Singh (64) Leads Houston Open

Vijay Singh tied the course record with an eight-under-par 64 for a one-shot lead Thursday after the first round of the Houston Open.

The 42-year-old Fijian, No. 2 in the world rankings, extended his streak of par or better to 56 holes at the Redstone Golf Club in Humble, Texas, where he won the tournament a year ago.

After Singh came Gavin Coles and Brendan Jones. Eight players were at 67. Six others, including John Daly, were another shot back.

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Natalie Gulbis shot a six-under 66 to take a two-stroke lead after the first round of the Corona Morelia Championship in Morelia, Mexico.

Audra Burks had an eagle, three birdies and a bogey and is tied for second with Carin Koch, who had five birdies and a bogey.

Tennis

Second-seeded Andre Agassi overcame a loss in the first set, rallying to defeat Alex Calatrava, 3-6, 6-4, 7-5, and advance to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships at Houston.

Agassi appeared to have the match under control when he broke Calatrava in the sixth game of the third set and took a 4-2 lead.

But his serve failed him in the next game as he double-faulted twice and was broken. Calatrava held in the eighth game and pulled even at 4-4 by serving a love game.

Agassi held serve in the ninth game and had Calatrava at match point in the 10th before the Spaniard extended the set.

Third-seeded Carlos Moya and fourth-seeded Guillermo Coria were defeated in the third round of the Open Seat Godo at Barcelona, Spain.

Max Mirnyi beat Moya, 6-4, 6-4, to reach the quarterfinals of the clay-court tournament leading to next month’s French Open. Agustin Calleri upset Coria, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (2).

Cecil Mamiit and Sam Querrey each won two matches in the men’s Open singles division during the first day of the 105th Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament, played at sites throughout Ventura County. Mamiit, a former NCAA champion from USC and the top-seeded player, will face Querrey, a Thousand Oaks High junior, in the round of 16 today.

In the Pac-10 women’s singles division, USC had three players move on to the quarterfinals: Lindsey Nelson, Nicole Leimbach and Anca Anastasiu.

College Gymnastics

UCLA advanced to the team finals of the NCAA women’s gymnastics championships at Auburn, Ala., moving closer to its third consecutive title and fifth in six years.

The Bruins scored 197.025 in the evening session and had a bye in the final rotation, already assured of moving on. No team has won three in a row since Utah’s six-year winning streak ended in 1986.

Five-time champion Georgia had the highest score of the preliminaries at 197.350. The team finals are tonight.

Utah, which has won a record 10 NCAA titles despite a decade-long drought, advanced from the afternoon session with a 196.850.

Miscellany

Lance Armstrong finished ninth in an 18.6-mile individual time trial at the Tour de Georgia, nearly two minutes behind the winner in a go-all-out style of cycling he usually dominates. Another American, Floyd Landis, won the third stage in 39 minutes 58.09 seconds. Americans David Zabriskie and Christopher Baldwin were second and third.

Mary Garber, a former sportswriter at the Twin City Sentinel in Winston-Salem, N.C., and the Winston-Salem Journal, won the Red Smith Award. Garber, 89, is the first woman to receive the Associated Press Sports Editors’ highest honor.

The WNBA’s Washington Mystics hired Richie Adubato as their coach, the team’s eighth in eight seasons. Adubato spent 5 1/2 seasons with the New York Liberty, leading it to three conference titles and a 100-79 record before he was fired last July.

Former Pacific Lutheran (Tacoma, Wash.) coach Frosty Westering was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame. He was selected as part of the class that includes players and coaches from NCAA Divisions I-AA, II and III, and the NAIA. He’ll be inducted Aug. 12-13 in South Bend, Ind.

His 305 career victories over 40 years rank ninth in college football.

Peru’s Sofia Mulanovich caught a high-scoring wave with only 10 seconds remaining to move ahead of Australia’s Layne Beachley and win the Roxy Pro surfing event in five-foot waves at Tavarua and Namoto islands in Fiji.

It was the second consecutive World Championship Tour victory for Mulanovich, the reigning world champion, and gave her the WCT points lead.