Angry Sorenstam Burns Up Course

Annika Sorenstam found the perfect cure for a bad attitude Saturday--make a lot of putts, then walk off the course with the lead.

Still steaming over a bad finish to her second round, Sorenstam made five birdies on the back nine for a four-under-par 68 that gave her a one-stroke lead over Dottie Pepper in the season-ending Arch Wireless Championship at Daytona Beach, Fla.

She took the outright lead with a 20-foot birdie putt at the 18th to get to nine-under 207. One day earlier, she three-putted from 10 feet on the final hole and was upset.

“I needed a day like this to forget about it,” Sorenstam said. “My goal is to have the same attitude tomorrow. Of course, it’s easier when the putts go in.”

She could have her hands full in today’s final round with Pepper, who had a 69 despite a double bogey at the ninth hole. Otherwise, she putted for birdie on every hole.

Grace Park chipped in twice on the final five holes--one for an eagle--and finished with a 70 that put her at six-under 210.

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Tiger Woods was stuck on 65 for a second consecutive day, and it was good enough to extend his lead to three strokes in the Johnnie Walker Classic at Bangkok, Thailand. With birdies on four of the final six holes, Woods put his three-round total at 18-under 198. He had consecutive birdies at the 13th, 14th and 15th holes and a final one at No. 17. Defending champion Michael Campbell of New Zealand shot a course-record 63 and shared second place with Australia’s Rodney Pampling at 201.

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Carlos Franco and Scott Hoch combined for an 11-under 61 and took a two-stroke lead after two rounds of the Shark Shootout at Miami. Franco and Hoch had the day’s best score at Doral’s Great White Course and were at 16-under 128 for the tournament, which consists of 12 two-man teams.

Tennis

Two former champions will play for the title in the season-ending Chase Championships at New York as Martina Hingis of Switzerland fought off her doubles partner, Anna Kournikova of Russia, 7-6 (2), 6-2, and Monica Seles stopped Elena Dementieva of Russia with a 6-1, 7-6 (4) victory.

Seles, a three-time champion, is playing for the title for the first time since 1992. Hingis is in the final for the third consecutive year.

“I have a very good record against her [11-2],” Hingis said of Seles. “Hopefully it’s going to stay that way.”

Hingis and Kournikova later teamed to win their second consecutive Chase doubles title, defeating Nicole Arendt and Manon Bollegraf, 6-2, 6-3.

The Chase Championships, which have been staged at Madison Square Garden since 1979, will move to Munich, Germany, next year.

Top-seeded Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil hit a roadblock in his bid to finish the year at No. 1 as he lost to Mark Philippoussis of Australia, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (11), in the semifinals of the $2.95-million Paris Masters.

Philippoussis, seeded 13th, won a riveting match against Kuerten and will face Marat Safin of Russia for the title. The second-seeded Safin defeated 12th-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain, 6-2, 6-2, in the other semifinal.

In a match in which both players held every serve, Philippoussis saved four set points in the final tiebreaker to prevail.

Former USC star Cecil Mamiit beat Robert Kendrick of Fresno, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, in the semifinals of the Acura USTA Pro Tennis Classic at Rancho Mirage. Mamiit will play James Blake, who defeated Anthony Dupuis of France, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1.

Miscellany

The Long Beach Ice Dogs took over the lead in the Southern Division of the West Coast Hockey League by defeating Fresno, 5-2, at Long Beach Arena. Three of their goals were scored on the power play. The Ice Dogs are 9-2-5, the Falcons 9-3-3.

Yevgeny Plushchenko and Irina Slutskaya, both of Russia, repeated as men’s and women’s champions at the Cup of Russia International Skating Union Grand Prix at St. Petersburg.

Plushchenko got high marks for both technical and artistic presentation. He earned two perfect 6.0s for presentation and got technical 5.9s from five of the seven judges.

Janica Kostelic of Croatia was the fastest skier on both slalom runs to win a women’s World Cup event at Park City, Utah. Martina Ertl of Germany was second and Christel Saioni of France was third.

Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann of Germany and Rintje Ritsma of the Netherlands broke course records in winning their events at a speedskating World Cup in Berlin.

Niemann-Stirnemann, the Olympic champion, won the women’s 3,000-meter event in 4 minutes 03.73 seconds, and Ritsma captured the men’s 1,500 in 1:48.61.

Stine Kjeldaas of Norway won the women’s half-pipe event and Gian Simmen of Switzerland captured the men’s championship at the International Ski Federation’s snowboard World Cup in Tignes, France.

U.S. national team goalkeeper Brad Friedel, playing his first game for Blackburn of England’s first division, helped lead his team to a 1-0 victory over Wolverhampton.