BRIEFLY : GRAF WINS EASILY AT INDIAN WELLS.

Byline: Daily News Wire Services

Steffi Graf, trying to get back to the No. 1 world ranking she held before her knee surgery, beat Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand 6-4, 6-0 in the second round of the Evert Cup women's tennis tournament at Indian Wells on Saturday.

In only her second tournament since surgery on her left knee, the third-seeded Graf needed 68 minutes to advance in the $1.25 million event.

Top-seeded Martina Hingis had an even easier time, needing 61 minutes to eliminate Sarah Pitkowski of France 6-2, 6-1. Second-seeded Lindsay Davenport defeated Amy Frazier 6-3, 6-1.

Venus Williams, seeded eighth, beat Silvia Farina of Italy 6-3, 6-1. Williams won her first pro tournament last week in Oklahoma City.

Andre Agassi defeated Germany's Tommy Haas 6-2, 6-1 to reach the final of the Franklin Templeton Tennis Classic in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Agassi, who won this event in 1993 and 1994, will face Australia's Jason Stoltenberg for the championship today. Stoltenberg beat the Netherlands' Sjeng Schalken 6-3, 6-3 despite twisting his ankle twice.

Agassi won his rain-suspended quarterfinal match over Jan-Michael Gambill 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) before facing Haas five hours later.

NHL: U.S. Olympic hockey coach Ron Wilson said the vandalism caused by some of his players in Nagano is getting ``blown out of proportion big time'' and that the culprits will probably never own up to it.

``We may as well bring in Kenneth Starr on this,'' said Wilson, referring to the Whitewater-Monica Lewinsky prosecutor to unleash his frustration over the trashed-rooms saga. ``I think it's gotten to the point now where you're never going to see anyone step forward.''

New Jersey Devils center Doug Gilmour, the NHL's 11th all-time leading scorer, was expected to be sidelined two weeks after undergoing arthroscopic surgery to remove cartilage from the right knee.

MOTOR SPORTS: Sterling Marlin's streak of 332 consecutive Winston Cup starts will end today at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga. Marlin was one of seven drivers who failed to make the Primestar 500 field when second-round qualifying was rained out Saturday.

NASCAR Winston Cup rookie Steve Park is expected to miss from three to five months after undergoing surgery to repair a broken right femur suffered in a crash during practice this week.

SKIING: Hermann Maier didn't even have to compete. While sitting at home, he became the first Austrian man in 28 years to win the World Cup overall title.

As Nicolas Burtin of France captured his first-ever World Cup downhill at Kvitfjell, Norway, Andreas Schifferer of Austria skied out on the upper part of the course. That mishap enabled the ailing Maier (back injury) to clinch his first overall title.

NBA: The New Jersey Nets signed forward David Vaughn to a 10-day contract to fill the roster vacancy created when center Rony Seikaly was put on the injured list.