Sports Briefs: Woods coughs up 3-shot lead

MELBOURNE, Australia

Tiger Woods lost his three-shot advantage in six holes yesterday in the Australian Masters. By the end of the day, he was happy to simply be tied for the lead with Greg Chalmers and James Nitties.

Woods hit one poor shot after another, put himself in bad positions and had to scramble for an even-par 72. The only good news for Woods, the world's No. 1 player, was that he still had a chance.

Chalmers, who hasn't won in his native Australia since 1998, had a 69 despite missing a six-foot par putt on the 16th hole and a birdie putt on the 18th from about that range. Nitties, frustrated early as putts refused to fall, played bogey-free for his 69 and will give Kingston Heath an All-Australian final pairing.

Not only did Woods lose his lead, he lost his cool.

After missing a five-foot birdie putt on the 12th, he hit his driver well to the right on the 354-yard 13th hole. Woods threw his driver to the ground and it bounced up and into the gallery, where one surprised fan caught it.

More golf

■ George McNeill closed with a double bogey yesterday and will share the lead with three others entering the final round of the Children's Miracle Network Classic in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

McNeill overcame a five-shot deficit and made two eagles on a cool day at Disney World that made greens fast but easy to reach. He shot a 3-under 69 that left him tied at 203 with Justin Leonard (71), Justin Rose (69) and Mathias Gronberg (66) after three rounds.

■ Michelle Wie moved into position for her first LPGA Tour victory, shooting a 2-under 70 yesterday in the Lorena Ochoa Invitational for a share of the third-round lead with Cristie Kerr.

Soccer

■ In its first warmup match for next year's World Cup, the U.S. national soccer team lost 1-0 loss to Slovakia yesterday in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Marek Hamsik converted a penalty kick in the 26th minute after Austrian referee Stefan Messner called defender Jonathan Bornstein for pushing Vladimir Weiss.

-- the son of Slovakia's coach -- in the penalty area. Hamsik sent a low shot to the right corner, with goalkeeper Brad Guzan diving in the opposite direction.

■ Argentina coach Diego Maradona will face a FIFA disciplinary panel today that could ban him from games at next year's World Cup.

Maradona has been summoned to the headquarters of soccer's governing body to explain his expletive-filled rant last month. The outburst, aimed at the Argentine media, came during a news conference after his team clinched a spot in the World Cup in South Africa.

Maradona was to arrive in Zurich after coaching Argentina in an exhibition game against European champion Spain in Madrid yesterday. His case will be heard by FIFA's 17-member disciplinary committee. The panel can consider Maradona's evidence in person, written statements and video footage of the news conference.

■ Young people in the southern French city of Marseille have clashed with police and smashed windows after Algeria lost to Egypt 2-0 in a World Cup qualifier.

In Marseille, home to many Algeria supporters, youths also set fire to vehicles and burned garbage cans after yesterday's match. Six small boats in a local port were targeted by smoke bombs, and two of them were sunk.

The Marseille police headquarters says eight people were taken into custody, mostly for throwing projectiles at officers. Nobody was injured in the clashes. Police say 500 officers were mobilized.

Miscellaneous

■ Novak Djokovic overpowered Rafael Nadal 6-2, 6-3 yesterday to reach the Paris Masters final for the first time.

Djokovic will face Gael Monfils of France today. Monfils advanced to the final with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 win over Radek Stepanek.

The third-ranked Djokovic was dominant from the start and didn't face a single break point. Djokovic, winning 83 percent of first-serve points, also had 31 winners.

Djokovic defeated Nadal for the second consecutive time to improve his overall record to 6-14 against him. He reached his 10th final of the year.

■ More than 100,000 tickets for the Vancouver Olympics have gone back on sale after a computer glitch that frustrated customers.

A problem with the online ticketing system caused the Vancouver Olympics Web site to crash last week. But Olympics organizers said yesterday that ticketing operations were now running smoothly.

Seats at every Vancouver-area sports event were back on sale, including those for the opening ceremony and gold-medal game in men's hockey.

The tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis in the third and final phase of tickets available to Canadians.

Organizers expect to start delivering some tickets in time for Christmas but most won't be delivered until the New Year.