Singh, Lowery Take Lead

Vijay Singh hit his five-wood to within eight inches, setting up a birdie on the 232-yard par-three 18th hole at East Lake Golf Club to finish with a five-under-par 65 and earn a share of the lead with Steve Lowery in the Tour Championship at Atlanta.

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, Nos. 1 and 2 in the world rankings and on the PGA Tour money list, played together for the first time this year. Woods shot 71 and Mickelson had a 70.

Woods made double bogey on the par-three sixth hole, ending a streak of 328 holes with nothing worse than a bogey.

Charles Howell III had the only other birdie on No. 18 and had a 66 in his Tour Championship debut.

Fred Funk had a 67 and Shigeki Maruyama shot 68.

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Tommy Tolles made a 40-foot chip for par, holed out twice from a bunker and made a 25-foot birdie from the fringe in a six-under 66 that left him one stroke behind first-round leader Brad Elder at the Southern Farm Bureau Classic at Madison, Miss.... Annika Sorenstam and Se Ri Pak lost their first-round matches at the World Ladies Match Play Championship at Narita, Japan.

Tennis

Second-seeded Andre Agassi rallied to beat Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson, 6-7 (2), 6-4, 6-3, to reach the quarterfinals of the Paris Masters. Agassi will play Spaniard Carlos Moya, who survived six match points before beating Sebastien Grosjean, 3-6, 7-6 (10), 6-1. Other players advancing included Andy Roddick, Lleyton Hewitt and Marat Safin. Sixth-seeded Tim Henman lost, 6-4, 6-2, to Nicolas Escude of France.

Spain and Slovakia advanced to the Fed Cup finals at Maspalomas, Canary Islands. Conchita Martinez and Virginia Ruano beat Austria’s Barbara Schett and Patricia Wartusch, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1, in a decisive doubles match. Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova and Janette Husarova won singles matches to beat Italy.

Miscellany

Arizona was voted No. 1 in the ESPN/USA Today preseason men’s college basketball poll. It’s the third time in six seasons Arizona starts as the No. 1 team after doing so in 1997 and 2000.

Kansas is second, Oklahoma third, Pittsburgh fourth and Texas fifth. UCLA is 12th and defending national champion Maryland is 15th.

Oracle edged series-leading Alinghi by four seconds this morning, then returned in the afternoon to win an all-American duel with Stars & Stripes in the challenger series for the America’s Cup at Auckland, New Zealand. Oracle, which had four losses in five races before Chris Dickson was restored as skipper, has nine wins in 13 starts.

Canisius College announced that Division I-AA football is among the seven varsity sports the school will eliminate at the end of the current academic year.

Dodgers representing four decades will be on hand Saturday at noon for the opening of the newest Big League Dreams amateur sports complex in Chino Hills. The former Dodgers at the event will include NBA Hall of Famer Bill Sharman, who was a Dodger in the 1950s, Maury Wills from the ‘60s, and Bill Russell, Ron Cey, Davey Lopes, Jay Johnstone, Mark Cresse and Jerry Reuss from the ‘70s and ‘80s.

Alan Rothenberg was elected chairman of the Los Angeles Sports Council.