Ivanisevic Defaults After Breaking All His Rackets

Goran Ivanisevic banged to bits one racket after another Thursday and then had none left to play with.

The result? He had to default during the final set of his match in the Samsung Open at Brighton, England.

The Croatian is no stranger to outbursts, but this self-destructive display--in which all three of his rackets were rendered useless--might even have been a first for him.

“I can’t remember anybody ever breaking all the rackets in their bag before,” said Gerry Armstrong, the ATP Tour supervisor.

Ivanisevic will be fined a total of $1,000 for the code violations.

Ivanisevic, furious at his mistakes, trailed 3-1 in the final set in his second-round match with South Korea’s Hjung-Taik Lee at Brighton Center.

“At least when I’ve finished playing tennis they’ll remember me for something,” Ivanisevic said. “They’ll say, ‘There’s that guy who never won Wimbledon, but he smashed all his rackets.’ ”

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Top-seeded Magnus Norman and three other Swedes advanced to the quarterfinals of the Stockholm Open at Stockholm.

Norman won without hitting a ball as his opponent, Jan-Michael Gambill, withdrew because of a lower back injury.

The other Swedes advancing to the last eight were Andreas Vinciguerra, Jonas Bjorkman and Thomas Johansson.

Golf

Matt Kuchar birdied the first hole of his pro career in a round of three-under-par 69 that left him a stroke back in the Australian Open at Melbourne.

“It’s definitely in my mind to win here,” said Kuchar, the 1997 U.S. Amateur champion who recently graduated from Georgia Tech.

Australians Peter O’Malley and Paul Gow and New Zealand’s Greg Turner opened with 68s.

Japan’s Katsunori Kuwabara shot a seven-under-par 65 to take a two-stroke lead after the first round of the Casio World Open at Kaimon, Japan.

Japan’s Hajime Meshiai shot a 67 and Bob May and Japanese star Jumbo Ozaki opened with 68s.

Miscellany

A season-opening World Cup Nordic ski race will be moved to Beitostolen, Norway, next week because of poor snow conditions in Lillehammer.

Lillehammer, site of the 1994 Winter Olympics, had already canceled two World Cup Nordic combined events set for next week because of warm weather and lack of snow.

Military patrols, special commando units and more than 1,000 surveillance cameras could be part of security measures for the 2004 Olympics to confront Athens’ history of attacks and bombings, sources said.

Worries about violence during the Games have pushed authorities to propose the most aggressive anti-terrorism controls in Greece, where police have been unable to stamp out groups blamed for decades of killings and other attacks.

A tough stance is demanded by the International Olympic Committee, which wraps up a three-day review of Athens’ problem-ridden preparations today.

Sprinter Butch Reynolds, whose world record at 400 meters stood for 11 years, is quitting international competition.

Reynolds, 36, announced his retirement at a charity run at Akron, Ohio. His 400 record of 43.18 seconds was broken by Michael Johnson at the 1999 World Championships.

Prosecutors at Rome requested three-year suspensions for seven Italian soccer players accused of fixing a game this season.

The Italian Cup game between Atalanta and Pistoiese on Aug. 20 ended 1-1. The Italian soccer association opened an investigation after noting what it called unusually heavy betting in the first-round game at Bergamo.

The players in question are: Giacomo Banchelli, Cristiano Doni and Sebastiano Siviglia of Atalanta of Serie A, and Alfredo Aglietti, Massimiliano Allegri, Daniele Amerini and Girolamo Bizzarri of Pistoiese of Serie B.

The inaugural races at the new Olympic speedskating oval in Kearns, Utah, will be moved to other venues because of a problem with the concrete floor.

Fred Benjamin, president of U.S. speedskating, said that arena manager Nick Thometz decided to cancel the January races because there is a 50% chance the $27-million oval won’t be ready.

“Even if it turns out they can be held, all the skaters have to make plane and hotel reservations. We just can’t hold the trigger anymore,” Benjamin said.