NEWSWIRE

UCLA’s Drake Stadium is one of 16 sites nationwide to host first-and second-round games of the NCAA women’s soccer championships beginning today. Pepperdine (11-4-3) will play USC (10-6-2) at 11 a.m., followed by UCLA (17-2-0) against Cal State Fullerton (13-6-0). The winners will meet in the second round at 1 p.m. Sunday.

Golf

American stars Tiger Woods and David Duval opened with a six-under-par 66 to drop four strokes behind Canada, Scotland and Sweden in the World Cup at Gotemba, Japan.

While Woods and Duval failed to take advantage of the scoring-friendly best-ball format, Canada’s Mike Weir and Ian Leggatt shot a 62 to match Scotland’s Andrew Coltart and Dean Robertson and Sweden’s Niclas Fasth and Robert Karlsson.

Karrie Webb made five birdies on the back nine for a five-under 67 on windy Trump International and a one-stroke lead over Annika Sorenstam in the Tyco/ADT Championship at West Palm Beach, Fla.

Tennis

Losses by top-ranked Gustavo Kuerten and No. 3 Andre Agassi at the season-ending Masters Cup in Sydney, Australia, put 20-year-old Lleyton Hewitt of Australian on course to become the youngest man to finish the year at No. 1 since ATP rankings started in 1973.

Kuerten’s 7-6 (3), 6-2 loss to No. 4 Juan Carlos Ferrero combined with Yevgeny Kafelnikov’s 6-3, 6-4 victory against Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic knocked him out of title contention.

Hewitt plays Pat Rafter in his last round-robin match today. If he beats Rafter and Kuerten loses to Kafelnikov in their last round-robin encounter, Hewitt will finish the year at No. 1.

Track and Field

A coalition of local politicians, track coaches and track enthusiasts will meet Tuesday with Anita DeFrantz, president of the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles, to request she continue the foundation’s financial support of the high school portion of the Los Angeles Invitational. However, Patrick Escobar, the AAF’s vice president for grants and programs, does not expect DeFrantz to reverse her decision to end the funding. The AAF provided $20,000 each of the last four years.