Steffi rules out comeback

Los Angeles: Steffi Graf still enjoys hitting a ball now and then, but don’t expect any Martina Navratilova-type comeback from the German tennis great.

“No, no. I’m not coming back,” said Graf, whose husband Andre Agassi is still playing on the men’s tour. “That’s not going to happen. That would take a lot of time away from my children and I would not do that”.

Graf, who spoke on a conference call on Wednesday to discuss her induction in July to the international tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, said that with two children — two-year-old son Jaden and sx-month-old daughter Jaz — she had little time for tennis.

Graf also ruled out any plan to join her husband in a mixed-doubles dream team.

Agassi pulls out

Berlin: Former world number one Andre Agassi has pulled out of next month’s Hamburg Masters, organisers said on Thursday.

The 34-year-old American said he would miss the May 10-16 tournament because he has decided on a light schedule in his preparations for the French Open starting on May 24.

Rain plays havoc

Toowoomba (Australia): For the second night in a row, the weather played havoc with a women’s hockey Test series between Australia and India.

Heavy fog prevented Thursday’s second game from going ahead. Officials decided to reschedule it for Saturday at Buderim on Queensland state’s sunshine coast, the venue for the third and fourth matches on the weekend. A power failure, following heavy rain during the day, forced the first match in New South Wales to be abandoned with the score 0-0 in 56th minute on Wednesday.

Rivaldo told to hurry up

Bolton: Bolton boss Sam Allardyce has admitted Rivaldo may be stalling on signing for his side in the hope of attracting an offer from a more glamorous club.

Voicing his frustration over the Brazilian playmaker’s failure to put pen to paper after more than a week of negotiations, Allardyce said Bolton would pull out of the deal if nothing became concrete in the next few days.

Allardyce said: “If there’s not a positive move in a few days then we’d have to call time on it, because it might suggest that our offer is being touted about to see if it could be bettered elsewhere.”

Flight chaos likely

Lisbon: Football fans arriving in Portugal for the opening of Euro 2004 on June 12 run the risk of seeing their flights either delayed or cancelled because of a planned strike by border police, airport officials warned on Thursday.

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