It’s Child’s Play for Hingis in Upset Victory Over Seles

Sixteen-year-old Martina Hingis stunned No. 1-seeded Monica Seles, 6-2, 6-0, Sunday in the final of the Bank of the West Classic in Oakland.

Hingis, seeded third, needed only 52 minutes to win her first career meeting with Seles, 22, the winner of nine Grand Slam titles.

Seles went into the match tied for the No. 2 ranking in the world, and will regain a share of No. 1 with Steffi Graf this week when the world computer rankings are updated.

Hingis, who defeated Graf earlier this year in the Italian Open, will advance from seventh to sixth in the rankings. Her victory Sunday, worth $79,000, lifted her career earnings above the $1 million mark, making her the youngest player, male or female, to reach that pinnacle.

Seles held serve only once in the match as Hingis kept her running and groping with a variety of drop and diagonal shots. Hingis won the first-serve point on 17 of 23 tries.

After the players split the first two games, Hingis bolted to a 5-1 lead in the first set. Hingis overpowered Seles with her serve, cornered her with diagonal passing shots and left her flat-footed with drop shots.

In the fifth game, Hingis won all four points as Seles was unable to return any of her serves.

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Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia, eliminated in the first round a year ago, defeated Russian star Yevgeny Kafelnikov 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 to win the Kremlin Cup ATP tennis tournament at Moscow.

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Thomas Enqvist won his second consecutive ATP tournament, beating Todd Martin, 7-5, 6-4, 7-6 (7-0), to capture the Stockholm Open for the second year in a row.

Enqvist, who took the Paris Open last week, has lost only one set during his last 10 matches.

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Fourth-seeded Hernan Gumy upset top-seeded Marelo Rios of Chile 6-4, 7-5 in the final of the Hellmann’s Cup at Santiago.

Golf

Jay Sigel’s steady, consistent play led to his first major victory and switched the focus from his easy Senior Tour Championship win at Myrtle Beach, S.C., worth $280,000, to the season’s money race between Hale Irwin and Jim Colbert.

Sigel, the country’s best amateur player in the early 1980s, shot a 72 and finished at nine-under 279, two in front of Kermit Zarley and four up on defending champ Colbert and rookie John Bland.

Sigel came into the final round with a three-stroke lead and was never less than two ahead at The Dunes Golf & Beach Club in the season-ending Senior PGA Tour event.

It was his second career Senior victory and first since 1994, the year he turned pro.

With Sigel up by as much as six strokes, attention switched to Colbert’s successful run at the money lead. Irwin came in with $1,572,894 and led Colbert by $66,004. And it looked like Irwin would hold on after shooting a 70 and watching Colbert bogey No. 17.

But Colbert, who caught Dave Stockton for the 1995 money title by winning the Senior Tour Championship, stared down an 18-foot birdie putt and rapped it in on the last hole.

Colbert finished with a Senior’s record $1,627,890, $12,121 better than runner-up Irwin.

Paul Stankowski birdied the final hole for a 68, and held off Fred Couples and win the $1.2 million Kapalua International by one stroke at Kapalua, Hawaii.

Stankowski, who held a one stroke lead starting the final round, finished with a 72-hole total of 269, 21-under.

Couples, who played in the group ahead of the winner, momentarily tied the match at 19-under when he made an eagle on the 555-yard 15th. He then narrowly missed an eagle to tie on the final hole when his 20-foot putt slid by the hole by a foot.

South Africa’s Ernie Els parred the first playoff hole against Ian Woosnam of Wales and won the $100,000 first prize in the four-country, eight-player Johnnie Walker Super Tour at Bangkok. . . . Two-time defending champion Laura Davies shot a six-under 66 to win the Itoen Ladies by a record 15 strokes at Chosei, Japan.

Miscellany

Monica Rodrigues and Adriana Samuel of Brazil defeated top-seeded Sandra Pires and Jackie Silva, also of Brazil, 12-10, 12-8, in the final of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship Series event at Salvador.

The major league all-stars couldn’t hold two late leads and settled for an 8-8 tie against a team of Japanese stars in the final game of an exhibition baseball series in Tokyo. The Americans finished with four victories, two losses and two ties. Dodger catcher Mike Piazza hit a two-run homer for the all-stars.