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HOUSTON, Texas - More rain and a wet course forced LPGA officials to delay the start of play on Saturday, jeopardizing chances that 72 holes of the season-ending event could be completed this weekend.
The tournament was already behind schedule after heavy rain prevented any player from completing the second round on Friday. The first-round leaders had yet to begin their second rounds.
The continuation of the second round was rescheduled for Saturday afternoon.
MELBOURNE: Anna Meares claimed a golden double as Australia finished the top nation at the UCI Melbourne track cycling World Cup leg on Saturday.
Meares captured the keirin and 500m time trial gold medals as Australia completed the three-day event winning eight of the 17 events at their home leg.
After two legs, Australia lead the overall World Cup standings with 210 points, 11 points ahead of Britain (199) with Germany (189) third.
EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey : The New Jersey Nets continued to slide toward the NBA record of 17 straight defeats to start a season on Saturday, dropping their 13th straight to the New York Knicks.
Al Harrington and Danilo Gallinari scored 17 points apiece as the struggling Knicks took advantage of their meeting with the even worse Nets to nab their second straight victory - 98-91.
The Nets will be up against it as they try to avoid the record worst 0-17 start set by Miami in their inaugural 1988-89 season and matched by the Los Angeles Clippers in the strike-shortened 1998-99 season.
PARIS - Auxerre capitalised on slip-ups by Lyon and Bordeaux to move into a clear lead at the top of the French league on Saturday.
Lyon were held to a 1-1 draw at Grenoble while champions Bordeaux were downed 1-0 at home by Valenciennes earlier in the day.
That left the stage clear for Auxerre to leapfrog this duo with a result against Monaco in the evening game and the former titleholders duly produced the goods with a 2-0 win.
ROME - Inter Milan got back to winning ways in Serie A on Saturday with a convincing 3-1 win over Bologna at the Dall'Ara stadium extending their lead at the top to eight points ahead of Sunday's games.
In the late match, Parma beat Fiorentina 3-2 to move temporarily up to third spot.
The 10th win from 13 games this season for Italian champions Inter will undoubtedly instill confidence ahead of Inter's Champions League match at Barcelona on Tuesday.
However Inter coach Jose Mourinho said: "The Barcelona game will be a real test for my players."
EDINBURGH : Scotland claimed their first win over Australia in nearly three decades after a defence-inspired 9-8 victory in their one-off Test match at Murrayfield here on Saturday.
Australia dominated possession throughout but the Scots, under new coach Andy Robinson, produced a world-class defensive performance to keep the Wallabies at bay.
Scotland were leading 6-3 in the latter stages of the match but a Chris Paterson drop goal in the 76th minute put them 9-3 ahead and within sight of a win.
DUBLIN : Jonathan Sexton announced his arrival in international rugby with a flawless performance in Ireland's comprehensive victory over Fiji here Saturday.
Playing at his home ground - the RDS - the 24-year-old kicked two penalties and five conversions, including three from the touchline, in a text-book example of outhalf play.
A ruck off a lineout near the Fiji 22 led to the first penalty which the Leinster debutant duly dispatched.
MADRID - Real Madrid warmed up for next Sunday's 'El Clasico' against Barcelona with a 1-0 home win over Racing Santander on Saturday to move top of the table, two points clear of champions Barcelona.
Argentine Gonzalo Higuain's goal after 22 minutes sealed a nervy Real victory that hardly appeased a Santiago Bernabeu crowd seething at the embarrassing Kings Cup exit to third division Alcorcon in the last home match.
Champions Barcelona can reclaim top spot with vicory at Athletic Bilbao later on Saturday before the eagerly-anticipated clash between Real and Barca at Camp Nou next Sunday.
Real began without the sidelined Cristiano Ronaldo for the tenth consecutive game while captain Raul started on the substitutes bench for the third successive league game.
Xabi Alonso rattled the post for Real in the opening stages while former Liverpool team-mate Alvaro Arbeloa saw his overhit cross clip the same post.
A Real goal looked on the cards and they got a helping hand when goalkeeper Tono foolishly pushed Kaka's cross into the danger zone and Higuain had an easy tap in on 22 minutes.
It was a nightmare start for Racing coach Miguel Angel Portugal in his first game in charge but Real didn't build on their encouraging start.
KITCHENER, Canada : Reigning two-time world pairs champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy captured gold at Skate Canada on Saturday with a brand new programme set to the film soundtrack Out of Africa.
After the Grand Prix in France where the German pair had a disastrous skate in the finale and settled for bronze, Savchenko and Szolkowy decided to create a new free skating routine. They were clearly happy with this choice following Saturday's debut.
En route to the gold, the Germans held the audience spellbound and scored 132.55 for the near flawless performance. They earned 206.71 points in all.
LONDON - Chelsea strengthened their position at the top of the Premier League by cruising to a 4-0 win over struggling Wolves on Saturday.
Manchester United remained five points adrift of the leaders after beating Everton 3-0 at Old Trafford but Arsenal stumbled significantly ahead of their meeting with Chelsea on Sunday, November 29.
The Gunners failed to score for the first time this season as they went down to a 1-0 defeat at Sunderland, with England striker Darren Bent notching the winner in the 71st minute.
PARIS : France warmed up for their year-ending clash with New Zealand by cantering to a comfortable 43-5 win over Samoa in their second autumn Test match at the Stade de France here on Saturday.
France beat world champions South Africa 20-13 in Toulouse last week and will go into their match with the All Blacks in Marseille on November 28 in good heart after a ruthless performance in which they ran in seven tries.
Coach Marc Lievremont made no less than 12 changes to the side that beat South Africa, with Thierry Dusautoir, Vincent Clerc and Maxime Medard the only players to retain their places in the starting XV.
UDINE, Italy : World champions South Africa ended their three-match losing run with a 32-10 victory against error-strewn Italy here on Saturday.
The Springboks came into the match on the back of an unusual losing run but quickly found their form to deal Italy their 13th straight defeat.
The first half was a mini disaster for the Italians, although they did well to turn around at the break only 12-7 behind.
CARDIFF : Wales cruised to a convincing 33-16 victory against Argentina at the Millennium Stadium here on Saturday.
The Dragons touched down in either half through Stephen Jones and two tries from IRB World Player of the Year Shane Williams.
While Jones capitalised on naive defending in the first half from the Pumas to dive over in the right corner on the way to his 17-point tally.
LONDON : New Zealand beat England 19-6 in a hard-fought encounter here at Twickenham on Saturday that saw Dan Carter become the All Blacks' leading international points scorer.
Although this was the All Blacks' eighth win in a row over England they did not pull away until just before the hour mark with scrum-half Jimmy Cowan's converted try putting the visitors 16-6 up.
Jonny Wilkinson kicked all of England's points in a match where they did not score at all in the second half.
DUBLIN - Ireland has failed in its bid to have their World Cup play-off against France replayed, the Football Association of Ireland recognised in a statement issued on Saturday.
Ireland had appealed to football's world governing body FIFA and to the French Football Federation (FFF) to have the second leg of the play-off replayed because of Thierry Henry's handball in the build-up to William
Gallas's decisive extra-time goal.
Both FIFA and the FFF rejected the appeals and FAI chief executive John Delaney on Saturday acknowledged there was nothing else that could be done.
BERLIN : Portuguese striker Hugo Almeida netted twice as Werder Bremen went top of the Bundesliga on Saturday thanks to a 6-0 hammering of Freiburg.
With unbeaten leaders Bayer Leverkusen playing Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena Sunday, Bremen seized on the opportunity to top the table and now lead Bayer, who also have 26 points, by superior goal difference.
Bremen's Germany midfielder Mesut Oezil found huge gaps in the Freiburg defence and Almeida, 25, headed home after an Oezil cross on 33 minutes.
MIYAZAKI, Japan : Edoardo Molinari of Italy hit a two-under-par 69 to snatch the lead after the third round in the Dunlop Phoenix men's golf tournament on Saturday.
Starting the day one stroke off the pace, Molinari sank three birdies on the front nine to take the lead before adding one birdie and two bogeys on the back nine for a three-round-total of eight under par 205.
For the 28-year-old Molinari, the top money earner on the European challenge tour this season, it was his first appearance in the 200-million yen (2.2-million-dollar) event.
LIVERPOOL - Liverpool's stuttering season continued as they were held to a 2-2 draw by Manchester City that did little for either club's hopes of finishing the season in the top four.
Martin Skrtel's first goal for the club gave Rafa Benitez's side a 50th-minute lead before two goals in the space of seven minutes put City in the driving seat.
Emmanuel Adebayor levelled for City before Stephen Ireland put the visitors within sight of their first win at the venue for six years.
SINGAPORE : Tunisia's Ousamma Mellouli finally found form again on Saturday with two titles at the Singapore leg of the shortcourse World Cup, but a slew of expected world records failed to materialise.
Sixteen new world marks were set in Berlin last weekend with the vast majority achieved by athletes wearing the high-tech swimsuits that will be banned from January 1.
Singapore is one of the last times the controversial suits are being worn and more fireworks were widely tipped, but no one stepped up.
LONDON: Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will stage the last chapter of their battle to finish the year as world number one when the ATP Tour Finals get under way in London on Sunday.
Federer goes into the Tour Finals at the O2 Arena top of the world rankings, but the Wimbledon champion knows second placed Nadal can still snatch first place if the Spaniard wins the prestigious end-of-year event.
The race for pole position is the latest installment of an enthralling rivalry between two of the sport's all-time greats. Although Federer and Nadal remain friendly enough off the court, the Swiss star relishes his position as tennis's pre-eminent force and has no intention of surrendering it over the next week.
LONDON: Liverpool's ability to resurrect a campaign that is in danger of collapsing around them goes under the microscope when Manchester City visit Anfield on Saturday.
The pick of this weekend's Premier League encounters will provide a significant guage of Rafael Benitez's side's prospects of hauling themselves back into the top four and ensuring they avoid the financially grave consequences of missing out on next season's Champions League.
Leaders Chelsea will expect to consolidate the advantage they gained with a controversial win over Manchester United before the international break by accounting for struggling Wolves at Stamford Bridge.
INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana: Cleveland star LeBron James scored a season-high 40 points to help the Cavaliers rally for a 105-95 NBA triumph over Indiana on Friday.
James added nine rebounds and seven assists for the Cavs, who handed the Pacers their second straight defeat.
Cleveland center Shaquille O'Neal missed his fourth straight game with a strained right shoulder.
DUBAI : Young Rory McIlroy fell victim to the tough closing stretch of the Earth course at Jumeirah Golf Estates as veteran Lee Westwood grabbed the advantage in their battle for supremacy in European golf.
On the penultimate day of the 7.5 million dollars Dubai World Championship, the new season-ending championship of the European Tour, the 20-year-old McIlroy had almost caught up with the 36-year-old Westwood, before handing him a five-stroke leeway with three bogeys in the last three holes.
Cruising along at six-under for the day after 15 holes, McIlroy was just one behind Westwood when he hit his second shot into the water on the 16th, then three-putted on the 17th, and hit his third shot into the stream on the 18th for a hat-trick of bogeys.
BOCHUM, Germany: In what one UEFA official called European football's worst ever match-fixing scandal, investigators said Friday criminals may have netted 10 million euros rigging 200 games in nine countries.
A 200-strong band operating across Europe is suspected of swaying matches in Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Croatia, Slovenia, Turkey, Hungary, Bosnia-Hercegovina and Austria, prosecutors in Germany said.
They include three Champions League ties, 12 matches in the Europa League, formerly the UEFA Cup, one qualifying game for the under-21 European championship and four from the German second division.
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