Tennis

As freshmen a year ago, Poly's Joseph Pate and Towson's Hayden White each fell short of their goals of winning tennis titles in their respective jurisdictions at No. 1 singles. Pate was unbeaten in 15 matches last season before finishing second in the Baltimore City championships behind Marcus Addison of City. White, meanwhile, had lost once heading into last year's Baltimore County tournament. But after reaching the semifinals, academic priorities took precedence. "I had two math tests the next day," White said.

Hall of Fame player Pam Shriver did not mince words last night when asked about the four major organizations in professional tennis uniting to keep the sport free from gambling influences. "They have to do this," Shriver said. "In the late 1970s and 1980s, everyone banned together to keep drugs out of the game. The possibility of gambling influence is even worse. "It's not like drugs, where people say they didn't know they were taking something illegal. How do you accidentally let someone buy your result?

WIMBLEDON, England -- It should have been a moment to revel in Alexandra Stevenson's grace under tennis pressure, to decipher her ability to rap a running forehand down the line while facing match point and to recount her joyous advance from nowhere to the quarterfinals at Wimbledon.Instead, the 18-year-old from San Diego entered a media shark tank yesterday after she defeated Lisa Raymond, 2-6, 7-6 (10-8), 6-1.She was asked to comment on her mother's reported statements about racism and lesbianism in women's tennis.

It was a celebrity wedding. Brady Anderson was there, and Chris Evert and Billie Jean King, along with Hollywood directors and producers. But behind the big names and glitter was a story of love and loss, second chances and taking chances.In a ceremony held at La Quinta resort in Palm Springs, Baltimore's own Pam Shriver -- a former professional tennis player once ranked as high as No. 3 in the world -- married Los Angeles law professor Joseph Shapiro.Wearing a hand-beaded and embroidered silk sheath with a sweep train, the bride recited her vows in a simple 20-minute ceremony presided over by Jane Mykrantz, a Presbyterian minister and an old family friend.

Broadneck tennis coach Phoebe Kelly was asked for a word that best described her standout, No. 1 singles player, Jennifer Hellier.After some thought, "consistency" was the first adjective to come out. A close second would have to be "dominating."Hellier, a senior with relentless ground strokes from the baseline her trademark and an ever-improving game at the net, has overwhelmed county competition and just about everyone else the past two springs.The two-time Anne Arundel County Player of the Year won 24 straight matches last season before falling to Randallstown's Leslie Harvey in the state girls final.

You may have noticed that the best way to sell something these days, whether it's a product or your very self, is to package it with a bit of attitude.Consider that the jersey of Latrell Sprewell, who got an involuntary paid vacation because he tried to give P.J. Carlesimo a finger necklace without a clasp, sells more than that of any other New York Knicks player. Meanwhile, David Robinson and Tim Duncan of San Antonio, both solid citizens whose only hook is sterling play, are thought of as weird or even worse, freaks, because they aren't weird or freaks and don't carry "attitudes."

Rockville's Paul Goldstein goes into the U.S. Open already more successful than tennis experts believed possible.In one year, Goldstein, 23, has improved his ranking from 312th to 79th in the world. He has won the Pan American Games gold medal and last week made it to his first ATP Tour quarterfinal at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington.Now, he's going back to the Open, hoping to improve on his initial showing. Last year, he won one round before losing to No. 1 Pete Sampras.The Open begins tomorrow with Sampras attempting to win his 13th career Grand Slam title.

PARIS -- You could get to like Andrei Medvedev.On Court Central yesterday, dressed in a baggy white shirt and black and white plaid shorts that made him look more ready for a backyard barbecue than a tennis match, he blitzed French Open favorite Gustavo Kuerten, 7-5, 6-4, 6-4.And then he came into his post-match interview and wowed his audience with grace, humor and goodwill."

WASHINGTON -- Historic moments are piling up for Andre Agassi this year.His French Open victory came first and brought with it the recognition of becoming the fifth man in tennis history to win all four Grand Slam tournaments in a career.Yesterday, at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic, Agassi won the D.C. tournament for the fifth time, successfully defending last year's title by beating Yevgeny Kafelnikov, 7-6 (7-3), 6-1."You don't know this," Agassi said to the crowd as he accepted a large crystal bowl and a check for $99,000, "but when I first played here in 1986, it was incredibly hot and I lost in the first round, 6-0, in the third set."

STAY-AT-HOME mom Gina Asher has returned to Glenelg from Tucson, Ariz., where she played in the 1999 National Championships for USA League Tennis last weekend."

Paul McLaren "Mickey" Pardew, who built a Towson sports complex and earned honors in his many decades as an amateur tennis player and coach, died of congestive heart failure Tuesday at Gilchrist Hospice Care. The Towson resident was 91. Born in Baltimore and raised on University Parkway, he attended Polytechnic Institute but switched to City College because he could join the school's swimming team. He earned a mechanical engineering degree from the Johns Hopkins University and worked in aircraft production at the Glenn L. Martin Co. in Middle River.

Elizabeth Worthington Brandt, a retired medical secretary who won honors as a field hockey and tennis player, died of Alzheimer's disease complications Tuesday at the Charlestown retirement community. The former Mount Vernon resident was 81. Born Elizabeth Worthington in Bolton Hill and raised in Ruxton, she was a 1946 graduate of Bryn Mawr School, where she was captain of the tennis and field hockey teams. At Sweet Briar College, she was also captain of the same teams. A lifelong athlete, she played sports from her teen years into her late seventies.

WASHINGTON -- It was a match decided by centimeters, from the first set to the last. But that hardly made the defeat easier to bear for American Robby Ginepri, who for more than two hours Tuesday fended off a barrage of aces from Germany's Benjamin Becker at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic only to crumple in the third and final tiebreak. Becker, no relation to his country's elder tennis statesman Boris, fittingly closed the match with his 27th ace and advanced, courtesy of the 7-6 (3), 6-7 (1)

Early in the the first set of the 23rd PNC Tennis Classic last night, the sport's megastar, Serena Williams, had a ball bounce off her head from a ricochet off the baseline wall. The world's No. 1 player flashed a smile after briefly feigning dizziness, and the fans laughed with her. It was that kind of night at 1st Mariner Arena, with Williams and her opponent, Elena Dementieva, putting on a polite exhibition for an adoring crowd that welcomed the opportunity to be in the presence of a superstar while at the same time contributing to a worthy cause.

Right out of the chute, I'm going to admit I'm at a bit of a disadvantage here, since I'm pretty sure Childs has Serena Williams in one of his fantasy tennis leagues. There's no arguing numbers and past performance with him - if you're curious, just look up the word insufferable in the dictionary - but the U.S. Open isn't played on paper. I'm not really sure what surface it's played on, but I'm almost certain it's not paper. I'm going with Venus because she's older and more experienced than her younger sibling, and the fact that she's named after a Roman goddess clearly is having a subliminal effect on me. The two of them are 8-8 in head-to-head competition, so it might come down to who gets to the courthouse first and legally changes her last name to Ocho Ocho.

Late yesterday morning in Druid Hill Park, Wayne Collier handed his son tennis gear. "Here you go, champ," he said to Austin, 8, who was preparing for the day's singles match. This caught the attention of coach David Owens, who stopped and smiled at Collier. " 'Champ' - that's what I like to hear," Owens said. "It's a good way to start." The Colliers had come for Austin's first tennis tournament. The competition, which took place this weekend under a bright blue sky on the courts near Safety City, marked the revival of the Junior Open Tennis Tournament, a once-thriving annual event held by the city Recreation and Parks Department about three decades ago. Children ages 8 to 18, from the Baltimore area and beyond, were drawn to the United States Tennis Association-sanctioned event - including several student athletes from a summer tennis camp started by Owens, a theology teacher and tennis coach at St. Frances Academy in Baltimore.

Best bet Tennis -- The Howard County Department of Recreation and Parks is accepting registration from individuals interested in participating in the Howard County Tennis Challenger Program. Categories include co-rec singles for 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5 levels. A 6.0 mixed doubles event is also to be offered. The cost is $30 for singles; $35 team fee for doubles. The program begins April 15. Participants will receive a list of players in their division, scorecards and rules. Players will be able to challenge other players in as many matches as they like over a 10-week season; players must set up their own matches.

The Super Bowl attracts more wagers than any other sports event in the United States (an estimated $10 billion total), but around the world, plenty of other sports -- soccer and tennis, to name two -- draw action in the billions of dollars, especially on the Internet. The French Tennis Federation has gone to court seeking to halt three sports book companies with online operations from taking wagers on the French Open, contending such wagering threatens the reputation of the tournament and players.

Baseball -- The lawyer who led baseball's investigation of Pete Rose said George Mitchell's failure to release most of the evidence from his probe on doping in baseball undermined the credibility of the report. Mitchell refused a request from the Associated Press to make public more than 50 documents referenced in footnotes and has not released notes from his interviews with witnesses who implicated players in the use of performance-enhancing drugs. "That's ridiculous," chief Rose investigator John Dowd said yesterday.

Hall of Fame player Pam Shriver did not mince words last night when asked about the four major organizations in professional tennis uniting to keep the sport free from gambling influences. "They have to do this," Shriver said. "In the late 1970s and 1980s, everyone banned together to keep drugs out of the game. The possibility of gambling influence is even worse. "It's not like drugs, where people say they didn't know they were taking something illegal. How do you accidentally let someone buy your result?