Muster Puts Aside Bad Memories, Gets a Rare Hard-Court Victory

Thomas Muster put aside memories of what happened to him at the Lipton Championships eight years ago and withstood 106-degree heat Sunday to defeat Sergi Burguera, 7-6 (8-6), 6-3, 6-1, in the final at Key Biscayne, Fla.

Muster reached the Lipton final in 1989 but was unable to play because a knee injury he received in an accident involving a drunk driver shortly after his victory in the semifinals. He had two ligaments in his left knee severed, and the injury almost ended his career.

By winning on Sunday, the Austrian earned $360,000 and validated his contention that he’s more than a clay-court specialist. The title was his third on hard courts, compared with 40 on clay, including the 1995 French Open.

“After the French Open, this is probably the biggest victory of my career,� Muster said. “This is very emotional. After what happened eight years ago, I felt today was a great day of justice for me.�

Following his 1989 accident, Muster collected $700,000 in a lawsuit settlement. But the injury robbed his knee of flexibility and left him susceptible to the rigors of a full hard-court schedule.

The second-ranked Muster becomes the oldest Lipton champion at age 29. His only other title in the United States came on a carpet surface at Boston in 1988.

Boxing

Former world heavyweight champion James “Buster� Douglas used a powerful combination to knock out Brian Scott 30 seconds into the sixth round at Montville, Conn.

The win was the fourth in a row for Douglas (34-5-1) since resuming his career after nearly six years in retirement. The 36-year-old boxer retired after losing the WBA, WBC and IBF titles in 1990 to Evander Holyfield.

After ballooning to nearly 400 pounds, Douglas returned to the ring on June 22, 1996, scoring a second-round knockout over Tony LaRosa.

Fighting out of Columbus, Ohio, Douglas weighed 240 pounds against Scott, his lowest weight for a fight since beating Mike Tyson in Tokyo on Feb. 11, 1990.

After a slow start, Douglas began to dominate the fight against Scott in the third round. In the fifth, Douglas took a hard right to the head, but immediately countered with a left-right combination that floored Scott.

“When he hit me with that right, it showed me he was still alive and still had fire in him,� Douglas said. “Then I got his head to rocking. I didn’t know when he was going to go, I just knew he was going to go.�

Scott (22-4) went down twice more in the fifth, but both were ruled slips. The Kansas City-based fighter had clearly run out of steam, however, and hit the canvas after Douglas unleashed his decisive combination in the sixth round. Scott started to get up, but referee Steve Smoger ruled the fight over.

Motor Sports

Jacques Villeneuve of Canada seized the lead from Germany’s Michael Schumacher on the second lap and never relinquished it in winning the Brazilian Grand Prix at Sao Paulo.

Villeneuve, driving a Williams-Renault, completed the 72 laps around the 2.687-mile Jose Carlos Pace track in 1 hour 36 minutes 6.990 seconds.

It was his fifth victory--one short of the number of wins by his father, the late Gilles Villeneuve--in 17 Formula One races.

Judges red-flagged the start of the race when Brazil’s Rubens Barrichello got stuck on the grid with accelerator problems. Barrichello was given the team’s reserve car, depriving teammate Jan Magnussen of Denmark of a chance to run the race.

In the first start, pole sitter Villeneuve veered onto the gravel in the first curve, allowing Schumacher, driving a Ferrari, to pull ahead.

Villeneuve said he was fortunate to have had a second start.

“It would have been nasty if the red flag hadn’t come out,� he said. “It would have changed the end result a lot.�

In the second start, some 20 minutes later, Schumacher--No. 2 on the grid--shot into the lead, but Villeneuve quickly overtook him in the straightaway at the start of the second lap.

Villeneuve demonstrated the superiority of his car over the Benetton-Renault of Austrian Gerhard Berger, opening a lead of up to 17 seconds during several laps. Berger cut into that advantage and wound up just over four seconds back by the end of the race.

Miscellany

Top-seeded Kent Steffes and Jose Loiola earned their first tournament victory as a team in beating third-seeded Scott Ayakatubby and Brian Lewis, 15-8, to win the $100,000 Miller Lite Open at Phoenix. Karch Kiraly, Steffes’ usual partner, missed the event because of a shoulder injury.

A makeshift spectator stand at a volleyball match in India collapsed and at least 150 fans were injured.

Ten persons were hospitalized in critical condition after the packed bamboo stand collapsed in the town of Vatakara, 1,200 miles southwest of New Delhi.

Details of the incident, reported by the Press Trust of India news agency, were sketchy. PTI also reported that spectators set fire to wooden planks and chairs and smashed vehicles in the stadium before the game.

Winter Sports

Eric Bergoust became the second skier from Missoula, Mont., in 24 hours to win a national ski title when he took the aerials competition at U.S. Freestyle Championships at Sugar Loaf-USA in Carrabassett Valley, Maine.

On Saturday, Donovan Power of Missoula won the moguls title.

Names in the News

A celebration for Marty Tregnan, longtime Los Angeles municipal golf official and acknowledged friend of the average golfer, will be held next Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Griffith Park Golf Course clubhouse. Tregnan, 79, died last Tuesday.