Head Injury Sidelines Indy Driver Scott Sharp

Scott Sharp will miss the Indianapolis 500 May 25 because of a head injury he suffered in a crash during practice last Friday.

The 29-year-old racer from Danville, Calif., was knocked unconscious when his car slammed into the wall. He regained consciousness but was hospitalized overnight.

Sharp was back at the track Saturday, hoping to be cleared to drive by early this week, but a subsequent CT scan revealed a brain bruise.

“We’re just hoping that Scotty will be back for [an Indy Racing League race at Fort Worth, Texas, June 7],” car owner A.J. Foyt said. “For his health and everybody concerned . . . we elected to stick with the doctors because they know best.”

Sharp’s fast lap of 217.402 mph, run two days before his crash Friday, was the third-fastest since practice began May 6. Only pole-winner Arie Luyendyk and Tony Stewart, who took the middle of the front row, have been faster.

Sharp, who also bruised his right knee in a crash earlier in the week, had started three consecutive Indy 500s. His best finish was 10th last May.

Davey Hamilton qualified over the weekend in one of Foyt’s G Force-Aurora cars in the middle of the third row for the 33-car field, at 214.484. Foyt hopes to have two more drivers qualify next weekend.

Tennis

Her knee sound and her spirits upbeat, Steffi Graf returned to competitive tennis after a 100-day layoff in which she was dethroned by Martina Hingis as the game’s No. 1 player.

She and doubles partner Ines Gorrochategui lost on opening day of the German Open at Berlin to Rika Hiraki and Florencia Labat, 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, but the seven-time Wimbledon winner clearly was where she wanted to be.

“The moment I stood on the court and hit the first ball in training was unbelievably wonderful,” she said. “I knew the reason why I’ve worked these months.”

Graf will play Chanda Rubin today in her first singles match.

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Thomas Muster began his quest for a record third consecutive Italian Open title with a straight-sets victory at Rome. Muster, seeded third, defeated Italian wild-card entry Marzio Martelli, 6-3, 6-2.

The victory gave Muster a 4-4 record on clay this year; he was 111-5 during 1995-96.

The first seeded player to lose was No. 16 Mark Philippoussis of Australia, who was beaten by Morocco’s Karim Alami, 6-2, 6-0.

Miscellany

Texas Tech, awaiting possible punishment for exceeding financial limits on scholarships, was one of eight schools picked to play host to regional competition in the NCAA Division I baseball tournament.

Texas Tech, the top team in the Big 12 Conference, will be the host for the Central Regional. Louisiana State, ranked No. 1 in both major college polls, was one of three Southeastern Conference schools chosen as regional hosts. LSU will be the host for the South One Regional at Baton Rouge. The West Regional will be played at Stanford.

Play in the six-team, double-elimination regional tournaments runs May 22-25. Pairings and the rest of the 48-team field, which includes 24 at-large, 19 automatic berths and five play-in winners, will be announced May 19. The College World Series begins May 30 at Omaha.

Ron Maestri, chairman of the Division I baseball committee, said the panel saw no reason to exclude Texas Tech since the case is still under consideration.

Former boxing champion Nigel Benn testified at London that he was not the man who smashed an ashtray into a former business partner’s face in a nightclub. The 33-year-old retired fighter is accused of shattering the nose of ticket agency owner Ray Sullivan at a London nightclub last September.