BRIEFLY : MIFFED MUSTER QUITS MATCH.

Thomas Muster walked off the court and refused to finish the fifth set as Austria forfeited doubles play Saturday and Brazil took a 2-1 lead in the Davis Cup World Group qualifying round in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

Muster, the ATP's third-ranked player, claimed someone in the crowd was blinding him with a mirror in the doubles match between Austria's Udo Pamberger and Muster against Brazil's Jaime Oncins and Gustavo Kuerten. Muster, who was disqualified from playing singles today, also accused Brazilian fans of making noise and insulting him.

Muster had his serve broken in the first game of the fifth set as Brazil led 30-15, 2-0 after sets of 7-6 (7-2), 4-6, 6-3, 3-6 before some 3,000 fans at the Transamerica Hotel.

Muster defeated Brazil's Fernando Meligeni in three sets Friday.

Top-seeded Monica Seles and No. 2 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario will meet in the final of the Nichirei Ladies tournament today after Seles battled to a surprisingly tough victory in the semifinals.

Seles overcame a 3-6 deficit in the final-set tiebreaker to beat third-seeded Kimiko Date of Japan 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (8-6). Sanchez Vicario beat American Kimberly Po 6-4, 6-3 in the other semifinal.

Austria's Barbara Paulus was in position to win the Warsaw Cup in Poland for the second straight year after defeating third-seeded Karina Habsudova of Slovakia 6-1, 6-4. Another Slovak, Henrietta Nagyova, came from behind to oust compatriot Janette Husarova 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.

BASEBALL

Jackie Robinson, who considered his hometown Pasadena a bigoted city, will be honored with a float in the Tournament of Roses Parade.

Robinson grew up in Pasadena and was a star high school athlete before becoming the first African-American in major league baseball. Robinson, who died in 1972, never returned.

The float, depicting Robinson sliding into home, will honor the 50th anniversary of his breaking baseball's color barrier. Parade organizers decided Friday to include the float, although the deadline for entry passed in August.

In Lausanne, Switzerland, baseball's world governing body opened the sport to professionals for the Olympics, although there's no guarantee major leaguers will play in Sydney, Australia, in 2000.

A 1910 Honus Wagner baseball card, considered the Holy Grail of baseball collectibles, sold at an auction in New York for $640,500 and left its lucky ex-owner looking forward to early retirement. The seller, Patricia Gibbs, 41, won custody of the card in February as part of a national contest held by Wal-Mart. The winning bidder was not identified by officials at Christie's auction house.

The cost of Bank One Ballpark in downtown Phoenix has risen $1.7 million since the last reported budget in August. The budget for the retractable-dome baseball stadium is now $347.8 million, according to Bob Williams, director of the Maricopa Stadium District.

BASKETBALL

Houston Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich was released from a hospital in Galveston, Texas, one day after he suffered severe intestinal pain during his annual charity golf tournament.

The 47-year-old coach was kept overnight Friday for observation at the University of Texas Medical Branch.

The University of Arkansas basketball team used three ineligible players last season, according to documents released by the athletic department. University officials have acknowledged publicly the school used two ineligible basketball players. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported the discrepancy.

HOCKEY

After nearly three months of sometimes strained negotiations, the New York Rangers and defenseman Alexander Karpovtsev agreed on a contract that will keep Karpovtsev in a Rangers uniform. The contract is believed to be for $500,000.

MOTOR SPORTS

Damon Hill, with a shot at clinching the Formula One championship, edged Williams Renault teammate Jacques Villeneuve for the pole position in the Portuguese Grand Prix in Estoril, Portugal. Hill led qualifiers with a lap of 1 minute and 20.330 seconds on the damp 2.709-mile Estoril circuit - a mere .009 of a second ahead of Villeneuve, the only other driver with a chance at the title.

Rusty Wallace is the favorite in today's Hanes 500 in Martinsville, Va. Wallace is the consummate short-track racer, and Martinsville Speedway's half-mile oval is the short track on which he's been most successful.

Bobby Hamilton won the pole for today's race, but he has no illusions about how tough the job of winning the 500-lap event will be, especially with Wallace's Ford Thunderbird starting alongside his Pontiac Grand Prix in the front row of the 36-car field.

Trans-Am series leader Tommy Kendall added three more points to his total by posting the fastest qualifying time in his bid for a second straight driver's championship.

SOCCER

With a 1-0 loss to the Columbus Crew, the New England Revolution was abruptly shoved out of the playoff race - by one of its own players. With the Revolution needing a regulation time victory to qualify for Major League Soccer's inaugural playoffs, a moment of madness by Mark Watson put them in a deep hole.

Watson, a former Crew defender, was ejected from the game for shoving Ricardo Iribarren at 32:36, forcing the Revolution to play a man-down for the remainder of the game.