Argentine Coceres Has PGA Lead

Jose Coceres of Argentina won the Saturday shootout at Disney, emerging from the pack with an eight-under-par 64 to take a three-stroke lead over Davis Love III in the National Car Rental Classic in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

Six players had a share of the lead at some point during a blustery afternoon, but Coceres took control with a short birdie on the par-five 10th hole.

Coceres, a 38-year-old golfer who learned to play using sticks and rocks, holed a 15-foot birdie on the final hole to finish at 18-under 198.

He won at Hilton Head in a playoff over Billy Mayfair that was carried over to Monday, and now has a chance to become the eighth player on the PGA Tour this year with at least two victories.

Love had a poor round striking the ball and still managed a 67. Another stroke back was Vijay Singh, who birdied the first four holes on the back nine to get back into the picture.

Eleven players are within five strokes of the lead, including Tiger Woods.

The scoring was so low, and the names were so bunched, that Woods got to within three shots of the lead at one point and couldn’t be found on the first two pages of the electronic leaderboard. He finished with a birdie for a 67 that put him at 203.

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Bob Murphy, a golf analyst for NBC, and Gary McCord, who does the same work for CBS, will play in the final group during today’s final round of the SBC Championship, a Senior PGA event at the Dominion Country Club in San Antonio.

Murphy shot a six-under-par 66 to join McCord as co-leader of the 54-hole tournament at 10-under 134.

Tennis

Lindsay Davenport dealt Jennifer Capriati her first loss as the world’s top-ranked player, winning, 6-1, 5-7, 6-2, in the semifinals of the Swisscom Challenge in Zurich.

Davenport, who four times has been ranked No. 1, reached her fourth final in five tournaments.

Davenport will meet fourth-seeded Jelena Dokic in today’s final. Dokic beat fifth-seeded Nathalie Tauziat, 6-2, 6-2. Dokic has lost all three of her previous matches against Davenport.

Lleyton Hewitt’s bid to become No. 1 this week ended with a 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 loss to Tommy Haas in the semifinals of the Stuttgart Masters in Germany.

Haas, trying to win his second tournament in two weeks, ended the U.S. Open champion’s 17-match winning streak. Hewitt could have overtaken Gustavo Kuerten for the top ranking by winning in Stuttgart.

Rita Grande of Italy and Martina Sucha of Slovakia advanced to today’s final of the $110,000 Eurotel Slovak Indoor in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Grande, seeded fourth, defeated Slovakia’s Ludmila Cervanova, 6-3, 6-2, in one semifinal. Sucha beat Italy’s Adriana Serra-Zanetti, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1, to reach her first WTA final.

Motor Racing

Bobby Gerhart won the ARCA Food World 300 under caution when Jason Jarrett brought out the yellow flag by running out of gas with three laps to go at Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Ala.

Jarrett was running third when his tank went dry on the 110th of 113 laps. His Pontiac came to rest on the apron of Turn 2, bringing out the caution flag.

The race never restarted, and polesitter Gerhart went on to earn his second career ARCA victory.

Bob Strait finished second, Rick Carelli was third, Andy Kirby fourth and Richard Mitchell fifth. Tina Gordon finished 10th in her first start at Talladega.

Jeff Purvis bumped Ward Burton near the front of a huge pack of cars, igniting an eight-car crash in the final practice session for the EA Sports 500 at Talladega.

There were no injuries in the 190-mph crash, but the cars of Terry Labonte, John Andretti, Rusty Wallace and Ken Schrader were damaged enough so those drivers switched to backups for today’s race. They will start at the rear of a 43-car field.

Several other drivers barely escaped contact.

Larry Dixon set an elapsed-time track record during the final round of qualifying for the NHRA’s O’Reilly Fall Nationals in Ennis, Texas.

Dixon used a 4.508-second run at 321.65 mph to take the No. 1 qualifying spot in top fuel.

Other top qualifiers were Whit Bazemore in funny cars, Mike Edwards in pro stock and John Lingenfelter in pro stock trucks.

Miscellany

Maria Isabel Urrutia, a weightlifter who won Colombia’s first Olympic gold medal in Sydney last year, tested positive for drugs and was suspended from competing for two years.

Zdenek Vanc, Etienne Drapeau and Kelly Askew scored goals in the third period and the Ice Dogs defeated Tacoma, 4-1, at Tacoma, Wash.

Russia’s Alina Kabaeva retained her title, edging compatriot Irina Tchachina in the individual final at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Madrid.Tamara Yerofeeva of Ukraine finished third.