KAPALUA, Hawaii — Steve Stricker took a big step toward booking another trip to Maui with a 10-under-par 63 to build a five-shot lead Saturday through two rounds at the Tournament of Champions.
Stricker played his final five holes in 5-under, including a 3-wood to 12 feet to set up an eagle on the 15th hole that gave him some separation from Webb Simpson and the eagle-eagle finish by Kevin Na.
Stricker was at 15-under 131 and will be paired in the third round today with Simpson, who shot 68. Na was not even part of the picture until holing a 5-iron from 221 yards for eagle on the 17th, and then hitting 3-wood to 10 feet for eagle on the final hole.
• Defending champion Louis Oosthuizen birdied three of his last four holes for a 6-under 67 to share the third-round lead at the Africa Open in East London, South Africa.
Oosthuizen and Tjaart van der Walt (65) were tied at 21-under, one shot ahead of 2009 winner and two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen (66).
Czechs win Hopman Cup
PERTH, Australia — Wimbledon champ Petra Kvitova and Tomas Berdych had straight-set singles victories over France to give the Czech Republic its second Hopman Cup title.
Kvitova won the last three games of the first set and went on to beat Marion Bartoli 7-5, 6-1, while Berdych was perfect in a first-set tiebreaker and beat Richard Gasquet 7-6 (0), 6-4. The mixed-doubles match was not played because the championship was decided in singles.
•Kaia Kanepi won her second WTA title with a dominating performance (6-2, 6-1) over Daniela Hantuchova at the Brisbane International in Australia.
Andy Murray beat teenager Bernard Tomic 6-3, 6-2 in the men’s semis and will play today against third-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov, who swept aside second-seeded Gilles Simon 6-3, 6-4.
•Jo-Wilfried Tsonga shrugged off a slow start and beat Gael Monfils 7-5, 6-3 in the Qatar Open final.
•Milos Raonic beat second-seeded Nicolas Almagro 6-4, 6-4 to advance to the final of the Chennai Open in China. Raonic, the ATP newcomer of the year in 2011, today will play top-seeded Janko Tipsarevic, who ended qualifier Go Soeda‘s run with a 6-1, 6-4 victory.
Gehring doubles her pleasure
KEARNS, Utah — Lana Gehring won the 500- and 1,500-meter races at the U.S. Short Track Championship to maintain the overall lead heading into today’s final day of the speed skating competition. She did it in impressive fashion, blowing by the competition in the 1,500, then making a final-curve pass to win the 500.
• Defending champion Anja Huber of Germany claimed her first skeleton World Cup win of the season in Altenberg, Germany, to clinch her fourth European title. Breckenridge’s Katie Uhlaender was the top American in sixth place.
BThomas Florschuetz piloted Germany 1 to its third straight World Cup victory to wrap up his first European title in two-man bobsled in Altenberg, Germany.
Footnotes
Out of Bounds, last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint winner, rallied in the stretch to beat 1-2 favorite Secret Circle by a half-length in the $100,000 Sham Stakes, the first Kentucky Derby prep of the season at Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif.
•Brock Jensen threw a touchdown pass right after a fake punt, then had a 1-yard keeper for another score set up by a long interception return, and North Dakota State won its first FCS championship with a 17-6 victory over top-seeded Sam Houston State in Frisco, Texas.
