... New Southern Methodist Coach Phil Bennett rounded out his staff by hiring Bob Fello as interior defensive line coach and Jim Gush as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach.

Miscellany

Swedish cyclist Nicklas Axelsson was reportedly banned from competition for four years after he tested positive for traces of the banned endurance-boosting drug EPO.

The Swedish news agency TT said that Axelsson was tested after the road race in the World Cycling Championships in October at Portugal, where he finished 18th.

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Hermann Maier’s injuries showed improvement, but it’s unclear whether the Austrian skiing star will be able to compete in the Salt Lake City Olympics.

Maier broke his right leg and suffered nerve damage in his left leg in a motorcycle accident in August.

“The skin graft has healed well, the bone has regenerated well. For the moment, Hermann only has slight problems with his left leg,” Maier’s surgeon, Dr. Arthur Trost, told the Austria Press Agency.

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Lightweight Julio Diaz (23-1, 17 knockouts) will headline a boxing card at the Hollywood Palladium on Jan. 18 that will be the first two-hour show in a series broadcast by Telefutura, a new Univision network.

The show will be broadcast live on the East Coast and on tape delay in the West.

Passings

Scott Drysdale, a former scout for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers and father of Hall of Fame pitcher Don, died Friday at age 90.

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Former NFL halfback and USC All-American Jim Sears, has died. He was 70. Sears led USC to a win over Wisconsin in the 1953 Rose Bowl.

In 1952, Sears led the Trojans in passing (712 yards), total offense (1,030 yards), scoring (36 points), and punt returns (478 yards). He was an assistant coach at USC in 1959.