Courier Regains His Winning Touch

Tennis

Jim Courier, trying to regain the form that made him the world’s No. 1 male tennis player in 1992, beat Thomas Enqvist, his practice partner, 6-4, 6-4 Sunday to win the Infiniti Open in Los Angeles.

Courier, the sixth seed, didn’t drop a set in five matches in winning his second title of the year.

Enqvist, of Sweden, lost for only the second time in 13 career finals. His other loss in a final also came at Los Angeles, in 1995 against Michael Stich.

Courier was in control for much of the match played on the UCLA campus. He stumbled briefly after taking a 3-1 lead in the first set, allowing Enqvist to tie the set 3-3 on a netted backhand.

But Courier broke back in the seventh game, when Enqvist failed to convert two game points and double-faulted to trail 4-3.

Courier served two of the next three games at love to close out the set on Enqvist’s long forehand.

The players traded breaks early in the second set. Courier tied the set 4-4 on a lucky net cord and he broke Enqvist at love to go up 5-4.

Courier served for the match, going up 40-love to set up his first match point. He netted a forehand to briefly prolong the match before Enqvist sent a backhand long on the second match point.

Enqvist, the second seed and world’s eighth-ranked player, is working on his own comeback. He was playing in his first tournament since May when he tore two tendons in his left foot when he tripped over his racket bag, forcing him to skip the French Open and Wimbledon.

Courier earned $43,000 and should move up a few spots from his current ranking of 29th when the ATP Tour rankings come out today.

Bank of the West Classic

No. 1-ranked Martina Hingis overpowered Conchita Martinez 6-0, 6-2 to win the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, Calif., for the second straight year, improving her 1997 record to 50-1.

Hingis, the top seed and defending champion, took only 53 minutes under sunny skies to defeat Martinez, seeded sixth.

Hingis kept Martinez off-balance throughout, mixing a strong backhand and soft drop shots to keep the Spaniard on the run. Hingis appeared to get a bit sluggish in the second set, dropping two straight games to Martinez after winning the first.

After Martinez won her first game, she raised her arms in victory and grinned to warm applause at Stanford’s Taube Family Tennis Stadium.

Croatia Open

Third-seeded Felix Mantilla beat fellow Spaniard and No. 1 Sergi Bruguera 6-3, 7-5 to win the Croatia Open in Umag, Croatia.

It was the fourth title of Mantilla’s career and his third ATP victory in six weeks. He previously won ATP events at Bologna and Gstaad. With his victory Sunday, he will advance three places in the world rankings, to 11th, equalling the best of his career.

Bruguera, seeking his first title since August 1994, did not have a break point in the first set. Mantilla broke Bruguera’s service at 2-2 and won eight of the next nine games.

Warsaw Cup

Top-seeded Barbara Paulus of Austria won her sixth Corel WTA Tour tournament, beating defending champion Henrieta Nagyova of Slovakia 6-4, 6-4 at the Warsaw Cup in Poland.

Nagyova led during both sets, but could not maintain the edge.

Rain had washed out Saturday’s semifinals, and those matches also were played Sunday.

In a tough, tiring match, Nagyova defeated second-seeded Ruxandra Dragomir of Romania 6-4, 7-5, and Paulus defeated Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain 6-2, 6-1.