Tennis: Fruitless cause for Alami

KARIM ALAMI, the first-round conqueror of the world No 1, Pete Sampras, had his hopes of making further progress quashed by Paul Haarhuis, of the Netherlands, in the second round of the Qatar Open in Doha yesterday.

However, the young Moroccan put up a stiff battle in a match lasting more than two and a half hours before Haarhuis sealed a 6-4, 6-7, 6-3 success. Alami claimed that he had been unable to concentrate on the match after his win over the Wimbledon champion.

'I did not get to sleep until three in the morning because I was so excited,' he said. Haarhuis now faces Russia's Andrei Olhovskiy, who beat Carl-Uwe Steeb, of Germany, 7-5, 6-2, in the next round.

Croatia's Goran Ivanisevic also moved through to the quarter-finals when he defeated Youness al-Aynaoui, of Morocco, 7-6, 6-7, 6-2. The only two breaks went to Ivanisevic in the third set.

In the quarter-finals today, Ivanisevic will play Italy's Stefano Pescosolido, who beat the Frenchman, Olivier Delaitre, 6-2, 6-4.

Jeff Tarango, the American ranked No 91 in the world, is likely to face disciplinary action after storming off court during a match against Germany's Michael Geserer at the BP Challenger tournament in Wellington, New Zealand, yesterday. Tarango refused to pay a dollars 350 ( pounds 241) fine for audible obscenities and chair assault.

Results, Sporting Digest, page 35