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Ochoa, three others lead at Singapore LPGA

SINGAPORE, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- World No. 1 Lorena Ochoa, despite a pair of bogeys Thursday, is tied for the lead after one round of the HSBC Women's Champions LPGA tournament in Singapore.

Ochoa, Cristie Kerr, Park Hee-young and Angela Stanford each shot 4-under-par 68 on the Garden Course at Singapore's Merah Country Club.

They have a 1-shot lead over Sophie Gustafson, Christina Kim, Kim Song-hee and Ai Miyazato, who won the tour's season-opening event last week. Another six golfers shot 2-under 70 in the first round.

Ochoa had an early birdie at the second hole and three birdies over the four-hole span of Nos. 8-11 before she dropped strokes at Nos. 12 and 14. Birdies at 16 and 17 got her back to 4-under.

Park's round was even more up-and-down. She played Nos. 8-13 at even but that was because she countered three bogeys with three birdies.

Kerr was 2-over after three holes and was still 1-over after 12 holes before consecutive birdies on 13-16 and a closing-hole birdie got her a share of the lead.

Stanford shot a relatively tame bogey-free round. Her birdies came at 7, 9, 12 and 16.

Zheng drops second-round match in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Third-seeded Zheng Jie was a straight-set upset victim Thursday in second-round play of the $220,000 Malaysian Open.

Kai-Chen Cheng recorded five service breaks in a 6-2, 6-3 win over Zheng. Cheng won 55 percent of the points when Zheng served. It was the third loss for Zheng in four matches since she advanced to the semifinals of the last month's Australian Open.

No. 6-seeded Sybille Bammer ran past Akgul Amanmuradova and didn't face a break point en route to a 6-3, 6-0 romp in her second-round match. Also Thursday, seventh-seeded Magdalena Rybarikova stopped Noppawan Lertcheewakarn 6-4, 7-5 and Chanelle Scheepers rallied for a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory over Tatjana Malek in a 2 1/2-hour match.

Bammer earned a quarterfinals slot against Chang and Rybarikova next goes against No. 1-seeded Elena Dementieva. Scheepers advanced to a Friday quarterfinal pairing against Ayumi Morita while fourth-seeded Alisa Kleybanova meets Anastasia Rodionova in a match set Wednesday.

Djokovic rallies for quarterfinal win

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Defending champion Novak Djokovic came from behind Thursday in qualifying for the semifinals of the $2.2 million Dubai Tennis Championships.

Djokovic had his serve broken twice in the first set but not afterward in a 2-6, 6-4, 6-0 victory over Ivan Ljubicic. The second set was even until a late break by Djokovic and the Serb dominated the third set, allowing Ljubicic just 11 points, including three on Djokovic's serve.

Djokovic, the tournament's No. 2 seed, will meet Marcos Baghdatis in Friday's semifinals. Baghdatis was a 7-6 (7-5), 6-1, winner over Michael Berrer in the quarterfinals, piling up 11 aces and not facing a break point in the match.

The other semifinal sends seventh-seeded Mikhail Youzhny against Jurgen Melzer. Youzhny was a 6-3, 6-4 victor over Janko Tipsarevic while Melzer upset sixth-seeded Marin Cilic 7-6 (10-8), 7-5 in his quarterfinal.

The semifinal winners head into the tournament title match Saturday, with the event champion taking home $383,000.

Slovakia ousts defending champs in hockey

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Pavol Demitra scored the go-ahead goal late in the second period Wednesday and Slovakia upset defending champion Sweden in the Olympic quarterfinals 4-3.

Slovakia reached the semifinals for the first time and will meet Canada Friday with a berth in the gold medal game at stake. The other semifinal will send the United States against Finland.

Despite taking just 14 shots on goal, Slovakia eliminated a team that had won the title in two of the last four Olympics.

Goals by Marian Gaborik and Andrej Sekera 37 seconds apart during the opening half of the second period gave Slovakia a 2-0 lead, but Sweden tied it on scores from Patric Hornqvist and Henrik Zetterberg that also were separated by only 37 seconds.

Sweden's Tobias Enstrom went to the penalty box for tripping with 1:44 to go in the second period and Demitra, who plays his NHL hockey for the Vancouver Canucks, scored 44 seconds later.

Tomas Kopecky gave Slovakia a two-goal lead 9:01 into the third period, a score that became the game-winner when Daniel Alfredsson quickly got one back for Sweden.

Jaroslav Halak made 26 saves in the victory. Henrik Lundqvist took the loss, having recorded shutouts in his two starts in group play.

The United States-Finland semifinal will begin at 12 p.m. local time Friday. Canada and Slovakia will meet at 6:30.

The four teams left to battle for the gold medal finished first (United States), fourth (Finland), sixth (Canada) and seventh (Slovakia) in the preliminary phase of the tournament.