ST LOUIS

TOP SEED Lindsay Davenport reasserted her claim to the world No 1 ranking by halting the resurgent Steffi Graf in the semi-finals of the season-ending Chase Championships here yesterday.

IN THE first quarter-final of the women's end of season finale, the Chase Championships, the Romanian Irina Spirlea comfortably defeated Dominique Van Roost, of Belgium, 6-2, 6-3 in 54 minutes at Madison Square Garden, New York, last night.

NATHALIE TAUZIAT of France beat Natasha Zvereva of Belarus 6-3, 6-1 at the season-ending Chase Championships yesterday to add another win to a memorable 1998 campaign.

LENNOX LEWIS' unification match with Evander Holyfield looks set to go ahead at New York's Madison Square Garden on 13 March.

EVANDER HOLYFIELD has signed a contract with the promoter Don King for the world heavyweight title unification bout with Lennox Lewis.

CHUBBY'S COMING home. Or as near as damn it. Tonight in Atlanta, Georgia, Evander Holyfield will show a different side of himself, a transformation as remarkable as that which saw an overweight kid from nearby Atmore, Alabama, turn into one of the finest physical specimens on the planet. The show's promoter, Don King, claims he will unveil "the new Evander Holyfield".

DURING HIS 25 years' tenure as singer and bass-player with the American revival group Sha Na Na, Chico Ryan became one of the torch-bearers for a musical style that combined doo-wop, rock 'n' roll, homage and pastiche in equal measures. So successful was the Sha Na Na recipe that, in the Seventies, they hosted their own syndicated television show and appeared in the film Grease.

By John Mehaffey in New York

SOME BOXERS cannot fight because they fail drug tests. Maria de las Nieves Garcia cannot fight because of a pregnancy test.

TONIGHT at Madison Square Garden, London-born Henry Akinwande was hoping to earn over $2m and redemption for an awful display against Lennox Lewis.

THE QUESTION Lennox Lewis cannot answer concerns the intrigue that thwarts his ambition to be known as the undisputed heavyweight champion. How long is Lewis prepared to wait for a crack at fulfilment? "I'm a patient man," he said after weighing in for tonight's defence of the World Boxing Council title at the Convention Centre here.

EVANDER HOLYFIELD will defend his World Boxing Association heavyweight title against the Briton Henry Akinwande on 6 June at Madison Square Garden, New York.

AN open letter to my neighbours: it was me last Monday night, barking those murderous obscenities while I trashed my living room and threw the telly out of the window. I apologise, and promise it won't happen again. You can be sure of that, because I won't be watching On Side any more.