Sports digest 4/22/02

AREA

MOREHEAD ENDS SOFTBALL STREAK AGAINST OTAHKIANS

MOREHEAD, Ky. -- Morehead State snapped Southeast's seven-game winning streak in the Ohio Valley Conference softball series Sunday with a 3-0 win.

Morehead (10-28-1, 6-10-1 OVC) went up 1-0 on an unearned run in the bottom of the first and scored twice more in the fourth.

Kelly Birk (6-8) pitched all seven innings for the loss. Birk and Kristy Roherty each were 2-for-3 for Southeast (12-23, 9-11).

ELSEWHERE

BASKETBALL

Yao Ming, a 7-foot-5 center from China, has been cleared to enter the NBA draft. His current club, the Shanghai Sharks, made the announcement after Yao helped it win its first Chinese Basketball Association championship.

"We want him to go to a team that has a chance to play in the playoffs in the NBA in two or three seasons. I think that will be good for his development," Sharks general manager Li Yaomin told China's official Xinhua News Agency.

"And it will be better if the club which chooses Yao will help us to set up a training base in America, so we can send our coaches and players there every year."

Yao has been projected as an NBA lottery pick, possibly No. 1 overall.

"It's exciting," NBA commissioner David Stern said. "As a league, to see world-class players coming into our league from Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe, Western Europe and Asia is an exciting thing for our league.

Tennis

Juan Carlos Ferrero beat Carlos Moya 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 to win the Monte Carlo Masters, the first major clay-court tournament of the season. Ferrero closed out the match when Moya, hampered by a strained thigh muscle, sent his last service return wide.

It was the second-seeded Spaniard's first title since the Italian Open, another top event on clay, nearly a year ago.

Before coming to Monte Carlo, Ferrero hadn't won more than two matches in a row in 2002.

He's expected to be a top challenger to three-time champion Gustavo Kuerten at the French Open, which starts next month. Ferrero lost to Kuerten in the semifinals at Roland Garros the past two years.

Iva Majoli became the lowest ranked player to win a top-tier tournament when she defeated Patty Schnyder 7-6 (5), 6-4 at Charleston, S.C., for the championship of the Family Circle Cup, her first singles title since 1997.

The match was the first top tier women's final featuring two unseeded players, with Majoli ranked 58th in the world and Schnyder 30th.

Majoli also was the first unseeded player to win the Family Circle Cup, taking home $182,000 for her title in the $1.2 million tournament.

Schnyder defeated three top 10 players during tournament, eliminating No. 10 Amelie Mauresmo in the second round, No. 7 Serena Williams in the quarterfinals and No. 1 Jennifer Capriati in Saturday's semifinals.

Saturday's loss cost Capriati her No. 1 ranking. Williams' sister Venus, who did not play at the Family Cup, regains the top ranking after just over a month.

The lowest-ranked player ever to reach the finals in a top tier tournament was Capriati at the Family Circle back in 1990. She was unranked when she lost to Martina Navratilova.

-- From staff, wire reports