BRIEFLY : FRANCE CLAIMS FED CUP TITLE.

Sandrine Testud weathered a first-set shutout and beat Miriam Oremans of the Netherlands 0-6, 6-3, 6-3 Sunday in Den Bosch, Netherlands, clinching France's first Fed Cup title.

The 4-1 winning margin gave Yannick Noah the title in his first year as Fed Cup coach after guiding two French men's teams to Davis Cup triumphs.

In Sunday's first match, Brenda Schultz-McCarthy beat world No. 8 Mary Pierce 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, keeping the Netherlands alive after having lost both of Saturday's singles matches.

Britain's Greg Rusedski won the battle of tennis' big servers, defeating Mark Philippoussis of Australia 6-3, 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-3) in the final of the $975,000 Swiss Indoors in Basel, Switzerland.

Top-seeded Jim Courier won the China Open, beating No. 5 Magnus Gustaffson of Sweden 7-6 (12-10), 3-6, 6-3 in a 2-hour, 21-minute match in Beijing.

BOXING: Minutes after losing to Lennox Lewis in a WBC heavyweight title fight Saturday night, Andrew Golota collapsed in his dressing room and was taken to Atlantic City (N.J.) Medical Center. The hospital did not release a diagnosis. But Golota, described as awake and alert after passing a CAT scan, was released Sunday morning.

NHL: The accident involving Detroit Red Wings star Vladimir Konstantinov highlights the need for NHL players to carry disability insurance covering off-ice injuries.

The Oakland Press, citing an unidentified source, reported that Konstantinov did not have such insurance.

``This should be a wake-up call to every athlete that you need to have disability insurance, at least in an amount equal to the balance of your contract,'' said lawyer Scott Lites, who represents Detroit's Vyacheslav Kozlov.

ALSO: Mexico moved within a win of qualifying for the 1998 World Cup, routing El Salvador 5-0 in Mexico City behind two goals by Benjamin Galindo. . . . Overcoming temperatures 15-20 degrees above normal, Andrew Musuva of Kenya (2 hours, 14 minutes, 59 seconds) and Lyubov Morgunova of Russia (2:30:43) won their respective divisions of the Twin Cities Marathon in St. Paul, Minn.

Brian Pillman, a professional wrestler and former linebacker with the Cincinnati Bengals, was found dead in a suburban Minneapolis motel, authorities said. He was 35. The manner and cause of death were not immediately known, and an autopsy was to be conducted today.