NEWS IN BRIEF 

In its turn Kyiv Dynamo, veteran of the UEFA 1999 semifinals, defeated Kirovohrad Zirka 1:0, thanks to a goal by Oleksandr Holovko. And now it would take the wildest of fantasies to imagine that the team boasting super-forward Andriy Shevchenko and led by Valery Lobanovsky could lose 10 points in remaining matches and allow Shakhtar to supplant it in the lead. The main struggle promises to be for third place between Kryvbas of Kryvy Rih and Karpaty of Lviv.
Ukrainian Professionals to Play American Amateurs Today in Kyiv's Sports Palace the finals of Volkov Cup All-Ukrainian Children's Basketball Tournament will be held. It has been six years in a row that 1988 Seoul Olympic champion Oleksandr Volkov (who has played at his time for Kyiv Budivelnyk and the NBA's Atlanta Hawks) conducts the tournament, the main goal of which is to select promising young basketball players.

The tournament is all-Ukrainian and promotes the popularization of basketball here. The finals are to be held in daytime, and in the evening the national team of Ukraine and Converse All Stars (students' combined team) will take the floor.

  Kyiv's Hosts ETA Junior Tennis Tourneys Yesterday saw the start of the Kinetik Cup Junior (up to 16 years) Tennis Tournament at Kyiv's Dynamo Stadium, involving players from nine countries, including Yugoslavia, Israel, and Russia.

This competition is in the ETA second category, currently the most prestigious junior event in the CIS. Needless to say, the contenders are the best in their age groups in their countries. At a news conference prior to the competition a number of journalists received presents from the Kvant Co. in commemoration of their coverage of last year's tournament, among them the Den's sports editor Petro MARUSENKO.

Last week saw the end of the Antei Cup junior tournament here. Thanks to its second category status, it attracted the best players from 13 countries.

The winner was Artiun Safian of Yerevan, Armenia, who ranks eighth in overall ETA standings, defeating in the final 15 year-old Kyivan Taras Demyanenko, 5:7, 6:3, 6:4. Both finalists will also play in the Kinetik Cup tournament. Taras Demyanenko is son of the legendary captain of Kyiv Dynamo, Anatoly Demyanenko.