A singular sensation...Cordero starts anew, and Antley pays...Bjorn bids Loredana addio
Blasted
Her way to the NCAA women's singles tennis title and her third college grand slam crown this year. Lisa Raymond, a Florida freshman who beat No. 1-ranked Shannan McCarthy, a senior from Georgia, 6-3, 6-3 in their 63-minute final match at Stanford. Raymond, who helped the Lady Gators to their first team title the previous week, broke McCarthy's serve six times and double-faulted only three times to McCarthy's 13. Only one of Raymond's 10 matches during the team and individual championships lasted longer than 65 minutes, so her outings became known as the Lisa Raymond Tanning Hour. At the men's NCAAs in Athens, Ga., Stanford senior Alex O'Brien, who the previous week led the Cardinal lo its fourth title in five years, beat Georgia junior Wade McGuire 6-3, 6-2.
Bulled
To victory in the 15-day Summer Grand Sumo Tournament in Tokyo, 6'8", 440-pound Akebono, now a junior champion, who beat senior wrestler Wakahanada in the title match. Akebono won despite an earlier defeat at the meaty hands of fellow Hawaiian Konishiki, who had to say sayonara, at least temporarily, to his dream of becoming the first foreign yokozuna, or sumo grand champion (SI, May 18), when he suffered a four-match losing streak in the first week of the tournament.
Launched
The training career of newly retired jockey Angel Cordero Jr. In his debut last Saturday, Cordero saddled a 4-year-old gelding named Puchinito for the fifth race at Belmont Park. The horse soon became agitated in the walking ring and threw jockey Chris Antley to the ground in the paddock. An uninjured Antley remounted, but Puchinito finished fifth in a field of 11. When asked what it was like to watch the race from the wings, Cordero answered, "I was just praying, saying, I don't care if you don't win. Just don't finish last. Don't embarrass me.' " Antley presumably said some different prayers.
Sought
By Bjorn Borg, a divorce from his second wife, Loredana Berte, an Italian rock singer, alter three tempestuous years of marriage. Twice during Borg's unsuccessful comeback attempt of the past year, Berte had to be hospitalized for taking an overdose of sleeping pills. These days Borg spends much of his time with Angelica Steuer of Munich, who is said lo work in the fashion industry.
Died
Chuck Minker, 42, executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, after a yearlong battle with lung cancer, in Las Vegas. As executive director from 1987 until his death, Minker, a former fight judge, oversaw all boxing in Nevada and was regarded as a man of integrity in a business that generally lacks it. He also officiated at UNLV women's basketball games and worked the clock at men's games. Randy Gordon, chairman of the New York Athletic Commission, said that Minker "taught referees how to ref, judges how to judge, commissioners how to be commissioners, and I think he taught us all how to live."
PHOTO
ROD SEARCEY
Raymond let 'er rip at the NCAAs.