Hingis Is Already No. 1 in Seles’ Book

Martina Hingis, 16, on Monday will officially become the world’s No. 1-ranked female tennis player, the youngest to earn that distinction.

But even without the rankings, that fact would have been obvious to anyone watching the final match of the Lipton Championships Saturday at Key Biscayne, Fla. Hingis needed only 44 minutes to defeat Monica Seles, 6-2, 6-1, improving to 26-0 this year by staging a nearly perfect performance.

“I almost didn’t make one mistake,� Hingis said. “It was just a perfect match.�

No argument from Seles, who described Hingis as “awesome.�

Steffi Graf, who missed the Lipton because of a knee injury, will drop to second in the rankings.

Soccer

Defender Gheorghe Popescu scored four goals at Bucharest to lead front-running Romania to an 8-0 route of Liechtenstein, and Italy moved into first place in its group by beating Moldova, 3-0, at Trieste in World Cup qualifiers.

Romania (4-0) leads Group Eight with 12 points, five ahead of Ireland (2-0-1) and Macedonia (2-2-1). Italy (4-0) leads Group Two with 12 points, three ahead of England (3-1) and nine in front of Poland (1-1).

Track and Field

The USC women’s squad, defending Pacific 10 champions, upset 10-time defending NCAA champion Louisiana State, 79-66, at Cromwell Field. In the men’s competition, LSU edged USC, 80-79.

Five Cromwell Field records were set or tied in the five-team meet.

Olympian Todd Williams overcame Kenya’s Sammy Nyamongo to win the Crescent City Classic--USA Track & Field’s 10K men’s championship--in 28 minutes 50 seconds at New Orleans.

Winter Sports

Three skaters crashed into each other just before the finish line, allowing Yang Yang of China to skate to the victory in the women’s 500 meters at the World Short Track Speedskating Championships in Nagano, Japan.

Isabelle Charest of Canada, the defending champion, was leading when she fell to the ice with Marinella Canclini of Italy and Wang Chunlu of China.

Two-time Olympian Ann Battelle of Steamboat Springs, Colo., completed the best season of her international ski career by winning her third national moguls championship at Sugarloaf-USA in Carrabassett Valley, Maine.

Donovan Power, an unheralded 19-year-old from Missoula, Mont., skied to his first national moguls title.

Auto Racing

Dick Trickle won his first NASCAR Busch Grand National series race, capturing the 300-lap Galaxy Foods 300 at Hickory Motor Speedway in North Carolina.

Jacques Villeneuve, driving a Williams-Renault, won the pole position for today’s Brazilian Grand Prix at Sao Paulo, averaging 126.042 mph around the 2.687-mile Jose Carlos Pace track.

College Baseball

Troy Glaus hit solo home runs in the fifth and sixth innings at UCLA to lead the Bruins to an 8-1 victory over California. . . . Robb Gorr’s two hits and three runs batted in led 12th-ranked USC to an 11-7 victory over No. 13 Arizona State at Tempe.

Miscellany

Auburn won its first national sports title by running away with the NCAA men’s swimming and diving championships. The Tigers scored 496.5 points, well ahead of Stanford with 340.

USC finished sixth with 235 points. The Trojans’ Lenny Krayzelburg won the 200-yard backstroke Saturday.

David Hoogsteen and Matt Henderson each scored twice at Milwaukee during a five-goal second period, leading North Dakota to a 6-4 victory over Boston University, giving the school its first NCAA hockey title in 10 years.

Elton Brand of Peekskill, N.Y., scored 16 points to lead the East to a 94-81 victory over the West in the McDonald’s All-American High School Basketball Game at the Air Force Academy in Colorado.

West guard Kenny Gregory of Columbus, Ohio, who will play for Kansas, earned MVP honors by leading all scorers with 18 points.

Rick Steelsmith, showing he is all the way back from a shoulder injury that once put his career in jeopardy, beat Brian Voss, 218-190, at Toledo, Ohio, to win the Pro Bowlers Assn. national championship.

Cambridge scored its fifth consecutive victory in the 143rd Boat Race in London, pulling ahead of Oxford in the final 1 1/2 miles to win by six seconds in one of the closest races in an event first run in 1829.

Names in the News

Free agent Dave Krieg, 38, quarterback for six NFL playoff teams, agreed to a two-year contract with the Houston Oilers. . . . Anthony Roberts, who played basketball at Oral Roberts and in the NBA, was found shot to death outside his Tulsa, Okla., apartment. No arrests have been made.