Tommy Gainey leads Phoenix Open; Phil Mickelson is four strokes back

Phil Mickelson thrilled the huge crowd on the par-three 16th hole with a 30-foot birdie putt Saturday and closed within four strokes of leader Tommy Gainey halfway through the frost-delayed Phoenix Open at Scottsdale, Ariz.

Mickelson, who won in 1996 and 2005 at TPC Scottsdale, birdied six of the last 11 holes for a six-under 65. He was 10 under for two rounds in the event, which will end Monday because of long delays on Thursday and Friday.

Gainey played nine holes Saturday, finishing off a 65 after shooting a career-best 63 on Friday. Mark Wilson was 13 under, completing a 64.

The crowd was estimated at 131,627, up from 121,221 on Saturday last year. In colder weather, the attendance was 38,323 Thursday and 74,723 Friday.

Bjorn takes lead into final day of Qatar Masters

Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn shot a bogey-free 66 to take a one shot lead into the last round of the Qatar Masters at Doha.

Bjorn, a 10-time winner on the European Tour, birdied four of the last five holes to finish on 11-under-par. Markus Brier is one shot behind and defending champion Robert Karlsson is another two shots back.

Germany’s Martin Kaymer lies at one-under for the tournament after a round of 68 on Saturday, but he needs a miracle in Sunday’s final round if he is to overtake Lee Westwood at the top of the world rankings. Needing to finish in the top two, Kaymer is 10 shots off the lead.

Teng leads by three at Women’s Australian Open

Defending champion Yani Tseng shot a five-under 68 Saturday to take a three-stroke lead into the final round of the Women’s Australian Open at Melbourne.

Tseng had a three-round total of 14-under 205 at Commonwealth Golf Club. No. 1-ranked Jiyan Shin of South Korea shot 69 and was in second place, followed by her countrywoman Ji Eun-hee, who had 70 and was four strokes behind Tseng.

Clijsters leads Belgium to 2-0 lead over U.S. in Fed Cup

Melanie Oudin and Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the United States lost their singles matches Saturday, giving Belgium a 2-0 lead in the first-round Fed Cup matchup.

Oudin lost to Australian Open winner Kim Clijsters, 6-0, 6-4, and Mattek-Sands fell, 6-1, 7-6 (6), to Yanina Wickmayer in the opening match.

The United States played without the injured Williams sisters. Venus Williams strained her groin at the Australian Open, and Serena Williams has been sidelined with a foot injury since winning Wimbledon.

Belgium competed without Justine Henin, who retired last week because of an elbow injury.

In other Fed Cup matches, defending champion Italy and Australia tied 1-1. Flavia Pennetta edged Samantha Stosur, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5), 6-4, and Jarmila Groth upset French Open champion Francesca Schiavone, 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-3.

France leads Russia 2-0 after Maria Sharapova and Svetlana Kuznetsova lost their matches. Virginie Razzano defeated Sharapova, 6-3, 6-4, after Alize Cornet rallied to beat Kuznetsova, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

The Czech Republic has a 2-0 lead over Slovakia. Lucie Safarova beat Daniela Hantuchova, 7-5, 6-1, and Petra Kvitova stopped Dominika Cibulkova, 6-2, 6-3.

Clijsters is the favorite to clinch the event Sunday when she plays Mattek-Sands in reverse singles.

Santiago Giraldo of Colombia and Tommy Robredo of Spain each rallied from a set down to win their semifinals and advance to Sunday’s final of the Movistar Open at Santiago, Chile, the first ATP event of the season on clay.

Rocky Seto not UCLA’s new defensive coordinator after all

Rocky Seto is no longer under consideration for UCLA football’s defensive coordinator position, according to a person close to the negotiations who was not authorized to speak on the subject.

Seto, an assistant coach with the Seattle Seahawks, was offered and accepted the job Tuesday night, but the offer was rescinded the next day, according to the person close to the negotiations. The person said that no reason was given other than UCLA officials decided to go “in another direction.” UCLA officials claimed Saturday that no “official” offer had been made.

The decision leaves Coach Rick Neuheisel still searching to find a replacement for Chuck Bullough, who was fired on Dec. 18. Neuheisel, who was out of town and unavailable for comment Saturday, appears to have exhausted his A-list candidates.

According to people in the program who are not authorized to talk about the search, Neuheisel approached then-Stanford defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, who was not interested, and interviewed former Florida defensive co-coordinators Teryl Austin and Chuck Heater. Fangio is now with the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers, Austin became an assistant with the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens and Heater was hired as Temple’s defensive coordinator.

Oklahoma State would not grant Neuheisel permission to speak with its defensive coordinator, Bill Young.

Randy Shannon, formerly the coach at Miami, was interviewed three weeks ago but Neuheisel pursued Seto instead.

In other coaching news, Nevada running backs coach Jim Mastro told the Reno Gazette-Journal that he will take a week to decide on the offer to become UCLA’s running game coordinator. Negotiations with Mastro are ongoing.

— Chris Foster

Penguins’ Malkin has torn ligaments in knee

Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin — who had just returned from a five-game absence — has a major knee injury and it appears he won’t be back anytime soon.

Coach Dan Bylsma said Malkin, who has 15 goals and 22 assists this season, has two torn ligaments in his right knee. It’s not clear if he’ll need surgery.

Malkin was injured during Friday night’s 3-2 home win over Buffalo. He had an MRI on Saturday, which showed the tears to both the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments. Bylsma said treatment options were being discussed.

The injury is a another blow to the Penguins, whose captain, Sidney Crosby, is out indefinitely with a concussion. Mark Letestu has a meniscus injury and is out four to six weeks.

“You’re talking about Evgeni Malkin and the quality of player that he is. He’s a guy that’s won a scoring title and a Conn Smythe (trophy),” Bylsma said. “We were anticipating getting him back in the lineup and healthy back in the lineup. This is a difficult injury for him.”

Hannes Reichelt wins World Cup super-G; Bode Miller is third

Hannes Reichelt of Austria won a World Cup super-G for his fifth career victory at Hinterstoder, Austria. Bode Miller finished third.

Reichelt mastered the demanding Hannes Trinkl course in 1 minute 43.91 seconds to beat teammate Benjamin Raich by 0.34. Miller, who won the last super-G staged at Hinterstoder in 2006, was the fastest starter before finishing 0.93 back in third.

Meantime, Miller said he would not ski in the slalom at the world championships this month because of equipment troubles, saying he has “not been able to find the right setup.”

The 33-year-old American does plan to compete in the other four disciplines at the worlds that begin Tuesday in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

Miller has won world championship gold in all disciplines except for the slalom. He won the combined and the GS in St. Moritz in 2003, followed by super-G and downhill titles in Bormio two years later.

Canada sweeps halfpipe titles at freestyle championships

Michael Riddle won the men’s gold and Rosalind Groenewoud took the women’s, giving Canada a sweep of the halfpipe titles at the world freestyle ski championships in windy conditions at Park City, Utah.

Among the men, Kevin Rolland of France took silver and Simon Dumont of the U.S. won bronze.

Jennifer Hudak of the U.S. earned the top qualifying spot in the final, but had to recover from a fall on her first run to claim silver on her second. Canada’s Keltie Hansen earned bronze.

Kiriasis, Zubkov win bobsled overall titles

Germany’s Sandra Kiriasis and Russia’s Aleksandr Zubkov won the women’s and men’s two-person bobsled overall titles at Cesana, Italy, in the last World Cup of the season.

Text messages are running afoul of NCAA recruiting rules

Secondary NCAA violations in all divisions have increased by nearly 50% over the past five years, with many of the missteps involving text messages between recruits and coaches, a Missouri newspaper reported.

That was the case at the University of Missouri, where 32 of the 77 secondary violations committed by the school’s athletic department in 2009 and 2010 involved either text messaging or the Internet, the Columbia Daily Tribune reported.

Most of those infractions involved coaches sending text messages to recruits, which is banned until a high school athlete signs a letter of intent. The violations also involved improper use of instant messages and Twitter.

The NCAA considers secondary violations as “inadvertent or isolated,” providing only a minimal recruiting or competitive advantage. The penalties are generally far less onerous than cases deemed as major infractions.

Manchester United’s unbeaten streak ends

Manchester United’s unbeaten start to the Premier League season ended Saturday with a startling 2-1 defeat at last-place Wolverhampton. The upset came on the highest-scoring day in Premier League history, with 41 goals from eight games.

United had been unbeaten in 29 Premier League matches since April, equaling a club record partly set in its triple championship season of 1998-99.

Nani put league-leading United ahead in the third minute but George Elokobi and Kevin Doyle scored before halftime for the Wolves.