Woods, Mickelson Not Alone

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have been leaving their footprints on the Blue Monster for two days, their paths running parallel only on the few holes at Doral where the front nine meets the back.

That won’t be the case today.

Mickelson birdied two of his last three holes Friday for a six-under-par 66, and Woods settled for pars on his last four holes for a five-under 67. It left them in a four-way tie for the lead with Scott Verplank and Camilo Villegas in the Ford Championship at Doral in Miami, and in the final pairing for the third round.

This isn’t eyeball-to-eyeball golf as it was last year at Doral, even if there will be thousands of eyeballs on them. It isn’t the final round, for one thing, and there are nine players within three shots of the lead.

“There are guys that are right there that are going to go out and make a lot of birdies, and ... they will have no pressure on them,” Mickelson said. “It won’t be ... anything like Sunday last year, where we’re watching what each other is doing and trying to beat each other.”

Villegas, the big-hitting rookie from Colombia, nearly eagled the par-five eighth and joined the leaders with an 18-foot birdie putt on his final hole for a 66. Verplank, who also joined the group at 13-under 131, nearly holed a chip with his five-wood from behind the 18th green.

TENNIS

Top-Seeded Mauresmo Ousts Hingis at Qatar

Top-seeded Amelie Mauresmo defeated Martina Hingis, 6-2, 6-2, and will play second-seeded Nadia Petrova in the final of the Qatar Open at Doha.

Petrova defeated Ai Sugiyama, 6-1, 7-6 (2).

Mauresmo, who has won three titles this season, beat Hingis for the fifth time in six meetings.

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Top-ranked Roger Federer will play No. 2 Rafael Nadal in the Dubai Open final at the United Arab Emirates today after both had semifinal wins.

Federer will aim for his third consecutive title after defeating Mikhail Youzhny, 6-2, 6-3.

Nadal advanced to the finals with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Rainer Schuettler.

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Ivo Karlovic beat third-seeded Tommy Robredo, and top-seeded Lleyton Hewitt cruised to an easy victory in the quarterfinals of the Tennis Channel Open at Las Vegas.

Karlovic downed Robredo, 7-6 (4), 6-4, and will next play James Blake, a 6-4, 6-4 winner over Kenneth Carlsen.

Hewitt made the semifinals with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Philipp Kohlschreiber. Hewitt next will play Paul Goldstein, a 6-3, 2-0 winner when Xavier Malisse retired.

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Seventh-seeded Juan Ignacio Chela defeated Nicolas Almagro, 6-2, 6-2, to reach the final of the Mexican Open at Acapulco. Chela will play Luis Horna, who defeated second-seeded Gaston Gaudio, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Second-seeded Anna-Lena Groenefeld made it to the women’s championship, beating Emilie Loit, 6-2, 6-4.

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Former champions Hingis and Mark Philippoussis are among those receiving wild-card spots into next week’s Pacific Life Open at Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells. Women’s qualifiying starts Monday at Indian Wells, and main-draw play Wednesday. The men begin with qualifying Wednesday with the main draw opening Friday.

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Tickets for the Davis Cup quarterfinal between the United States and Chile are scheduled to go on sale Wednesday at 10 a.m. The matches will be held April 7-9 at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage.

PRO FOOTBALL

Maddox and Williams Released by Steelers

Tommy Maddox, who lost his starting quarterback’s job shortly after Ben Roethlisberger’s arrival in 2004, was released by the Pittsburgh Steelers in a long-expected salary cap move.

Also cut was Willie Williams, a cornerback on the Steelers’ 1995 Super Bowl team who unexpectedly became a starter again after returning to the team in 2004.

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The Detroit Lions signed Shaun King to a one-year contract, adding quarterback depth.... The Dallas Cowboys released defensive tackle La’Roi Glover and announced the retirement of linebacker Dat Nguyen.... Running back Reuben Droughns, who last season became the first Cleveland back to gain more than 1,000 yards since 1985, signed a three-year contract extension.

WINTER SPORTS

World Cup Super-G Ends in Three-Way Tie

American Lindsey Kildow, Olympic champion Michaela Dorfmeister and Nadia Styger shared first place in the World Cup super-G at Hafjell, Norway, the first three-way tie in the discipline.

The skiers each had a time of 1 minute 18.65 seconds in the first women’s Alpine event since the Turin Olympics.

With her third win in the discipline this season, Dorfmeister clinched the super-G title ahead of teammate Alexandra Meissnitzer. Kildow’s first super-G win of the season moved her to fourth in the standings.

MISCELLANY

Wood Is Fastest in Practice for Busch Race

Jon Wood mastered the tricky road course in Mexico City, finishing first during a surprisingly crash-free practice for Sunday’s Telcel-Motorola 200 Busch Series race. The 24-year-old Virginian reached 102.903 mph in a Ford over the 2.518-mile Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez course.

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The June 17 fight between middleweight champion Jermain Taylor and Winky Wright will be held in the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tenn. Taylor is 25-0 and Wright is 50-3.