BRIEFLY : SANCHEZ VICARIO SUCCEEDS AT LAST.

After a decade of trying, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario finally won the Family Circle Cup, beating surprise finalist Barbara Paulus 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 Sunday to earn the $200,000 first prize in the year's opening clay-court tournament, at Sea Pines Racquet Club in Hilton Head, S.C.

``I was coming every year, hoping to do a little better than the year before,'' she said. ``Finally, the 10th time has been the one.''

Paulus made the final by topping two-time defending champion and No. 1-seed Conchita Martinez 7-6 (7-2), 6-4. Sanchez Vicario defeated No. 6 Jana Novotna in the semifinals, held Sunday because rain washed them out a day earlier.

Sanchez Vicario started playing Hilton Head as a 15-year-old in 1987. But even after becoming known as an elite clay-court player, she always seemed to run into someone hotter at the Family Circle.

BASKETBALL

Dallas Comegys, a former NBA player now with a Turkish team, vowed to play again after recovering from a gunshot wound that left him in critical condition. ``I'll be back with my club, soon,'' Comegys said by phone from the intensive care unit of Uludag University Medical School Hospital in Bursa, Turkey.

OLYMPICS

In Atlanta, Glen Dubis and Rob Harbison shot their way onto the U.S. Olympic 3x40 rifle team. Dubis, of Bethel Park, Pa., finished the three-day match with an overall score of 3692.2 points out of a possible 3818, and Harbison of Fallston, Md., was second overall with 3679.1.

SOCCER

Grenada advanced to the second round of qualifying for the 1998 World Cup, routing Guyana 6-0 to win their home-and-home series on 8-1 aggregate in St. George's, Grenada.

BOXING

World champion Alexei Lezin, rested after winning his semifinal on a walkover, captured the super heavyweight title at the European Amateur Boxing Championships by winning a decision over Ukraine's Vladimir Klitchko in Vejle, Denmark. Russia dominated the tournament by winning three of the 12 finals.

Floyd Mayweather, the son of a former welterweight contender, won a losers' bracket bout in the U.S. Boxing Trials in Oakland to stay in the chase for an Olympic berth. He will join 11 other challengers in Augusta, Ga., April 18-20 who must defeat the finals champions twice to represent the United States in Atlanta.

MOTOR SPORTS

Tommi Makinen survived a flat tire and a flash flood to win Kenya's three-day Safari Rally, the world tour's roughest and fastest rally. Makinen traded leads three times with Kenneth Eriksson, who struggled with mechanical problems, on the last leg of the 1,743-mile race.

SOURCE: Daily News Staff and Wire Services

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Photo

PHOTO Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain reacts with a grin a fter winning the Family Circle Cup tournament.

Associated Press