Sampras Beats Becker, Captures Paris Open And No. 1 Ranking

Pete Sampras affirmed his return to the No. 1 ranking with a 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, 6-4 victory over Boris Becker in the final of the Paris Open Sunday in Paris.

Sampras regained the No. 1 spot because of the withdrawal of last year’s Paris Open winner, Andre Agassi, suffering from a chest injury.

“He deserves to be the winner of the tournament,” Becker said. “He deserves to be No. 1.”

Jimmy Connors, scoring big points on his service return, beat Bjorn Borg 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) to win the $150,000 Champions Tennis tournament in Tokyo.

Connors won in 1 hour 39 minutes, the 10th time in 11 matches he has defeated Borg on the senior tour.

Magdalena Maleeva took advantage of repeated unforced errors and six double faults by Ai Sugiyama in a 6-3, 6-4 victory in the finals of the Bank of the West Classic in Oakland, Calif.

Steffi Graf’s father, who is jailed on allegations of evading taxes on the tennis champion’s earnings, allegedly beat and kicked her during training, the German magazine Der Spiegel said.

Quoting a former close associate of the Graf family, Horst Schmidt, Spiegel said the 57-year-old Peter Graf “treated her like a dog” when they were once at a training camp in Spain by kicking his daughter when she dropped something and was kneeling down to pick it up.