Key Biscayne

NEW YORK -- Jana Novotna is retiring. "I will fulfill my obligations for this fall, and then not play anymore," said Novotna, who is ranked No. 10 in the world. "I have been thinking about it a very long time and just feel the timing is right." Novotna, who will turn 31 Oct. 2, achieved her 14-year career dream last year by winning Wimbledon. She has 16 Grand Slam doubles titles, but Wimbledon is her only Grand Slam singles title. It came five years after she cried on the shoulder of the Duchess of Kent after blowing a 4-1 lead to her career-long nemesis, Steffi Graf.

Florida is home to more than half of the nation's Top 10 beaches -- including Grayton Beach, the best spot in America for sun, sand, surf, safety and solitude, according to an annual rating by a leading beach expert.Located beside the Gulf of Mexico on the Florida Panhandle, Grayton Beach replaced Hapuna, Hawaii, on the 1994 Best Beaches Survey by Stephen Leatherman, director of the University of Maryland's Laboratory for Coastal Research."Grayton Beach is kind of the perfect beach, if there is one. It's a well maintained state recreational area, has good facilities for visitors, sugar white sand, a lake nearby and beautiful, clean aquamarine water," says Mr. Leatherman, a geologist who has been dubbed "Dr. Beach" by his colleagues.

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. -- Monica Seles, the defending champion of the Lipton International Players Championships, used her first tournament since she seized Steffi Graf's No. 1 ranking two weeks ago to prove that she deserves her label as the best match player of the moment in women's tennis.In the sizzling early-afternoon sun yesterday, Seles, 17, rebounded from a 0-4, 0-40 second-set deficit against Gabriela Sabatini, who bills herself as the best fighter in the women's game, to successfully defend that Lipton title with a 6-3, 7-5 victory.

PARIS -- No. 16 seed Sergi Bruguera isn't supposed to be here. Oh, sure, he's a wonderful clay-court player. And sure, he's a two-time French Open champion. But Bruguera himself said before the tournament started that he had no hope of winning the French Open.And, yet, hope lives.All but one of the seeds are gone from Roland Garros today, as the men's final of the French Open is about to be played. Only Bruguera, who has not won a tournament in three years, is left to represent the top-ranked men on Court Central.

DR. BENJAMIN "SARGE" SARGENT WELLS, JR., 82, of Salisbury, passed away quietly at his home, Wednesday, June 23, 2004 surrounded by his family, after a brief illness. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, he was the son of the late, Dr. B. Sargent Wells and Thelma Everngam Wells. Dr. Wells received his early education at Mc Donough School. Upon graduation he attended Randolph Macon College. Dr. Wells served his country in the U.S. Navy aboard the U.S.S. Key Biscayne in the Pacific Theatre during World War II. After returning from his tour of duty, he attended the University of Maryland Dental School and graduated in 1950.

MIAMI BEACH -- Here I am, a geezer at his leisure, strolling into one of the South Beach hot spots with the prettiest woman in the room on my arm. I can't help worrying what people might be thinking.''They're probably thinking you're the richest guy in the room,'' my young friend allows.After all, it's South Beach, where all kinds of lifestyles are accepted as readily as gold cards.A 55-year-old guy drinking with a woman who looks hardly old enough to drink? It's a way of life -- the good life for women on the make and men who have it made.

PARIS - Midway through the second set of yesterday's ragged French Open final, after Elena Dementieva had winged her 63rd double fault of the tournament, she screamed so loudly that the words overpowered the groans of 14,000 on the Philippe Chatrier stadium court. "I hate my serve," she announced to the world in Russian, and well she should. She would strike four more before the end of this 6-1, 6-2 rout that took all of 58 minutes and which rewarded the slender Anastasia Myskina with the first Grand Slam title of her career.

According to Andre Agassi, tennis needs a good old-fashioned, furious, down-and-dirty rivalry.So Agassi would have no qualms about starting one.His target? Pete Sampras. World No. 1 Pete Sampras. Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion Pete Sampras. The same Pete Sampras who will compete next week at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic with Agassi."I think that rivalry would be exciting," said Agassi, who spoke yesterday from Las Vegas in a video news conference to reporters in Washington and Los Angeles.

Becker gets early exit for 6th time in LiptonBoris Becker has entered the Lipton International Players Championships six times and never reached the quarterfinals. Yesterday, in the fourth round at Key Biscayne, Fla., Alberto Mancini of Argentina eliminated the third-ranked German, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4."I have some time off now -- five more days than I expected to," Becker said.Also sidelined was John McEnroe, who lost to Richard Krajicek of the Netherlands, 7-6 (7-3), 6-4. McEnroe had three set points in the first set and blew a 40-love lead serving the final game.

Baltimore Councilwoman Jacqueline F. McLean, D-2nd, captured the Democratic nomination for city comptroller last night, outpacing a fellow council member and trouncing the city's register of wills for the chance to be the city's next fiscal watchdog.Mrs. McLean, owner of a Federal Hill travel agency and a two-term councilwoman, won with 49 percent of the vote. Councilman Joseph T. "Jody" Landers III, D-3rd, trailed with 34 percent, and Register of Wills Mary W. Conaway received only 17 percent.