Rymer’s 61 Ties Course Record

Charlie Rymer shot a nine-under-par 61 Saturday and moved within a stroke of Phil Mickelson after three rounds of the Byron Nelson Classic at Irving, Texas.

A non-winner in only his second year on the PGA Tour, Rymer, 28, came from seven shots back to share second place with Mark Wiebe and Corey Pavin at 10-under-par 200. His round tied the course record at the Tournament Players Course at the Four Seasons Resort and Club.

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Nancy Lopez shot a 32 on the front nine to get to four-under-par through 11 holes when play was suspended because of a thunderstorm at the LPGA Championship at Wilmington, Del.

Lopez was one stroke ahead of Hiromi Kobayashi, who had finished 14 holes, and two better than Kelly Robbins, Alison Nicholas, Catrin Nilsmark and Shirley Furlong.

Tennis

A day after upsetting No. 1-ranked Steffi Graf, 15-year-old Martina Hingis showed it was no fluke by defeating seventh-seeded Irina Spirlea, 6-2, 7-5, in the Italian Open semifinals at Rome.

In today’s final, Hingis will meet second-seeded and three-time tournament champion Conchita Martinez, who defeated No. 4 Iva Majoli, 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, in a 2-hour 20-minute semifinal.

Sweden’s Mats Wilander scored an impressive 6-3, 6-3 semifinal victory over fifth-seeded Javier Frana of Argentina at the U.S. Clay Court Championships at Pinehurst, N.C., to reach his first tournament final in nearly six years.

In the final, Wilander will play Brazilian Fernando Meligeni, who upset sixth-seeded Australian Jason Stoltenberg 2-6, 6-0, 6-4.

Roberto Carretero defeated third-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Alex Corretja beat fifth-seeded Marcelo Rios in the semifinals to set up an all-Spanish German Open final at Hamburg.

College Baseball

USC sophomore pitcher Seth Etherton raised his record to 12-1 with the help of reliever Jack Krawczyk as the Trojans held on to defeat UCLA, 5-4, in a Pacific 10 Conference game at Dedeaux Field. The Trojans already have clinched the Southern Division with a 37-13-1 record overall and 22-6 in conference. UCLA dropped to 32-23 and 16-13.

Cycling

In Kennesaw, Ga., Marcel Wust of Germany won the 148.2-mile 11th stage of the Tour DuPont.

Lance Armstrong, 24, of Austin, Texas, kept his race lead and is primed to win his second successive overall title. He holds a 1:58 lead over Pascal Herve of France.

Basketball

Cal State Bakersfield junior Kebu Stewart, a former transfer from Nevada Las Vegas, became 20th underclassman to declare hardship for the NBA draft. . . . Forward Ryan Blackwell has decided to attend Syracuse, two weeks after transferring from Illinois.

Miscellany

Jeff Madrigali and his crew of Kent Massey and Jim Barton needed only two races to wrap up the match race portion of the Soling competition and earn a berth on the U.S. Olympic Yachting team at Savannah, Ga.

Two Texas Tech athletes received top marks in a junior college physical education course even though they apparently weren’t required to attend classes, according to the Houston Chronicle. Mark Davis, an all-Southwest Conference basketball player at Texas Tech in 1994-95, and Stephen Gaines, a Red Raider football starter in 1992 and 1993, obtained A’s at Howard College in the summer of 1992 in a course taught by Jeff Kidder, the school’s basketball coach at the time.

In a letter submitted to a New Jersey court, promoter Don King said Mike Tyson would rather drop his World Boxing Council title than agree to Lennox Lewis’ demand for more than the $10 million purse for a fight between the fighters.

Lewis, who defeated Ray Mercer in a 10-round decision Friday night, has a temporary restraining order forcing Tyson to fight him or be stripped of his WBC title.

Mark Sargent, a former NASCAR driver, was arrested after police found a drug lab and plastic explosives in his East San Jose home.