Klein Adds to Her British Open Lead

Emilee Klein of Studio City demonstrated her ability to react favorably to a big lead, even adding a stroke to her advantage Saturday with a two-under-par 71 in the third round of the Women’s British Open at Woburn, England.

Klein, 22, who won her first pro title last week with a comeback victory in the Ping Welch’s Championship at Canton, Mass., is six shots ahead of her nearest rival with a 14-under 205 total.

“I’ve never had this big a lead before, but I was very comfortable out there,” Klein said. “I wasn’t nervous at all. I feel that if I play my own game I can make birdies. I never think about missing putts--if you do, that’s when you start making mistakes.”

Sweden’s Maria Hjorth is second, with Amy Alcott, Tracy Kerdyk and Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam tied for third.

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Former champion Brad Faxon eagled the 17th hole to claim the third-round lead in the Sprint International at Castle Rock, Colo.

With golfers awarded eight points for a double eagle, five for an eagle and two for a birdie under the modified Stableford scoring system, Faxon led with 24 points, ahead of Michael Bradley’s 23 and Robin Freeman’s 22.

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Raymond Floyd birdied the first three holes on the way to a five-under-par 67 for a one-stroke lead over Jim Colbert and Jay Sigel in the Northville Long Island Classic at Jericho, N.Y.

Floyd, attempting to regain the senior title he won in 1993, sank birdie putts of 13, 18 and 14 feet in breaking a three-way tie at the start of play.

Tennis

Pete Sampras and Goran Ivanisevic, the top two seeded players, won their semifinal matches and will meet today for the title of the RCA Championships at Indianapolis.

Sampras, the world’s No. 1-ranked player, had little trouble in a 6-1, 6-4 victory over No. 13 Bohdan Ulihrach. Ivanisevic defeated fifth-seeded Todd Martin, 6-2, 6-4.

Jan Siemerink fended off five break points in one game late in the third set, then rallied for a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 victory over Wayne Ferreira in the semifinals of the Pilot Pen International at New Haven, Conn.

Siemerink will face wild card Alex O’Brien, who advanced to the first final of his career by beating Mark Philippoussis, 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (7-4), 6-4.

Spain’s Carlos Moya routed Norway’s Christian Ruud, 6-1, 6-2, and will face third-seeded countryman Felix Mantilla in today’s final of the Croatia Open.

Auto Racing

Leading going into today’s finals of the 15th annual Champion Auto Stores Drag Racing Nationals at Brainerd (Minn.) International Raceway are Eddie Hill (top fuel), John Force (funny car), Tom Martino (pro stock) and John Myers (pro stock motorcycle)

Hill, 60, covered the quarter-mile distance in 4.666 seconds at 307.06 mph. The speed was the fastest of his career.

Blaine Johnson, the current Winston top fuel point leader from Santa Maria, is second at 307.79.

Shelly Anderson of Ontario returned to the track in a new dragster after her Parts America Special was destroyed Friday in a blowover. Anderson is 13th at 289.01.

Tom Kendall of La Canada won the Road America Trans-Am Classic at Elkhart Lake, Wis., and moved within two points of series leader Dorsey Schroeder with two events remaining.

For the second race in a row, Kendall’s teammate Boris Said III--who is not involved in the championship race--allowed Kendall to move past in his quest for a third Trans-Am title.

Patrick Carpentier won the Toyota-Atlantic championship when he won the pole position for today’s Road America at Elkhart Lake, Wis. Carpentier joins a long list of Toyota-Atlantic champions that includes Michael Andretti, Scott Goodyear and the late Gilles Villeneuve.

Alex Zanardi leaped from ninth place to the pole position in qualifying for the Texaco-Havoline 200 at Road America.

Mark Martin won his second IROC championship, coming from far back in the field to edge local favorite Johnny Benson Jr. by .757 seconds at Michigan International Speedway at Brooklyn, Mich.

Martin, a regular on the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit, became the fourth driver in the 20-year history of the International Race of Champions to win at least two titles, joining A.J. Foyt, Al Unser Jr. and Dale Earnhardt.

Jeff Purvis, realizing he was being outrun, conserved his fuel and won the Detroit Gasket 200 for his second NASCAR Busch Grand National victory of his career at Michigan International Speedway.

Richie Hearn gained the pole position for today’s IRL’s True Value 200 at Loudon, N.H.

Jurisprudence

Mississippi State guard Marcus Bullard, who was jailed Friday on probation violations, has a hearing scheduled for Aug. 28 at Gulfport, Miss. A warrant was issued for Bullard’s arrest Aug. 9 in connection with a July fight on the Mississippi State campus.

A preliminary hearing has been scheduled Aug. 28 for two Fresno State basketball recruits, Danyell Macklin and Daymond Forney, charged with felony battery because of a fight in which a student’s jaw was broken.

Boxing

Johnny Tapia (37-0-2) won a unanimous decision over Argentina’s Hugo Soto (44-4-2) to defend his World Boxing Organization junior bantamweight title at Albuquerque, N.M.

Tapia dominated the 12-round bout, landing an assortment of left jabs, hooks and combinations to the head and body of Soto. It was Tapia’s seventh defense of the title he won in October 1994 in Albuquerque when he stopped Henry Martinez.

Miscellany

UCLA guard Toby Bailey and Wake Forest center Tim Duncan were among the 12 basketball players selected for the U.S. Men’s 22-and-under World Championship qualifying team.

Coached by Stanford’s Mike Montgomery, the team will begin play Thursday in the eight-team qualifying tournament at Caguas, Puerto Rico. The top three finishers in that tournament advance to the 22-and-under World Championships in Melbourne, Australia, next year.

Two pairs of college teammates were selected for the qualifying team: Tim Young and Brevin Knight of Stanford, and Louis Bullock and Maurice Taylor of Michigan. Also chosen were: Austin Croshere (Providence), Brian Skinner (Baylor), Cory Carr (Texas Tech), Shea Seals (Tulsa), Anthony Parker (Bradley) and Paul Pierce (Kansas).

Erica Sorgi and Russ Bertram, the youngest and oldest of the more than 100 divers competing in the Phillips 66 National Diving Championships, won national titles at Moultrie, Ga. Sorgi, 14, won the women’s 3-meter springboard, while Bertram, 31, captured the men’s 10-meter platform. Bertram, who finished fifth on the platform at the Olympic trials, won his third U.S. platform crown by upsetting Olympian and defending champion David Pichler. Troy Dumais of Ventura was third.

Kasey Keller, who is battling Brad Friedel for the starting job on the U.S. national soccer team, got a shutout as he became the first American goalkeeper in the Premier League, and Leicester played to a scoreless tie at Sunderland on the opening day of England’s soccer season.

Wayne Gretzky, bothered by a slight groin pull, left practice early at the Canadian World Cup training camp at Whistler, Canada. The NHL’s career scoring leader, recently signed by the New York Rangers, participated in a few drills and then quickly left.