Jennifer Capriati Schett out

HANOVER: Austria’s eighth-seeded Barbara Schett easily trounced Jennifer Capriati at the 500,000 Hanover WTA Tournament, but it was Steffi Graf who stole the show. Graf trained in front of 250 spectators, returning to a tournament where the former No 1 made a comeback from a career-threatening knee injury last year.

Schett had no trouble yesterday in beating Capriati, the former Olympic champion 6-4, 6-2. The American, once a teenage star, has fallen to 87th in the rankings. Romania’s Ruxandra Dragomir also advanced with a 6-3, 6-2 victory against France’s Sarah Pitkowski and France’s Sandrine Testud slipped by qualifier Andrea Glass of Germany 7-6 8-6, 6-1.

Tiger comes out of wilderness’

SAN DIEGO: It had been a while since Tiger Woods stood on an 18th green on a Sunday afternoon, both arms raised in triumph. Almost nine months to the day since his last victory, Woods rolled in a 15-foot 4.5 metre eagle putt to beat scrappy Billy RayBrown by two strokes in the Buick Invitational. Woods lifted both arms, then hugged Brown after the two battled for most of the final 18 holes.

Woods finished at 22-under 266, tying George Burns’ 1987 tournament record for Torrey Pines.

— Agencies