Wright, Kerr capitalize as Ochoa falters

Lindsey Wright shot a seven-under-par 64 and Cristie Kerr had a 66 to share the third-round lead as Lorena Ochoa faltered Saturday in the Michelob Ultra Open at Williamsburg, Va.

The top-ranked Ochoa shot 74 with only two birdies, both of which were canceled out by a double bogey at the par-four 14th. She started the day leading by three and now is five behind.

“I don’t know what happened,” Ochoa said. “I didn’t hit the ball bad. I lipped out maybe four putts today. A couple of them were about six feet, so I was a little frustrated.”

Wright came within a shot of the course record and has only one bogey in the first 54 holes of the tournament.

In-Kyung Kim, one back after a 67, will play with Song-Hee Kim, who is two back after a 68, with Wendy Ward (67) and Natalie Gulbis (68) in the third-to-last group. Ochoa, who is tied with Ward and Gulbis, is in the fourth pairing with Shiho Oyama.

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TENNIS

No. 1 Safina wins Italian Open

Top-ranked Dinara Safina won her first title of the year by defeating Svetlana Kuznetsova, 6-3, 6-2, in the final of the Italian Open in Rome.

Safina avenged a loss to Kuznetsova in the final of the Porsche Grand Prix last weekend in Stuttgart, Germany. She also lost two other finals this year, including the Australian Open.

Third-seeded Elena Dementieva beat Bethanie Mattek-Sands, 6-4, 6-1, to reach the second round of the Madrid Masters in Spain. The tournament is being played on clay as a joint ATP and WTA Tour event for the first time, with the men set to start today.

Eighth-seeded Nadia Petrova also advanced after Iveta Benesova retired while trailing 6-0, 2-1, and 15th-seeded Zheng Jie ousted Maria Kirilenko, 6-4, 6-4.

Yanina Wickmayer won her first WTA Tour title by defeating Ekaterina Makarova, 7-5, 6-2, in the final of the Estoril Open in Oeiras, Portugal.

In the men’s semifinals, seventh-seeded Albert Montanes defeated unseeded Paul Capdeville, 6-3, 6-4, in a match interrupted by rain. The match between James Blake and second-seeded Nikolay Davydenko was suspended because of darkness. Davydenko won the first set, 7-6 (3), but trailed in the second, 4-2.

Lukasz Kubot became the first Pole to reach an ATP Tour final in 26 years, downing second-seeded Ivo Karlovic, 7-6 (0), 6-2, at the Serbia Open to gain a matchup against Novak Djokovic in Belgrade.

Djokovic, the tournament host, defeated fourth-seeded Andreas Seppi, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, to reach his fourth straight final.

Mikhail Youzhny rallied past big-serving wild-card Daniel Brands, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, to reach the final of the BMW Open in Munich, Germany. Youzhny will play fourth-seeded Tomas Berdych, who beat Jeremy Chardy, 6-1, 5-7, 6-2.

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BOXING

Dawson beats Tarver again

Chad Dawson successfully defended his IBF and IBO light-heavyweight titles, unanimously outpointing Antonio Tarver in Las Vegas in a rematch of their October fight.

The undefeated Dawson, (28-0) who looked lackadaisical at times in fighting off several impressive combinations from the 40-year-old Tarver (27-6), had winning scores of 116-112, 117-111 and 117-111 from the three judges.

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ETC.

Armstrong’s team is third

Lance Armstrong’s Astana squad finished third in the team time trial to start the Giro d’Italia in Venice, Italy -- cycling’s most important race after the Tour de France. Only two American-owned teams -- Columbia-High Road and Garmin-Slipstream -- were faster.

British sprinter Mark Cavendish crossed the line first for Columbia and took the leader’s pink jersey.

USC and UCLA will meet today for the NCAA women’s water polo championship at College Park, Md. No. 1 USC defeated Hawaii, 17-5, and the third-ranked Bruins edged No. 2 Stanford, 12-11, on Megan Burmeister’s goal at the buzzer .

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PASSINGS

Tubbs, former SMU coach

Former Southern Methodist basketball coach Jimmy Tubbs, who was fired after two seasons in 2006 when an internal investigation revealed NCAA violations, has died. He was 60. No cause of death was given. The Mustangs were 27-30 in Tubbs’ two seasons.