Sports briefs for April 5, 2004

Monday, April 5, 2004 | 9:27 a.m.

Coria's injury gives victory to Roddick

Guillermo Coria had endured three three-set matches and had saved four match points in a semifinal just to reach Sunday's final of the Nasdaq-100 Open against Andy Roddick. But when Coria reached up to serve late in the first set and felt the entire left side of his back stiffen as he came down, he had finally been beaten.

Coria continued and even won the first set in a tie breaker despite needing an on-court massage during an injury timeout after the 11th game.

But when that set ended, Coria slammed his racket to the ground, and afterward moved ever more gingerly as his serves slowed to 79 mph.

Finally, after Roddick easily won the second and third sets and Coria faced triple break point to open the fourth in the best-of-five final, he had had enough. He waved his hands in frustration and walked to the net to concede, giving Roddick his second title of the year, 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-1.

"I felt burned out and very sad after all that I had to go through this week," Coria said. "I was hoping that the pain was going to go away, but I knew after a certain point that it was not going to go away."

Canadians in final

Rebounding from their first loss in women's world championship history, the Canadians routed Sweden 7-1 at Halifax, Nova Scotia, to advance to Tuesday's final.

Moon Kim a winner

UNLV's Moon Kim, a 29-year-old junior from Korea, took first place in his weight division in Saturday's National Collegiate Boxing Championships in Reno. Kim, 112 pounds, helped the Rebels finish in sixth place in the event, which was won by Air Force.

DeCree leads Rebels

UNLV sprinter Halima DeCree had a second at 100 meters and a third at 200 meters to lead the Rebels to an eighth-place finish in the Cal-Nevada Championships at San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Houston suspension

The Houston Chronicle has suspended sports columnist Mickey Herskowitz for a month after a recent column was found to be virtually identical to one he wrote in 1990 for another newspaper.