BRIEFLY : SELES, DAVENPORT PUT U.S. AHEAD 2-0.

Byline: Daily News Wire Services

Monica Seles looked like the No. 1 player she once was and Lindsay Davenport played well enough to win. The two teamed to give the United States a 2-0 lead over the Netherlands on Saturday in the best-of-five first-round matchup of the Fed Cup at Kiawah Island, S.C.

Seles beat 53rd-ranked Miriam Oremans 6-1, 6-2 in less than an hour. Davenport started slowly against 200th-ranked Amanda Hopmans before winning eight of the last nine games for a 6-4, 6-1 win in 80 minutes.

The winner of this confrontation will advance to the semifinals against either Germany or Spain, which split their two singles matches in Saarbrucken, Germany.

Defending Fed Cup champion France, playing without its top two players, managed a 1-1 split with Belgium on the opening day of their first-round series.

With doubles and reverse singles remaining today, France will have to reach the semifinals without Mary Pierce and Nathalie Tauziat.

In one of the other World Group I matches played in Europe, the Czech Republic and Switzerland were tied at 1-1.

Prior to the weekend match, French coach Yannick Noah told Pierce she need not to play against Belgium after France's top-ranked player requested a waiver for the early training sessions. He then sidelined the 30-year-old Tauziat, ranked 12th in the world, preferring to rely on the youthful vigor of 22-year-old Sarah Pitkowski, who lost Saturday.

Andrei Pavel of Romania, ranked 109th in the world, won his first ATP tour title by pounding out a 6-3, 6-4 victory today over former USC star Byron Black of Zimbabwe in the Japan Open final in Tokyo.

Japan's Ai Sugiyama defended her women's title, overcoming Corina Morariu of the United States 6-3, 6-3 with patient pressure.

Todd Martin beat Andrea Gaudenzi of Italy 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) and became the first American since 1979 to reach the final of the Conte de Godo Open in Barcelona, Spain. Martin will meet Alberto Berasategui, who advanced with a victory over fellow Spaniard Carlos Moya 7-6 (11-9), 6-4.

NBA: The Miami Heat activated forward Jamal Mashburn and placed Tim Hardaway on the injured list with inflammation of his right knee.

The Phoenix Suns placed Rex Chapman, their leading scorer, on the injured list with a hamstring pull and signed veteran center Mike Brown for their last regular-season game and the playoffs.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL: University of Miami running back James Jackson spent a night in jail in Coral Gables, Fla., following his arrest for battery of a female student. . . . Police were searching Saturday for ex-Stanford place-kicker Eric Abrams, 24, who they say claimed he was a police officer and tried to kidnap a 13-year-old boy off the street.

ALSO: South African Elana Meyer, the women's runner-up at the Boston Marathon last year, withdrew from Monday's race because of a lower-back injury suffered during training.