BEIJING: Olympic 5,000m champion and newlywed Wang Junxia has left China with her husband to study in the United States, official media reported today. The 24-year-old former member of Ma Junren's ``family army'', who also took the silver medal in the women's 10,000m in Atlanta, left Beijing yesterday to begin a self-founded course of study at the Colorado State University, Xinhua News Agency reported.

USTA names first female president

NEW YORK: Judy Levering, a United States Tennis Association board member since 1994, was appointed as the first woman president of the 118-year-old organisation here yesterday.

Levering, who has been serving as first vice-president, will assume her new responsibility on January 1, 1999 replacing Harry Marmion, who will remain on the board for two years.

Levering joined the USTA as a director-at-large following 16 years of active volunteer service to tennis in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Rafter donates Openwinnings

SYDNEY: Australian tennis star Pat Rafter has donated a third of his US Open winnings to help sick children. Rafter, who beat fellow Australian Mark Philippoussis in New York on Sunday to win his second US Open title, handed over a cheque for US $ 300,000 today to a Brisbane hospital.

Rafter secretly donated to fund a leisure room for terminally ill children at the same hospital when he beat Briton Greg Rusedski to win the US Open last year.