Serena Pulls Out With Bad Knee

Serena Williams withdrew from the State Farm Women’s Tennis Classic on Thursday night at Scottsdale, Ariz., because of tendinitis in her left knee.

The 21-year-old Williams, the world’s top-ranked player and winner of the last four Grand Slam titles, pulled out only an hour before her first match of the tournament against Alexandra Stevenson.

For the third consecutive day, rain affected the schedule. The start of play was delayed six hours.

Williams and Stevenson were scheduled to play in the day, but their match wound up as the featured event of the night session.

In an early match, Meghann Shaughnessy defeated fourth-seeded Jelena Dokic of Yugoslavia, 6-4, 6-2.

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Yevgeny Kafelnikov was eliminated from the Dubai Open, beaten by Morocco’s Hicham Arazi, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, in the second round at Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Top-seeded Roger Federer of Switzerland and fifth-seeded Rainer Schuettler of Germany also advanced.... Second-seeded Wayne Arthurs edged wild-card entry Andreas Vinciguerra, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (6), to advance to the quarterfinals of the Copenhagen Open at Copenhagen, Denmark.... Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten advanced to the semifinals of the Mexican Open at Mexico City when Chilean Fernando Gonzalez withdrew because of an elbow injury.

Golf

Dicky Pride shot a seven-under-par 65 to take a one-shot lead over Aaron Baddeley after the first round of the Chrysler Classic at Tucson.

Pride birdied three of the first four holes and was at five-under 31 after nine holes in chilly, windy and occasionally rainy conditions.

Laura Davies shot a seven-under 65 to take a one-shot lead over Belgium’s Valerie Van Ryckeghem after the first round of the Women’s Australian Open at Sydney, Australia.

College Football

Ricky Manning was arraigned on a felony assault charge in Los Angeles superior court and his trial is scheduled to begin April 17. A second count was dropped.

Manning, a cornerback who completed his eligibility at UCLA last fall, believes he acted in self defense. His attorney, Daniel Davis, said Manning plans to file a civil suit against the two men who brought charges against him and the Westwood bar where the incident took place in April.

College Baseball

Miami was put on two years’ probation because of several rules violations, the NCAA announced.

The most serious violation involved pitching coach Lazaro Collazo, who employed and paid players for working at a baseball academy that he ran from fall 1998 to spring 2001.

In addition, Miami was stripped of 4.66 scholarships for a three-year period beginning with the 2003-04 academic year. Baseball awards the equivalent of 11.7 scholarships.

The Hurricanes, who won national championships in 1999 and 2001, were considered repeat offenders by the NCAA because they were also punished in a major infractions case in 1995.

Miscellany

Three senators seeking to overhaul the U.S. Olympic Committee appointed a five-member task force to craft reforms for the scandal-plagued committee.

Don Fehr, head of the Major League Baseball Players Assn., and Roberta Cooper Ramo, a former president of the American Bar Assn. who helped salvage the Olympic’s image after the Salt Lake City bid scandal, will lead the committee.

The other members of the committee are Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Sports and Olympics, Harvey Schiller, president and CEO of Assante U.S., and Donna de Varona, a former Olympic swimmer.

LeBron James was selected as a member of the 2003 McDonald’s All-American high school boys’ basketball team and has accepted an invitation to play in the March 26 game at Cleveland.

Russian Alexander Shubin defeated Evan Lysacek, of Naperville, Ill., by a small margin to win the boys’ Junior World Figure Skating Championships at Ostrava, Czech Republic. The judges awarded the 19-year-old skater from Moscow the gold medal in a 5-4 split.