SPORTSLINE (09/29/96)

SPORTSLINE

Soccer

According to the Belfast Telegraph daily, the Ukrainian national team executed "a classic smash and grab raid" at Belfast's Windsor Park stadium on August 31, coming away with a 1-0 win over their counterparts from Northern Ireland.

This was Ukraine's first match of the first round in World Cup qualifying for the championship that is slated to take place in 1998 in France.

Nine groups of five or six teams were formed. Nine winners and best runner-up qualify directly for the championship final in France. The other eight runners-up will be drawn in pairs and play home and away matches. Four winners of those pairs will also qualify for the World Cup final.

In the lottery assigning nations to competitive pools, Ukraine drew Group 9, where the country also faces stiff opposition from Germany, this year's European champions, and Portugal, which have a very strong team. Armenia and Albania, considered relatively weaker sides, round out the group.

In the August 31 match, the two sides traded opportunities in the early going, with Viktor Leonenko, the 25-year-old striker from Kyiv Dynamo, creating many chances for the blue-and-yellow side.

In the second half, Northern Ireland almost went ahead when Keith Gillespie blazed past two Ukrainian backs, then lifted a delicate chip shot over goalie Oleksander Shovkovsky, but Sergei Popov raced back in time to clear the ball off the line.

At the 79th minute, Kyiv Dynamo's Sergei Rebrov struck the killer blow, shedding the coverage of two defenders to head the ball beyond Northern Irish goalkeeper Alan Fettis, on a cross from Viktor Skrypnyk, who plays for the Werder team in Germany.

Ukraine's coach, Jozef Szabo, was particularly impressed with the play of Mr. Leonenko, although the latter did draw a yellow card for rough play five minutes from the end.

"We knew what to expect from Northern Ireland. We denied them space on the flanks, and the plan worked perfectly," Mr. Szabo told the Belfast Telegraph.

Also on August 31, Armenia shocked Portugal in Yerevan by holding it to a 0-0 draw. Ukraine's next match is at home against Portugal, on October 5.

Tennis

Andrei Medvedev, plagued by a return of his service problems (so to speak), was knocked out of the U.S. Open on September 3, after getting to the fourth round of the tournament to face fourth seed Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia. Mr. Ivanisevic, defeated Mr. Medvedev by a score of 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-2).

Mr. Medvedev got there in stunning fashion, advancing through his side of the draw without dropping a set. Granted, he had a rather easier go of it, drawing all unseeded players.

He defeated Petr Korda of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-4, 6-3; Jan Kroslak of Slovakia 6-4, 6-3, 6-2; and Jean-Phillipe Fleurian of France 6-2, 6-0, 6-1.

Since late 1995, Bob Brett, a new coach, had been working on Mr. Medvedev's service motion, and this appeared to have unsettled the controversial Kyivan. He fell to 44th in the world rankings (from a high of 13th in 1995), and in July the ethnic Russian from Ukraine was bounced out of Wimbledon in the first round.

However, by the time he arrived at the U.S. Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, the problems seemed to have been ironed out. The week after the English-based Grand Slam, Mr. Medvedev reached the finals of a tournament in Bastad, Germany, and then, on August 19, Mr. Medvedev won a tournament in Hamlet, Conn., his first in a year.

At the U.S. Open, in the fourth-round match against Mr. Ivanisevic, the Kyivan's creativity, fluid motion around the court and emotional play even got the crowd on his side.

The crucial moment came in the fourth set. The score was 5-4 in Mr. Medvedev's favor, the paid audience was pulling for him, and the Croatian was serving at break point. The Kyivan could have taken the set with one swing of the racket.

Instead, after a strong return of a serve that was sent back across by Mr. Ivanisevic, Mr. Medvedev netted a routine backhander. Two points later, Mr. Ivanisevic had evened the set at 5-5, and it was the beginning of the end.

Had he won his grandstand match, Mr. Medvedev would have faced this U.S. Open's sentimental favorite - Sweden's Stefan Edberg. After an illustrious career, the gentlemanly serve-and-volleyer played his final Grand Slam tournament. Mr. Edberg announced at the beginning of this year's season that he will retire.

Mr. Ivanisevic eventually beat the Swede, too.

Athletics

The pro season in track and field competition is still on, hardly missing a beat after the Olympics. The finals of the Grand Prix series were held in Milan, Italy, on September 7.

Ukraine's best performance came from Inessa Kravets, who won the long jump competition with a leap of 7.07 meters, beating Germany's Heike Drechsler by a comfortable margin. Larisa Berezhna also placed in the event, finishing eighth with a jump of 6.30 meters.

Oleksander Bahach came seventh in the men's shot put, while Zhanna Pintusevych was eighth in the women's 100-meter sprint (a race that perpetual Olympic bridesmaid Merlene Ottey of Jamaica won).

Other notes

This year's World Trampoline Championships were held August 23-25 in Vancouver, British Columbia, and gold medals were won by Ukrainians from both sides of the ocean.

Chris Mitruk, 22, of Burlington, Ontario, won gold in the men's double-mini trampoline event and shared in a gold in the team double-mini competition.

The Ukrainian team of Olena Movchan and Oksana Tsyguleva won the gold in the women's synchronized event, then joined Oksana Verbytska and Larysa Hreshchyk to take the silver medal in the individual team competition. (Ukrainian World Congress Sports Commission)