Russia, France Tied in Davis Cup

Yevgeny Kafelnikov hardly helped his big plans to retire from tennis as a Davis Cup champion.

The Russian lost, 7-6 (3), 6-3, 6-0, to Sebastien Grosjean on Friday, leaving the Davis Cup final with defending champ France tied at 1-1 after the opening day in Paris.

Marat Safin won the opening match, defeating French Davis Cup rookie Paul-Henri Mathieu, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.

The best-of-five final on Bercy’s indoor clay court will be decided in Sunday’s singles matches, no matter who wins today’s doubles between Kafelnikov-Safin and Nicolas Escude-Fabrice Santoro.

France is seeking consecutive Davis Cup titles for the first time since 1932, and its 10th title overall. Russia has never won the trophy.

Kafelnikov has said he will retire if Russia wins the Davis Cup.

Kafelnikov, a two-time Grand Slam champion, made 41 unforced errors and had only 20 winners. Grosjean hit 42 winners and served 13 aces while his opponent had none.

“It was one-way traffic,” the Russian said. “I wasn’t able to keep up with him in the second and third set.”

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Winter Sports

Germany’s Hilde Gerg fashioned a nearly flawless run to overtake Croatia’s Janica Kostelic and win the World Cup super-G at Aspen, Colo., the first speed race of the season.

Gerg, the defending World Cup super-G champion, finished in 1 minute 17.89 seconds, edging Kostelic by 0.06 seconds.

Italy’s Isolde Kostner was third, and Kirsten Clark of Raymond, Maine, took fourth.

Clark paced three Americans in the top 10. Caroline Lalive of Steamboat Springs, Colo., was ninth in 1:18.49, followed by Jonna Mendes of Heavenly, Calif., in 1:18.61.

Olympic champion Apolo Anton Ohno earned his first World Cup victory this season, capitalizing on a disqualification to win the 1,500-meter short-track speedskating race at St. Petersburg, Russia.

Ohno crossed the line behind China’s Li Jia Jun, who was disqualified for impeding skaters in the seventh lap. Ohno finished in 2 minutes 20.034 seconds.

At Salt Lake City, Ohno won two medals -- silver at 1,000 meters and a disputed gold at 1,500 when he finished second to South Korea’s Kim Dong-sung. Ohno was declared the winner when the referee ruled Kim had used an illegal block to stay in front.

World champion Irina Slutskaya of Russia got off to a slow start, finishing fourth in the women’s short program at the NHK Trophy at Kyoto, Japan.

Yoshie Onda turned in a technically sound performance to place first, followed by Japanese compatriots Shizuka Arakawa and Fumie Suguri.

Slutskaya, who finished a disappointing third at the Cup of Russia last week, failed to execute a triple lutz-double toe loop combination in her routine.

Former World Cup winner Primoz Peterka of Slovenia beat Adam Malysz of Poland to win the opening event of the ski jumping season at Kuusamo, Finland. Peterka, the World Cup overall winner in 1997 and 1998, jumped 131.5 and 143.5 meters for 293.5 points. Alan Alborn, the top U.S. ski jumper, has a sore knee and did not compete.

Hannu Manninen of Finland won the season’s first World Cup Nordic combined, beating World Cup champion Ronny Ackermann of Germany by 3.4 seconds at Kuusamo, Finland. The top American was Johnny Spillane, who finished 10th. Manninen’s winning time was 22 minutes 21.5 seconds.

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Boxing

Lennox Lewis will defend his World Boxing Council title against Vitaly Klitschko, probably in late February or early March. Lewis’ manager Adrian Ogun said the site and exact date will be set as soon as possible.

Klitschko, a Ukrainian who trains in Hamburg, Germany, is ranked No. 2 by the WBC. He positioned himself for the bout with a 10th-round knockout of Larry Donald on Saturday.

Klitschko, 32-1 with 31 knockouts, is a former World Boxing Organization champion. He is the older brother of Wladimir Klitschko, also a top heavyweight.