Sport in Short: Tennis

US HARDCOURT CHAMPIONSHIPS (Indianapolis, Ind) Men's singles, quarter-finals: P Rafter (Aus) bt P Sampras (US) 7-6 6-7 7-6; L Mattar (Bra) bt J Arias (US) 6-2 6-2; J Courier (US) bt C Pioline (Fr) 6-3 6-4; B Becker (Ger) bt Reneberg 6-4 6-3.

JIM COURIER'S victory over Cedric Pioline in the quarter-final of the Volvo International Open guarantees that, with Sampras losing in Indianapolis, he will return to his former ranking of world No 1.

VOLVO INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENT (New Haven, Conneticut) Men's singles, quarter finals: P Korda (Czech Rep) bt S Pescosolido (It) 6-3 6-3; A Agassi (US) bt I Lendl (US) 6-3 6-4; B Black (Zim) bt M Woodforde (Aus) 6-3 6-3; A Medvedev (Ukr) bt J Svensson (Swe) 7-6 1-6 6-4. Semi-final: Korda bt Black 6-3 6-1. Doubles: Semi-finals: S Devries (US) and D Macpherson (Aus) bt S Lareau and D Nestor (Can) 6-4 6-2.

CANADIAN WOMEN'S OPEN (Toronto) Quarter-finals: S Graf (Ger) bt N Tauziat (Fr) 6-2 7-5; A Sanchez Vicario (Sp) bt A Huber (Ger) 5-7 6-2 6-1; M Maleeva-Fragniere (Swit) bt M-J Fernadez (US) 6-4 6-4; J Capriati (US) bt J Halard (Fr) w/o. Semi-finals: Graf bt Maleeva-Fragniere 6-2 6-1; Capriati bt Sanchez Vicario 7-6 6-2.

USTA CHALLENGER (New York) Men's singles, quarter-finals: C Wilkinson (GB) bt A Change (Can) 6-3 6-2; D Flach (US) bt L Paes (Ind) 7-5 5-7 6-1.

REEBOK BRITISH TOUR (Havant) Men's final: D Sapsford (Surrey) bt P Hand (Berks) 6-2 6-2. Women's final: V Humphreys-Davies (Cambs) bt D Huber (US) 7-5 4-6 6-2.

CLAIRE TAYLOR beat Lizzie Jelfs, the top seed and a fellow Banbury player, 6-3, 6-7, 6-1 to win the girls 18-and-under title at Nottingham yesterday. Taylor established a set and 4-2 lead before a string of errors extended the match into a third set.

MIDLAND BANK NATIONAL JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS (Nottingham) Finals: Girls' 18 and under singles: C Taylor (Oxon) bt L Jelfs (Oxon) 6-3 6-7 6-1. Boys' 14 and under singles: J Trotman (Suffolk) bt J Monk (Sussex) 6-2 7-6. Boys' 18 and under singles: J Fox (Lincs) bt T Spinks (Norfolk) 6-1 6-4 6-2. Girls' 14 and under singles: F Lishman (Northumberland) bt A Tordoff (Kent) 6-3 4-6 6-4. Girls' 18 and under doubles: L Jelfs (Oxon) and I Wyatt (Oxon) bt T Croson (Derbys) and H Matthews (Berks) 6-3 6-3. Boys' 14 and under doubles: A Barnes (Cambs) and J Monk (Sussex) bt I Bates (Hants & IOW) and J Trotman (Suffolk) 6-2 6-3.