■ Soccer
West Ham advances
Dean Ashton scored in both halves to lead West Ham over Manchester City 2-1 on Monday for a berth in the FA Cup semifinals, its first since 1991. Ashton put West Ham ahead 1-0 in the 41st minute, scoring on a shot past the near post and behind David James. He made it 2-0 in the 69th, chipping home a close-range shot. The goal came 13 minutes after Man City was reduced to 10 men after winger Sun Jihai was red-carded for swinging his arm at a West Ham player. Ashton's first goal was the only attempt for either side in the first half. The second half was better played, but the edge went to counterattacking West Ham after City was down a man. City's brightest moment was Kiki Musampa's score on an 18m volley in the 85th. City was trying to reach its first semifinal in 25 years, but was playing without three players injured in a weekend loss to Wigan -- Georgios Samaras, Trevor Sinclair and Claudio Reyna. The match was the first of four quarterfinals this week. Birmingham faced Liverpool yesterday, Chelsea plays Newcastle today and Charlton meets Middlesbrough tomorrow.
■ Tennis
Mauresmo now No. 1
Australian Open champion Amelie Mauresmo will start this week's NASDAQ-100 Open in the US as the top-ranked woman in the world, again. Mauresmo replaced Kim Clijsters atop the WTA Tour rankings on Monday, regaining the No. 1 position she held for five weeks in September-October 2004. She and Clijsters missed last week's Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, which was won by Maria Sharapova. Clijsters won the Indian Wells title last year, but the Belgian has been out injured and fell to No. 2 in the rankings after losing her points from that win. Justine Henin-Hardenne was third in the rankings, followed by Sharapova and Lindsay Davenport. Mary Pierce, Nadia Petrova, Elena Dementieva, Patty Schnyder and Venus Williams round out the top 10. All but the injured Davenport are entered in the NASDAQ-100 Open starting on Wednesday in Key Biscayne, Florida. Clijsters is the defending champion. Mauresmo, the first and only French man or woman to be No. 1, leads the WTA Tour this year with three titles, including her first Grand Slam. She has 3,511 points, and Clijsters 3,290. In the previous rankings on March 6, Mauresmo trailed by only 28 points.
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