Going for His 10th Win, Singh Is Two Back at 69

Vijay Singh scratched out a one-under 69, leaving him two shots out of the lead Thursday at the Tour Championship in Atlanta as he tries to become the first player in 54 years to win 10 times on the PGA Tour.

“I’m right there, and there’s three days to go,” Singh said.

Not everyone wants to see the 41-year-old Fijian get his 10th victory. Darren Clarke, Jerry Kelly and Jay Haas would be thrilled to win their first. They took a step in that direction on a soggy, blustery day at East Lake, each posting a three-under 67 to share the lead.

David Toms and Zach Johnson are at 68, while the group at 69 included John Daly, Mike Weir and Padraig Harrington. A victory by Harrington would make him a PGA Tour member and send Tag Ridings -- No. 125 on the money list -- back to qualifying school. It also would knock Jesper Parnevik (No. 40) out of the Masters.

Tiger Woods shot a 72.

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Woods is taking a swing at the builder of his luxury yacht “Privacy,” accusing the shipyard of using his name and photograph for financial gain without permission.

Attorneys for Woods sued in federal court Oct. 29 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., claiming his contract with Vancouver, Wash.-based Christensen Shipyards Ltd., barred the boat manufacturer from using the golfer to promote the company, but it did so anyway.

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Anthony Summers of Australia shot a six-under 66 to lead the inaugural Vietnam Masters after the first round in Hanoi, with 1995 U.S. Open champion Corey Pavin five strokes behind.

Tennis

Top-seeded Andy Roddick and defending champion Tim Henman were upset in the third round of the Paris Masters.

Roddick lost, 7-6 (2), 6-2, to qualifier Max Mirnyi, and Henman was beaten, 7-5, 6-1, by unseeded Mikhail Youzhny.

Venus Williams needed a third-set tiebreaker to defeat 87th-ranked Yuliana Fedak, 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (4), in the second round of the Advanta Tennis Championships at Villanova, Pa.

Defending champion Amelie Mauresmo advanced to the quarterfinals by defeating Iveta Benesova, 6-2, 6-2.

Andre Agassi, the eight-time Grand Slam champion, appealed a London court ruling ordering him to pay United Kingdom tax on sponsorship money from Nike and Head earned when he plays in Wimbledon and other British tournaments.

Agassi, 34, was ordered in March to pay $50,700 in taxes for payments Nike and Head made to his company, Agassi Enterprises Inc., for the tax years of 1998 to 1999.

Soccer

Former Chelsea striker Adrian Mutu was suspended for seven months and fined about $35,000 by the English Football Assn. after testing positive for cocaine.

The FA will ask world governing body FIFA to extend the 25-year-old Romanian’s ban worldwide. FIFA had no immediate comment.

Mutu tested positive at Chelsea’s practice facility in September. He acknowledged taking a recreational drug, and his contract was terminated last month by Chelsea.

The Dutch Soccer Assn. fined ADO The Hague $32,000 and one home game in an empty stadium for its fans chanting hateful slogans.

ADO said it would appeal the fine, which it said was “disproportional” punishment.

In a match against Ajax on Sept. 12, fans chanted insults about an Ajax player’s girlfriend, and at a match with PSV on Oct. 16, they chanted insults about the referee.

College Basketball

Tom Brennan, who led Vermont to the last two NCAA tournaments, will retire at the end of the season, his 19th with the Catamounts.

Brennan’s 18-year tenure is the longest of the current coaches in the America East Conference. He has a 239-269 record, but the Catamounts won the league tournament the last two years and advanced to the NCAA tournament, losing to Arizona and Connecticut.

Saint Louis gave Coach Brad Soderberg a new five-year contract through the 2008-09 season. Soderberg has a 35-27 record in two seasons.

Miscellany

The Arena Football League is splitting its playoffs by conference for the first time. The AFL’s board of directors approved the new format, with four teams each advancing from the American and National conferences. In the past, the eight teams with the best records, regardless of conference, made the playoffs.

The qualifiers now will be the two division winners in each conference plus two wild-card teams.

They will then play toward a conference final, with the champions meeting in the ArenaBowl in Las Vegas.

Vincent Lecavalier signed with the Russian team AK Bars Kazan to play during the NHL lockout and said Tampa Bay teammate Brad Richards would be joining him.

Lecavalier was the most valuable player of the World Cup of Hockey and helped Tampa Bay win its first Stanley Cup last season. Richards won the Conn Smythe Award as playoff MVP.

Four teams with many of the nation’s top women’s water polo players will compete in the Speedo Top 40 Festival today through Sunday at the USA Water Polo National Aquatic Center in Los Alamitos.

Kyle Busch won the NASCAR Busch Series pole for Saturday’s Bashas’ Supermarket 200 at Phoenix International Raceway with a track-record lap of 133.819 mph.

Halfbridled, who was undefeated last year, winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and the division title, has been retired.

Suffering from a recurring canon-bone injury, Halfbridled ran only twice this year. Her last race was a second-place finish in the Beaumont Stakes at Keeneland on April 8.

Charles Hayward was named president and chief executive of the New York Racing Assn., which operates Belmont Park, Saratoga and Aqueduct.