Agassi tops Chang to take ATP crown

Olympic gold medalist Andre Agassi defeated Michael Chang 7-6(7-4), 6-4 Sunday to win the ATP Championship in Mason, Ohio, for thesecond consecutive year.

The sixth-seeded Agassi used a strong serve and a powerfulforehand to beat the third-seeded Chang in the final of thetournament for the second year in a row. Agassi won 7-5, 6-2 lastyear.

Agassi displayed the same form he used to defeat second-seededThomas Muster in the semifinals, combining a strong serve andforehand returns to move his opponent from side to side. He took a2-0 lead in the first set before Chang battled back with patientgroundstrokes, only to lose the tiebreaker.

Agassi took leads of 2-0 and 3-1 in the second set, but Changagain rallied and knotted the set at 4. Agassi then used a dominantserving game and a sparkling return game to close out the match. Top-seeded Monica Seles won the du Maurier Open in Montreal for thesecond consecutive year by defeating second-seeded Arantxa SanchezVicario 6-1, 7-6 (7-2) with a masterful performance.

Seles, who shares the world's No. 1 ranking with Steffi Graf,went through the tournament without dropping a set at the packed duMaurier Stadium.

It was the first meeting between the players since Seles beatSanchez Vicario in the 1992 U.S. Open final. Seles holds an 11-1career record against Sanchez Vicario.

The defeat continued a disturbing trend for Sanchez Vicario, whois playing with an elbow injury. She came into the tournament havinglost in the final of her last three events - the French Open,Wimbledon and the Olympics. She also lost in the final of threeGrand Slam tournaments last year. Russian sets swim mark

Dennis Pankratov of Russia set a world record of 23.68 secondsin the 50-meter butterfly at an international swim meet Saturday inMulhouse, France. The previous record of 24.05 was set by ByronDavis of the United States in March.

Pankratov won the 100-meter and 200-meter butterfly events atthe Atlanta Olympics and holds world records in those events. Dallas Stars center Todd Harvey and right wing Grant Marshall wereamong four men charged with sexually assaulting a 20-year-old womanat a house party in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Harvey, 21, and Marshall,23, were arrested early Friday, inspector Art Stannard said.

"Right now, I'm unaware of the incident," Stars spokesman LarryKelly said. "I have no comment until we can make some phone callsand find out what happened."