Els ready for Woods’ challenge at Dubai

Ernie Els goes into today’s final round at the Dubai Desert Classic in the United Arab Emirates with a two-stroke lead over three golfers, but he’s looking beyond them to the player in fifth place. That’s Tiger Woods, who is three shots back.

Els shot a four-under-par 68 Saturday to total 17-under 199 after three rounds, despite bogeying the first and eighth holes. Woods shot a 67, setting up a potential repeat showdown between the rivals. Els lost to Woods in a playoff last year.

“He could get red hot at any time,” Els said of Woods. “Obviously you’ve got to watch the No. 1 player in the world.”

Second-round leader Ross Fisher (71), Henrik Stenson (69) and Jyoti Randhawa (67) share second place at 14-under 201.

Woods again had trouble on the greens.

“I didn’t make any putts today. It was frustrating,” Woods said.

“I’ve just struggled all week. The putts that I hit well I misread. And then I’ve hit just atrocious putts and didn’t even come close. I’ve got to clean it up for tomorrow.”

Els had a long day at Emirates Golf Club, finishing four holes from the rain-delayed second round and then returning to play another 18.

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PGA Tour rookie Jeff Quinney held on to a two-stroke lead in front of a raucous, near-record crowd of 162,750 at the FBR Open in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Quinney, a former Arizona State player and 2000 U.S. Amateur champion, shot a three-under 68 and is at 16-under 197 heading into the final round.

Aaron Baddeley was second at 14 under after a 64, and Brett Quigley (66) and Bart Bryant (68) were three strokes back.

Quinney entered the third round with a three-stroke lead and was still up by three at 17 under before bogeying the last hole.

He just cleared the water on his drive on the 438-yard, par-four 18th. He followed with a nine-iron shot over the green, then missed a 14-foot putt for par.

Quinney had six birdies and three bogeys on the 7,261-yard TPC Scottsdale course, where the crowd was shy of the record 168,337 who watched the Saturday round last year.

TENNIS

Hingis beats Ivanovic for Pan Pacific title

Second-seeded Martina Hingis won her record fifth Pan Pacific Open title today, defeating fifth-seeded Ana Ivanovic, 6-4, 6-2, at Tokyo.

Hingis, who lost to Elena Dementieva in the final last year, relied on solid groundstrokes to win in 1 hour 10 minutes.

Hingis, also the winner in 1997, 1999, 2000 and 2002, broke a tie with Lindsay Davenport for the most titles in the event.

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Third-seeded Xavier Malisse cruised into the final of the Delray Beach International in Florida for the third consecutive year with a 6-2, 6-2 semifinal victory over eighth-seeded Vince Spadea. He will play top-seeded James Blake, who defeated fourth-seeded Benjamin Becker, 6-3, 7-6 (7).

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Top-seeded Ivan Ljubicic beat fourth-seeded Mikhail Youzhny, 2-6, 6-3, 7-5, and will play second-seeded Marcos Baghdatis for the Zagreb Open title in Croatia. Baghdatis defeated qualifier Alexander Peya, 6-4, 6-3, in the earlier semifinal.

WINTER SPORTS

World championships postponed by wind

The men’s super-G at the world Alpine championships in Are, Sweden, was postponed because of high wind. It will be run Monday.

Organizers made the decision to delay the opening race of the championships after a night of heavy snowfall on the Olympia course. Wind of up to 67 mph was on the mountain, and strong gusts were expected to last until early today.

The women’s super-G is scheduled for today, when wind was expected to calm down to about 28 mph.

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Adam Malysz tied the hill record on his second leap to win a World Cup ski jump event at Titisee-Neustadt, Germany. Malysz went 145.0 meters, matching the mark held by Sven Hannavald. Combined with a first jump of 138.5, he finished with 293.8 points. Andreas Kofler was second with 285.3, followed by World Cup leader Anders Jacobsen with 278.9.

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Peetu Piiroinen and Manuela Laura Pesko won snowboarding World Cup halfpipe events at Bardonecchia, Italy. Piiroinen beat fellow Finn Janne Korpi and Xaver Hoffmann for his first World Cup halfpipe victory. Pesko won the women’s halfpipe, ahead of Holly Crawford and Paulina Ligocka.

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Olympic gold medalist Sandra Kiriasis won the two-man event at the world bobsled championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland. Kiriasis had a combined time of 4 minutes 33.84 seconds. Cathleen Martini was second, 2.05 seconds behind. American Shauna Rohbock was third, 2.43 seconds behind.

BASEBALL

Sanchez agrees to terms on $2.75-million contract

National League batting champion Freddy Sanchez chose not to go to arbitration and agreed to a $2.75-million, one-year contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Sanchez, a reserve infielder when last season started but the Pirates’ 25th batting champion when it ended, gets a big raise over the $342,000 he made last season. He sought $3.1 million in salary arbitration, and the Pirates offered $2.15 million.

The Pirates, who made almost no player moves for the first 3 1/2 months of the off-season, also signed former Brewers All-Star reliever Dan Kolb to a minor league contract.

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Tony Batista hit two home runs -- the second inside-the-park -- to lead the Dominican Republic’s Aguilas Cibaenas to a 9-0 victory over Mexico in the Caribbean Series at Carolina, Puerto Rico. Jose Acevedo limited Mexico to five hits in eight innings.

SOCCER

Chelsea moves closer to Manchester United

Chelsea cut Manchester United’s advantage atop the English Premier League to three points with a 1-0 win at Charlton.

Frank Lampard scored with a long-range shot to give defending champion Chelsea 57 points. Manchester United plays at Tottenham today.

Chelsea also moved seven points ahead of third-place Liverpool, which was held to a 0-0 tie by Everton in the 205th match between the city rivals.

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In a Premier League game with four Americans on the field, Brian McBride scored in the 73rd minute to lead Fulham to a 2-1 victory over Newcastle.

McBride, defender Carlos Bocanegra and midfielder Clint Dempsey were the U.S. players for Fulham.

Newcastle featured defender Oguchi Onyewu, who joined the team four days earlier on loan from Belgium’s Standard Liege.

McBride scored his 11th goal this season after taking a cross from Papa Bouba Diop. Heidar Helguson scored Fulham’s first goal in the 49th minute.

BOXING

Unbeaten Dawson wins light-heavyweight title

Undefeated Chad Dawson of New Haven, Conn., won the World Boxing Council light-heavyweight title, handing defending champion Tomasz Adamek of Poland his first professional defeat.

Dawson’s left-handed style, quickness and reach were too much for Adamek (30-1) during much of the fight at Kissimmee, Fla. The American improved to 23-0 with the unanimous decision in the 12-round bout.

Earlier, Julio Diaz of Coachella won the International Boxing Federation lightweight title when defending champion Jesus Chavez of Austin, Texas, crumbled early in the third round after his right knee buckled while avoiding a punch.

Cory Spinks of St. Louis retained his IBF junior-middleweight title by outpointing Rodney Jones of Stockton.

But the marquee nightcap matching unbeaten fighters was easily the best battle on the card.

Adamek, who took a beating for much of the contest, rallied in the 10th round, sending Dawson to the floor with a right to the nose, and he stayed on the attack through the 11th.

Dawson sent Adamek to the canvas with a minute left in the seventh round with a left hand to the stomach.

TRACK AND FIELD

Manson sets mark with fourth straight victory

Texas’ Andra Manson became the first athlete in the history of the New Balance Collegiate Invitational to win an event four straight years, winning the high jump at 7 feet, 6 1/2 inches at the Armory Track and Field Center in New York.

Manson cleared the height on his third and final attempt to break his own Armory collegiate record of 7-6 set in 2004.

The Longhorns won the men’s team title with 68 1/2 points. Lousiana State was second with 62 1/2 , and Tennessee with 50.

Texas A&M; topped the women’s standings with 86 points, followed by LSU with 70 1/2 . Natasha Hastings of South Carolina ran the fastest women’s 400 meters in the United States this year, finishing in 51.70.

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Meseret Defar set a women’s world record in the indoor 3,000 in a race in which the top two runners broke the old mark by more than four seconds at Stuttgart, Germany.

Defar’s time of 8 minutes 23.72 seconds beat the mark of 8:27.86 set by Liliya Schobukara on Feb. 17, 2006, in Moscow. Defar, the Olympic champion at 5,000 meters, edged Messelech Melkamu by 0.02 of a second.