Federer Sweeps Way to Final

Two-time defending champion Roger Federer of Switzerland warmed up for his third consecutive Tennis Masters Cup final with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Gaston Gaudio of Argentina in a semifinal match Saturday at Shanghai.

It was the first love-and-love victory for Federer and the first at the year-ending championships, which began in 1970.

In today’s final on the hard court, the top-seeded Federer will play David Nalbandian of Argentina, who defeated fifth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, 6-0, 7-5, in the other semifinal.

“I think it’s nice to have, but no more than that,” he said.

Federer has an all-time best run of 24 consecutive victories in finals.

Gaudio, seeded seventh, said he’d never lost by such a score. A “double bagel” -- as it’s called in tennis -- is rare. There was one on the ATP Tour in 2004 and were six in five years before that.

“There’s no excuses,” Gaudio said. “I was playing against a guy who is the best in history on a surface [where] he’s so much better than me. Once in a lifetime it happens, and it happened to me. I’m sad about it, I don’t like it, but there’s worse things that can happen.”

At 81-3 in 2005, Federer is one victory from equaling John McEnroe’s 21-year-old record for best winning percentage in a season in the Open era.

GOLF

Woods Wins in Japan

in Playoff With Yokoo

Tiger Woods birdied the fourth hole of a playoff with Kaname Yokoo of Japan today to defend his Dunlop Phoenix title at Miyazaki, Japan.

Woods reached the green at the par-five 18th -- the fourth playoff hole -- in two shots and two-putted for birdie for his seventh victory this year. Yokoo missed a 12-foot birdie putt.

Woods, who had a one-stroke lead over Jim Furyk going into the last round, shot a one-over-par 71 to match Yokoo (69) at nine-under 271.

Annika Sorenstam battled through 20-mph gusts to stay in the lead at the season-ending ADT Championship at West Palm Beach, Fla.

Sorenstam played cautious on the last hole and settled for a bogey, giving her a two-over 74 to end her streak of nine consecutive rounds at par or better at Trump International.

Sorenstam, who is trying to win for the 10th time this year, was at three-under 213, one of only five players who remained under par. She has a one-stroke lead over Marisa Baena and Liselotte Neumann.

Baena, who started the round in a tie for 20th, shot a six-under 66 -- the only round in the 60s -- with birdies on seven of the last 11 holes.

Neumann hit into the water on the par-three 17th and took double bogey, giving her a 71.

Bradley Dredge and Stephen Dodd of Wales shot an 11-under 61 in better ball to take a two-stroke lead after the third round of the World Cup at Vilamoura, Portugal.

David Howell and Luke Donald of England and Henrik Stenson and Niclas Fasth of Sweden were tied for second after rounds of 63 for a total of 25-under 191.

Americans Zach Johnson and Stewart Cink had a 67 to trail by 13 strokes.

Kirk Hanefeld, a club professional from Acton, Mass., shot a five-under 67 to take a one-stroke lead after the fourth round of the six-round Champions Tour qualifying tournament at Beaumont.

Hanefeld had a three-under 285 total. Scott Masingill (68) was second, and former major league pitcher Rick Rhoden (66) and Norm Jarvis (69) of Canada were two strokes back at one under.

BASEBALL

Team USA Advances

in Olympic Qualifying

Howie Kendrick homered and drove in two runs, Bill Murphy gave up one run and seven hits in six innings and Team USA finished regional Olympic qualifying with a 5-2 victory over Canada at Phoenix. Shane Victorino had a run-scoring double for the U.S. (5-0), which won the six-team tournament.

Canada, Nicaragua and Panama also advanced to the 2006 Americas Continental Olympic qualifier in Cuba in August. Mexico and Guatemala were eliminated in round-robin play.

COLLEGE SOCCER

UCLA Women Advance

in NCAA Tournament

Kara Lang scored two goals and Stacy Lindstrom and Blake Zerboni each scored to lead UCLA to a 4-0 win over visiting Marquette in the third round of the NCAA women’s tournament.

The Bruins (20-1-2) will play the winner of today’s Cal State Fullerton-Virginia game.

Lindsay Tarpley scored three goals to lead North Carolina to a 6-0 rout of Pepperdine at Chapel Hill, N.C.

Ivan Becerra and Jonathan Davis scored second-half goals to lead UC Santa Barbara (12-4-3) to a 2-0 win over visiting San Diego State in the first round of the NCAA men’s tournament. UCSB plays at Cal State Northridge in the second round Tuesday.

Goals by Andriy Budnyy gave Azusa Pacific a 2-1 overtime victory over Auburn Montgomery in the quarterfinals of the NAIA men’s tournament at Daytona Beach, Fla.

HORSE RACING

Longest Shot Wins

Hollywood Prevue

Your Tent Or Mine, the longest shot in the field of five at 6-1, split horses early in the stretch and went on to beat 5-1 shot Da Stoops to win the $100,000 Hollywood Prevue at Hollywood Park.

Making his first start since winning his debut Sept. 4 at Del Mar, the 2-year-old Forest Camp colt completed the seven furlongs in 1:21.12. Patrick Valenzuela rode Your Tent Or Mine for owner Anthony Speelman and trainer Neil Drysdale.

Old Thunder, the 11-10 favorite, finished fourth.

The pick six was finally hit at Churchill Downs after nine consecutive carry-overs. The carry-over was nearly $1.7 million before Saturday and the total pool was $5,698,493. Those who selected all six winners collected $32,865.20. Favorites won two of the races during the sequence and the day’s feature was taken by 7-1 shot Sundrop.

-- Bob Mieszerski

MISCELLANY

Mayweather Wins

Welterweight Debut

Floyd Mayweather Jr. had no trouble in his welterweight debut, stopping Sharmba Mitchell in the sixth round at the Rose Garden in Portland, Ore.

Mayweather, who ended the fight with a straight right hand that landed below Mitchell’s rib cage, is undefeated in 35 fights and has won belts at three lower weight classes.

Sasha Cohen rushed into her seventh triple jump and tumbled to the ice in the women’s free skate final, clearing the way for Mao Asada of Japan to win the Trophee Bompard title at Paris.

Asada, who turned 15 in September, earned 184.42 points in the free program and Cohen had 175.12. Asada finished with 118.46 points overall and Cohen was third with 114.16. Shizuka Arakawa of Japan, the 2004 world champion, was second overall with 115.32 points.

Jeff Buttle of Canada held onto his lead and won the men’s event, beating Brian Joubert of France, 215.48 to 210.41.

Federal prosecutors want access to hundreds of urine samples of Major League Baseball players seized in 2003 as part of the BALCO steroid scandal investigation.

Authorities had a warrant for 10 players’ samples, but seized samples of hundreds of players from three laboratories.

Federal judges have prohibited the government from using the samples as part of its probe of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative. Authorities on Tuesday asked a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to give them access to all the samples, which were taken in 2003 as part of a professional baseball survey to gauge the prevalence of steroid use. The samples were supposed to be destroyed.

Driver Thomas Hale scored in overtime to lift top-ranked USC over No. 5 UCLA, 8-7, in men’s water polo, extending the Trojans’ winning streak to 14 games and ending the Bruins’ undefeated run at home at 20 games.