SAN ANTONIO — Fred Couples ran away with the Champions Tour’s AT&T Championship, shooting a bogey-free 6-under-par 66 on Sunday for a seven-stroke victory — the largest margin on the 50-and-over tour this year.
Couples opened with rounds of 65 and 62 and finished at 23-under on TPC San Antonio’s Canyons Course, winning for the second time this season.
Mark Calcavecchia shot a 66 to finish second. Charles Schwab Cup points leader Tom Lehman and John Cook tied for third at 14-under. They also closed with 66s.
• South Korea’s Na Yeon Choi won the LPGA Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur for her first LPGA Tour victory of the season and fifth in three years, closing with a 3-under 68 to beat top-ranked Yani Tseng (65) by a stroke.
Choi finished at 15-under 269. She birdied the par-3 17th to pull ahead and parred the par-4 18th to hold off Tseng a week after finishing second behind the Taiwanese star in South Korea.
• England’s Tom Lewis shot a 7-under 65 to come from four shots back to win the Portugal Masters in Vilamoura, a two-shot victory over Spain’s Rafael Cabrera-Bello, who held a four-stroke lead going into the final round but shot a 71.
Murray will move to No. 3
SHANGHAI — Defending champion Andy Murray defeated David Ferrer 7-5, 6-4 to win the Shanghai Masters, ensuring he will vault past Roger Federer to No. 3 in the ATP rankings.
The Scot, currently ranked fourth, had made finishing the season at No. 3 one of his main goals of the year. It will be the first time Federer has fallen out of the top three since June 2003 — just before he won his first Wimbledon title.
• Top-seeded Petra Kvitova beat Dominika Cibulkova 6-4, 6-1 to win the Generali Ladies in Linz, Austria, for her first title since Wimbledon in June.
• Second-seeded Marion Bartoli of France cruised to a straight-sets (6-3, 6-1) victory over top-seeded Samantha Stosur of Australia to win the Japan Open in Osaka.
Vettel wins in Korea
YEONGAM, South Korea — Sebastian Vettel showed no sign of letting up, winning the Korean Grand Prix to underline his dominance of the Formula One season one week after clinching his second straight drivers’ championship.
Vettel, who started from second on the grid, passed polesitter Lewis Hamilton on the first lap and dominated the 55-lap race before crossing the finish line 12 seconds ahead of the McLaren driver.
• Jack Beckman took the funny car standings lead with two events left, racing to his third career victory at the NHRA Arizona Nationals in Chandler.
Larry Dixon (top fuel), Vincent Nobile (pro stock) and Hector Arana Jr. (pro stock motorcycle) won their respective divisions.
Footnotes.
Host New Zealand will face France in the final of the Rugby World Cup after beating Australia 20-6 in a semifinal in Auckland, drawing a giant step closer to ending a 24-year quest for its second world title.
• Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador isn’t planning on defending his Giro d’Italia title in 2012 to focus on regaining the Tour de France title.
The Associated Press
