Singh Finally Wins It

Vijay Singh atoned for two final-round failures at East Lake Golf Course in Atlanta, pulling away from the field with three consecutive birdies and closing with a three-under-par 67 Sunday to win the season-ending PGA Tour Championship.

A 54-hole leader the previous two times at East Lake, Singh finally figured out how to close the deal. He missed only two greens, and finished at 12-under 268 to win $900,000.

Jerry Kelly made an ace on No. 11 to reduce Singh’s lead to one and Charles Howell III holed a wedge from the 13th fairway for an eagle and birdied the 17th hole, but Singh held off the challenges.

Howell closed with a 66 and was the only player among the top 30 on the money list to break par all four rounds at East Lake.

David Toms had a 67 to finish third. The former PGA champion failed to win a tournament this year for the first time since 1998, although he still finished fourth on the money list.

Tiger Woods was never a factor after taking a double bogey on the opening hole. He hit only four fairways and finished with a 70 and tied for seventh, the first time he has finished out of the top five since the British Open.

*

Grace Park won the World Ladies Match Play Championship at Narita, Japan, beating Japan’s Midori Yoneyama with a 12-foot birdie putt on the 22nd hole.

Yoneyama, ranked 15th among the 16 Japan LPGA players who began play in the 32-woman field, missed a chance to end the match on the 20th hole when her two-foot par putt slid by the hole.

Yoneyama also had a chance to win on the 18th hole, but her long birdie putt stopped an inch short -- sending the players to extra holes.

Park lost the third and fifth holes with bogeys, but closed the gap to one with a six-foot birdie putt on No. 9 and tied it on No. 13 when Yoneyama missed a five-footer for par.

Park, the 1998 U.S. amateur champion as a freshman at Arizona State, also beat Japan’s Mikino Kubo, Australia’s Karrie Webb and Japan’s Yuri Fudoh en route to her third LPGA Tour title in three seasons.

*

The final round of the PGA Southern Farm Bureau Classic at Madison, Miss., was postponed until today because of rain and wind with England’s Luke Donald leading Deane Pappas by one stroke.

Fifty-four players were on the course when play was stopped after about an hour. Tournament officials waited about four hours before calling it a day.

Tennis

Slovakia defeated Spain for its first Fed Cup title, with injured Spanish star Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario reduced to tears on the court by a heckler.

Daniela Hantuchova and Janette Husarova won both reverse singles matches at Maspalomas, Canary Islands, to take an unbeatable 3-1 lead in the best-of-five competition, the women’s version of the Davis Cup. Spain was going for its sixth Fed Cup title.

Hantuchova beat Conchita Martinez, 6-7 (8), 7-5, 6-4, and Husarova beat Sanchez-Vicario, 6-0, 6-2. The doubles match was canceled.

Sanchez-Vicario played her record 100th Fed Cup match, but was barely able to run after straining her right thigh during Thursday’s semifinal.

As the second set began, a Spanish spectator screamed that she should give way to Magui Serna. The crowd then screamed at the man, telling him to leave.

Sanchez-Vicario began to cry. She drew a standing ovation and the crowd started chanting her name. Play was delayed for 10 minutes. The spectators in the row with the heckler left him sitting there alone.

Marat Safin won his first title of the year, easily beating Lleyton Hewitt, 7-6 (4), 6-0, 6-4, to win the Paris Masters for the second time.

Safin closed the straight-set victory against the world’s No. 1 player with a service winner. Hewitt seemed to show little effort during the second set, in which he failed to win a game.

Both players will take part in the season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai, China, later this month.

At the eight-man event, Hewitt will try to extend his lead in the ATP Champions Race. He leads Andre Agassi by 88 points.

After he and Gustavo Kuerten lost, 6-3, 7-6 (6), to Nicolas Escude and Fabrice Santoro in the doubles final, Cedric Pioline, 33, announced that he is retiring, ending his 13-year career.

Distance Running

Joyce Chepchumba of Kenya pulled away from her last challenger to win the New York City Marathon for her first victory in two years.

She finished in 2 hours 25 minutes 56 seconds in temperatures in the 40s and no wind. Los Angeles Marathon champion Lyubov Denisova of Russia was next, 21 seconds behind. Olivera Jevtic of Yugoslavia was third, despite falling.

Marla Runyan, the first legally blind Olympian and attempting a marathon for the first time, was the top U.S. finisher. She was fifth overall, just ahead of defending champion Margaret Okayo.

Rodgers Rop of Kenya won the men’s title in 2:08:07. Countrymen Christopher Cheboiboch (2:08:17) and Laban Kipkemboi (2:08:39) followed.