Paul Haarhuis

Beating three top-10 players in one week gave hope to Paul Haarhuis, who is ranked No. 68, and to all other rank-and-file players who have pretension to greatness. Dreams are wonderful, but reality has a way of intervening. Haarhuis hit his glass ceiling and lost to No. 5 Michael Chang, 7-5, 6-1, 6-1, in Sunday's Newsweek Champions Cup final. Along the way, the Dutchman gained an understanding of what it takes to find a solution to Chang.

Beating three top-10 players in one week gave hope to Paul Haarhuis, who is ranked No. 68, and to all other rank-and-file players who have pretension to greatness. Dreams are wonderful, but reality has a way of intervening. Haarhuis hit his glass ceiling and lost to No. 5 Michael Chang, 7-5, 6-1, 6-1, in Sunday's Newsweek Champions Cup final. Along the way, the Dutchman gained an understanding of what it takes to find a solution to Chang.

Who is Paul Haarhuis? "I come from Mars," he said. Haarhuis, a 23-year-old qualifier from Eindhoven, the Netherlands, scored Wednesday night's biggest tennis upset on earth. And then, only three hours later, Pete Sampras, 18, from Rancho Palos Verdes tried to match it. All Sampras did was knock off the reigning U.S. Open champion, Mats Wilander. All Haarhuis did was eliminate four-time champion John McEnroe. It was a night of upsets at the 109th U.S.

It is usually an encouraging sign of mental health when an athlete accepts losing as a possible consequence of competition. But it's alarming when a player ranked No. 2 in the world is as casual about losing to a player ranked No. 68 as Pete Sampras was in losing to Paul Haarhuis Friday. Haarhuis, a hard-serving Dutchman, plowed over Sampras, 7-5, 6-7 (5-7), 6-1, taking strategic advantage of Sampras' error-ridden performance in the quarterfinals of the Newsweek Champions Cup.

It is usually an encouraging sign of mental health when an athlete accepts losing as a possible consequence of competition. But it's alarming when a player ranked No. 2 in the world is as casual about losing to a player ranked No. 68 as Pete Sampras was in losing to Paul Haarhuis Friday. Haarhuis, a hard-serving Dutchman, plowed over Sampras, 7-5, 6-7 (5-7), 6-1, taking strategic advantage of Sampras' error-ridden performance in the quarterfinals of the Newsweek Champions Cup.

Warren Simmons, 53, a former Cal State Fullerton and Washington Redskins' assistant, was hired by the Rams to coach their tight ends. Tennis Richard Krajicek and Jan Siemerink will play singles and Paul Haarhuis and Jacco Eltingh will be the doubles team for the Netherlands against the United States in their Davis Cup world group quarterfinal in July.

Ivan Lendl defeated Paul Haarhuis of the Netherlands, 7-5, 6-1, to reach the second round of the European Community championship at Antwerp, Belgium. John McEnroe eliminated Bart Wuyts, 6-2, 6-2, and Michael Chang, seeded second, reached the quarterfinals by overwhelming Todd Woodbridge of Australia, 6-1, 6-2.

A Feb. 3 women's basketball game between Washington State and Arizona State that was not played because WSU had only four sound players has been forfeited to Arizona State, the Pacific 10 Conference said. Tennis Paul Haarhuis ended Jim Grabb's best run since a nine-month injury layoff with a 7-6 (7-5), 5-7, 6-3 victory in the quarterfinals of the Comcast U.S. Indoor tournament at Philadelphia.

Pam Shriver, who won three gold medals at the Pan American Games, returned to the pro tour with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Elna Reinach of South Africa at the Virginia Slims of Washington. In other matches, fourth-seeded Mary Joe Fernandez beat Mariaan De Swaart, 6-4, 6-1; Radka Zrubakova of Czechoslovakia downed Natalia Zvereva of the Soviet Union, 6-4, 7-5; Gigi Fernandez beat Andrea Strnadova of Czechoslovakia, 6-0, 7-5.

Who is Paul Haarhuis? "I come from Mars," he said. Haarhuis, a 23-year-old qualifier from Eindhoven, the Netherlands, scored Wednesday night's biggest tennis upset on earth. And then, only three hours later, Pete Sampras, 18, from Rancho Palos Verdes tried to match it. All Sampras did was knock off the reigning U.S. Open champion, Mats Wilander. All Haarhuis did was eliminate four-time champion John McEnroe. It was a night of upsets at the 109th U.S.

Today's Davis Cup quarterfinal at Palisades Tennis Club in Newport Beach pits two teams operating at less than full strength. The United States is accustomed to its top players passing--as No. 1 Pete Sampras and No. 3 Michael Chang have. The Netherlands is without the services of No. 6 Richard Krajicek, the Wimbledon champion who chose not to play. The U.S. team will put forward two Davis Cup veterans, No. 17 Jim Courier and No.